There had been four European Shags and two Snow Bunting yesterday from
the dam at Rutland Water and so David and I were meeting Malcolm in the Egleton
Car park and then driving to the dam hoping they would all still be there.
There had been a good overnight frost and David and it felt quite cold when we left David’s for Rutland Water. We had a Red Kite just before reaching Billesdon and another just beyond Tugby and there was a Common Kestrel perched at the top of Wardley Hill.
Malcolm was already in the car park when we arrived and after
transferring his gear we set off for the dam seeing a Red Kite at the end of
Church Lane. When we arrived at Sykes
Lane car park it was closed and so we drove to the south side of the dam to see
if we could see the European Shags, but we couldn’t find them. We drove back to the car park and found it
open and after parking we walked out onto the dam, where there was a single
Great Cormorant perched on a post and another feeding off-shore, but there was
no sign of the European Shags or the Snow Buntings. Malcolm then went back to the car as he realised,
he hadn’t got his bins and he was going to bring my camera back with him. David had gone a little further and as I
approached him two birds flew off the dam wall, which turned out to be the two
Snow Buntings. When Malcolm arrived back
from the car, I was able to get some reasonable shots as they fed on the path
side of the dam.
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
As we walked across the dam, we met Phil Jackman who was watching a
couple of the European Shags, which were quite close. David informed him that we had seen the Snow
Buntings at the north end of the dam and he set off to try and locate them. We continued watching the two shags for a
while and I then picked up three swans flying over the south shore. Tim had sent out a WhatsApp message
indicating that three Whooper Swans might have come down in the North Arm and
so I alerted David and took a closer look and wasn’t surprised to find that
they were three adult Whooper Swans and probably those seen by Tim. They continued heading east, but also came
closer and I fired of a few shots before they headed off to the east.
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swans
As we walked back along the dam there was a Common Kestrel hunting over
the slope, three European Shags were observed, and the two Snow Buntings flew
over us heading towards the south side and there were two Red Kites near the
gate.
Common Kestrel
European Shag
European Shag
After getting back to the car we headed for the fisherman’s car park in
the North Arm and on arrival found a large raft of wildfowl feeding just
off-shore. After climbing over the gate,
we walked down the old road to be able to view the whole of the North Arm. Are targets here were Slavonian and Black-necked
Grebes, but as we scanned through the large raft of birds, which were mainly
Eurasian Wigeon and Tufted Duck we were only finding Little and Great Crested Grebes,
but I then found the Slavonian Grebe, which then disappeared. David found one of the Black-necked Grebes further
out and then the second with the Slavonian Grebe. Malcolm found a drake Greater Scaup and a
juvenile Western Marsh Harrier was observed over the water.
From the fisherman’s car park, we drove the short distance to the unnamed
road to view the fishponds and the North Arm from the point. We were surprised to find that the fishponds
were almost devoid of birds but there were three Great Egret and three Little
Egrets on the bund. As I scanned the
north shore there was a party of Dunlin feeding amongst some Black-headed
Gulls, but they weren’t easy to count as some at least kept going out of view,
but there were thirty-five at least. I
went out to the point to view the southern section and found a Northern Pintail
and a single Common Redshank but the now biting wind made it quite unpleasant
and I returned to view the northern section.
Other than a Common Buzzard feeding on something on the far shore we
didn’t see a great deal else and went back to the car.
After lunch we went into the visitor’s centre and observed Lagoon One
where we found five Smew, fourteen Goosander, three Great Egret, seven Little
Egret and a Green Sandpiper and the female Western Marsh Harrier was observed
over Lagoon Two and then perched near the swift tower.
We eventually made our way to the northern lagoons and from Sandpiper
Hide on Lagoon Four found two Northern Pintail and a Peregrine Falcon. As I was about to leave the hide something
disturbed a party of Northern Lapwing and two Dunlin were then observed in
flight.
A visit into Bittern and then Shoveler Hides produced another Great Egret
and a Black-tailed Godwit and from Crake Hide we had a Common Redshank before
returning to the centre.
When we got back there were clearly more Northern Pintail on the lagoon
and I counted sixty-eight and there were four Common Shelduck, which we hadn’t
seen earlier. We had seen just one of
the adult Bewick’s Swans earlier and we suspected that the others were out of
sight behind the long island. Initially
there was no sign but then they all swam into view and on reaching the open
area one of the Mute Swans showed aggression, which we had observed
before. The adults tended to lead the
Mute Swan away, but it did make one attempt to get to the young, but they just
flew a short distance. Eventually the
whole party took to the wing and flew north, hopefully coming down on the
northern lagoons and not actually departing.
There were four Dunlin on the long island and I then noticed five
Eurasian Curlew on the near shore and a single Common Snipe in flight was to be
our final bird before we returned to the cars.
Drake Goosander alighting on Lagoon One
David took a slightly different route home, taking us off the A47 and
heading for King’s Norton and we were rewarded by seeing two Eurasian Woodcock
as they flew over the road as we approached King’s Norton, which was an
excellent close to the day.
It had been a good day with, surprisingly, three County year-ticks, the
European Shag, Eurasian Woodcock and the Snow Bunting.
