I was out with Roger today and
we initially drove to Eyebrook Reservoir but called at the field, along the
Stockerston Road, where Dave and I had a lot of birds last weekend. There were far fewer birds today but we did
have eight Red-legged Partridges as we arrived and a Weasel provided a nice
surprise and entertained for about five minutes quite close to the car. Two Red Kites flew over as did a Fieldfare
and there was a single Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer in the hedge but very
little else.
We turned around and headed
for Eyebrook Reservoir entering from the northern end where we saw one of the
Little Owls in the old oak and another Red Kite perched in a tree alongside the
stream. We stopped at the bridge for a
while searching for a Bittern that had been reported the last two days but
there was no sign. The water level was
still quite low and there was a good expanse of mud, which must have been
frozen but we did find a Golden Plover and nine Dunlin amongst the
Lapwings. Seven Snipe was also found on
the edge of the stream but other than a drake Pintail and a distant Buzzard we
couldn’t find anything else of interest and decided to go on to Rutland Water.
Another Red Kite was observed
as we passed through Stoke Dry and the yet another just before we entered
Uppingham. Two Buzzards were then
observed, one in Preston and the other as we approached the turn to
Manton. As we drove along Lyndon Road
towards the turning to the resave a Jay flew across the road and another Buzzard
was observed perched as we approached the turn.
After getting our gear on we walked the short distance to Teal hide to
scan South Arm Three were we hoping to find the Long-tailed Duck. There were plenty of Goldeneye and numerous
commoner wildfowl and Coots but there was no sign of the Long-tailed Duck. A quick look at the feeding station produced
a Coal Tit, a Marsh Tit and a couple of Tree Sparrows as well as several Blue
and Great Tits, Chaffinches and Goldfinches and two Reed Buntings were observed
in a bush close by.
Having no luck with the
Long-tailed we moved off to the Hambleton Peninsula hopping for better luck
with the Red-necked Grebe. After parking
we walked along the footpath to the north shore and then dropped down towards
the shore. We had looked on the way down
but could only see Great Crested Grebes but on my first scan I found the
Red-necked Grebe close to a Great Crested and much closer than it had been on
Tuesday. It eventually came a little
closer allowing me to get a few reasonable shots of it.
Red-necked Grebe
There was a party of Greylag
Geese between where we were and Armley Wood and on scanning them Roger found a
couple of Barnacle Geese and then a third.
He then said he thought he might have the juvenile Greenland
White-fronted Goose but it was swimming away from us. I soon found the bird and after a short while
we were able to confirm that his initial identification was correct. A Great Northern Diver had been reported of
the dam and we decided to have a look and as I picked up a possible bird, Roger
indicated he might have it. We were
looking at the same bird after a few minutes were both happy that it was in
fact the Great Northern Diver. We walked
back around the bay and joined the footpath when I suggested that we should
check out the fields on the south towards at the end of the peninsula as I had
seen the two European White-fronted Geese with some Greylags on Tuesday. As we approached the final field there were
some geese and whilst most were Greylags I had noticed two smaller geese to the
right of the flock. I initially
suspected that they would be the White-fronts but on closer inspection they
turned out to be two Pink-foots and presumably the birds I had seen in Manton
Bay on Tuesday. As I continued to scan
the geese I found the two White-fronts amongst the Greylags.
We stopped at the fishermen’s
car park to view Dickinson’s Bay but there was no sign of the Great White
Egrets or the Black-necked Grebes, although there was a Shelduck, five Pintail
and a couple of Little Egrets. We drove
the short distance to the road leading to Tim’s cottage but on viewing the
fishponds there was very little, surprising at there had been plenty on
Tuesday. As walked further on to view
the north arm I found the two Great White Egrets on the bund and shortly
afterwards Roger picked up a Black-necked Grebe. Further scanning of the north shore produced
eleven Pintail, nine Dunlin and a Redshank and another Little Egret was
observed near the bund.
We drove around to the
reserved where we had some lunch before going to the centre. Lagoon one was practically frozen but there
were three Pintail, a few Shoveler and three male and a female Goosander and I
saw three Curlew drop on to the wet meadow.
Song Thrush in the Egleton Meadows
I started to walk to Shoveler
hide on lagoon three, whilst Roger was seeing what progress had been made with
his tripod at In Focus. There were a few
thrushes in the meadows, mainly Blackbird but also Fieldfare, Redwing and Song
Thrush and three Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew over. There was no sign of any birds feeding in
alders and hence no Siskin or Redpoll.
Roger caught me up before I had reached the hide and on entering it
another birder put us on to a red-headed Smew.
Scanning produced a single Black-tailed Godwit and a Redshank but there
was no sign of the reported Green Sandpiper.
We continued to crake hide and almost the first bird I noticed was a
Green Sandpiper. When we reached Lapwing
hide we had another scan for the Long-tailed Duck but were again unsuccessful,
which is not totally surprising as it can be notoriously difficult to
find. There were plenty of birds most of
which were rather distant but other than a few more Pintail there was nothing
of note and we made our way back to Shoveler hide. There were now two Green Sandpipers present
and we had brief views of two Water Rails but the hopped for Bittern failed to
materialise although close views of a Sparrowhawk that flushed fifteen Snipe
where nice.
Cormorant from Lapwing hide
Cormorant from Lapwing hide
Drake Gadwall from Lapwing hide
Drake Mallard from Lapwing hide
Our final port of call was
sandpiper hide on lagoon four, where we found four Shelduck, four more Pintail
and a Little Egret. With the light
beginning to go and the temperature dropping we walked back to the car park
where we had a coffee before setting off home.
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