With the forecast of heavy
showers this afternoon I decided to go to Eyebrook Reservoir and Rutland Water.
On arrival at Eyebrook
Reservoir it was dry and remained so during my time I was there. I stopped at the bridge over the inlet where
I found three Snipe and a rather distant Common Sandpiper. On moving around to the area overlooking the
exposed mud there were three Dunlin, a Ruff and four Green Sandpipers and an
adult a juvenile Shelduck. Mick then saw
a slightly larger juvenile gull amongst the flock of Black-headed Gulls but
after being distracted by his dog we were unable to relocate it, all we were
seeing were Black-headed Gulls, three Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a Great
Black-backed Gull. Mick was convinced it
would still be there and after all the birds were spooked he found it again but
then lost once more. He gave Dave and I
instructions as to where he thought it was and I picked it up just to the left
of where he was describing and it was a juvenile Mediterranean Gull.
We then received a tweet from
Rutland Water that a Pectoral Sandpiper had been reported on lagoon four and
that Tim was going to check it out. Dave
and I decided to go over anyway but on calling Tim on arrival it had not be
found. I joined Dave in the centre where
we had distant views of a Hobby hunting over the back of lagoon one. We also found a Curlew, a Common Sandpiper,
four Green Sandpipers and a Greenshank but there was no sign of a Knot that had
been present earlier. Dave then had to
leave and I decided to go lagoon four and was given permission to drive
down. Initially I was going to walk but
with the weather looking rather threatening I took him up on his offer and
drove to dunlin hide. It had started to
rain just as I was opening the gate in the car park and within a few minutes of
getting into the hide it was raining heavily.
There were numerous Black-headed Gulls on the lagoon and smaller numbers
of Common, Lesser Black-backed, Yellow-legged and Great Black-backed Gulls on
the islands and during the storm the numbers swelled, particularly Black-headed
Gulls. I found two Dunlin and a Ringed
Plover to the right of the hide but as the rain was easing a small party of
waders flew closer and on scanning them there were four Ringed Plovers, two
Dunlin and surprisingly a Sanderling.
Tim joined me in the hide and I counted fifteen Yellow-legged Gull but
there was no sign of any of the Mediterranean Gulls present over the last two
evenings. Four of the five juvenile and
an adult Shelduck were present and I wondered if the bird seen at Eyebrook
Reservoir was in fact the fifth. With
nothing else of note we both called it a day and I followed Tim to the car park
before heading off home.
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