I was back at Rutland Water
this morning and headed for grebe hide on lagoon two but there was no sign of
yesterday’s Wryneck. There was a single
Chiffchaff feeding in an alder just in front of the hide, two Pintail were
visible on the lagoon, a Green Sandpiper was observed in flight and a
Kingfisher perched briefly on one of the goal posts.
I walked to lagoon three with
Terry as far as shoveler hide but I continued to buzzard where I hoped the
light world be better. There were plenty
of ducks on the water but all I could pick out was a single Pintail. I continued on to smew hide on lagoon two
where I could see seven Pintail but little else and so I continued on to crake
hide. The water level was still quite
high but there was a single Common Sandpiper on lagoon three bund.
When I got back to shoveler
hide it was empty and the light pretty poor in terms of viewing the
wildfowl. There was a Ruff feeding quite
close to the hide and two Greenshanks roosting towards bittern hide. I also found a couple of Snipe and two Green
Sandpipers and a Hobby caused some disturbance as it appeared from the
direction of lagoon four. A Water Rail
appeared right in front of the hide, which I managed to get a few shorts off,
although it wasn’t easy due to the reeds.
Juvenile female Ruff
Juvenile female Ruff
Water Rail
Water Rail
I moved on to plover hide on
lagoon four, seeing three Buzzards soaring to the north, but there appeared to
be very little on the lagoon but I called at sandpiper hide to get another
perspective. As from plover hide there
appeared to be very little of note on the lagoon, although there was a single
Greenshank and I did see a Peregrine and another Buzzard between the lagoon and
Burley Wood. I did eventually go to the
car park for lunch and to meet Ken after his dental appointment.
Ken arrived whilst I was having
my lunch and after visiting the centre where we saw three Green Sandpipers and
several Ruff we went to snipe hide. A
Hobby put in a brief appearance as we made our way around to the hide but
dropped out of sight and didn’t reappear.
Like much of the habitat on
the reserve the flash from snipe hide looks superb for waders but there was
only single Snipe. A Kingfisher paid a
brief visit flying over and around the flash before hovering over it and
plunging into it and then heading off towards lagoon one. A Hobby, presumably the one we saw a little
earlier, appeared and provided some nice if brief views and two Curlew flew in
a and landed on lagoon one. With little
else we continued on to fieldfare hide and although the water level was such to
expose some mud there was very little in the bay.
We called at harrier hide on
the way back to the centre where there were seven Ruff and a Green Sandpiper
and a juvenile Marsh Harrier was seen quartering the edges of the lagoon.
Juvenile Marsh Harrier
We had heard of a Black-tailed
Godwit in front of mallard hide on lagoon one and so called in to see if it was
still there. There were four Ruff
visible from the hide but there was no sign of the godwit and so Ken decided he
would go to grebe hide on lagoon two in the hope that the Wryneck might
appear. No sooner had he departed that the Hobby reappeared and provided some
excellent views as it hunted over the meadow.
I then saw a Ruff flying in and as I followed it, it landed right next
to a Black-tailed Godwit and there was a second close by. I can only assume that they were feeding
close to the sedges and were out of sight for a while. I scanned through the duck but there was no
sign of any Garganey, although I did find seven Pintail.
Hobby
There was a report of two
drake Red-crested Pochard on lagoon three this morning and so I decided to go
back to take another look. The light was
much better that this morning and perhaps perfect for viewing the masses of
duck. As I scanned through the birds I
found a female Red-crested Pochard and then the two males not too far
away. They were like females but their
bright red bills gave them away and in the late afternoon shone like beacons
making them very obvious. There were two
Ruff, two Green Sandpiper and Greenshank present and after some disturbance by
a Sparrowhawk they were all quite close to the hide, providing nice views.
Little Egret on lagoon three
Female Teal alighting on lagoon three
Pintail over lagoon three
Greenshank on lagoon three
Male and female juvenile Ruff on lagoon three
Juvenile male Ruff
Juvenile Ruff over lagoon three
Whilst I was in the hide I
received a text regarding a Sanderling, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper all
at Eyebrook Reservoir and decided that I would call on my home.
On reaching Eyebrook Reservoir
I soon found the Sanderling and Little Stint feeding with a couple of Dunlin
but there was no sign of the Curlew Sandpiper.
There was another birder in the corral on the Leicestershire bank and so
I drove around to join him. He had seen
the Curlew Sandpiper feeding along the Rutland Bank amongst the Lapwing. It wouldn’t have been visible from the
Rutland Bank but it quite difficult to locate as it fed amongst the Lapwing and
was often out of sight.
Still clearing up on all three
within thirty minutes was a good end to what had been a cracking autumn day
with almost wall to wall sunshine, very little wind and pleasantly warm.
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