A day at Rutland Water, Rutland - October 6, 2015

This morning I decided I would go straight to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water and it was dry when I arrived after some fairly heavy overnight rain.  I checked the feeders, which were almost empty but there were still six Tree Sparrows and a Coal Tit making regular visits and there were circa fifty Goldfinches feeding on the thistles behind the feeders.

I set off towards Shallow Water Hide hoping that a Garganey that Steve had found on Friday might still be there.  As I walked along the path there were quite a few birds in the hedges and bushes but there was nothing of note.  On reaching the hide I started to scan the wildfowl and counted thirty Pintail amongst the more numerous Wigeon, Gadwall and Shoveler with smaller numbers of Teal, Mallard and Tufted Duck but there was no sign of the Garganey.  There were also a couple of Little Egrets in the bay and I also found five Ruff and four Snipe and one of the Great White Egret more distantly in South Arm Two.  I scanned through the wildfowl on a number of occasions but still didn’t find the Garganey but I did find a single Green Sandpiper on my last scan before heading back to the centre.

Snipe

Drake Teal

Little Grebe

Having very little on the walk back I went to the North Arm and viewed it from the end of the cottage road.  There were eight Little Egrets scattered around the North Arm with another eight in the fishponds.  The seventeen Barnacle Geese were in their normal location on the north shore and I counted twenty-five Pintail in the arm and another three in the fishponds.  Over Burley Wood there was a small party of House Martin that appeared to have moved off before I departed and bird of prey wise I saw just a single Red Kite and a Buzzard and also had a brief view of a Kingfisher as it flew into the fishponds.

After making a short visit to the Volunteers Training Centre I drove to the Egleton car park seeing a Sparrowhawk as I had my lunch.  I then called Steve to see if he and Terry had anything to report and I wasn’t too surprised when he said they had located the Garganey in Manton Bay.  As there might not be too many opportunities to see Garganey again this year I decided to return to Lyndon and Shallow Water Hide.

When I arrived at the Lyndon car park the weather was a little more threatening and so armed with an umbrella I set off back to Shallow Water Hide.  As I was approaching Deep Water Hide three Swallows flew over and there were a couple of Chiffchaffs briefly on the wires behind the hide.  I met Steve and Terry just afterwards and after short chat and armed with further information on the Garganey I continued on to the hide.  They had seen the bird towards Wader Scrape Hide but on opening the flap there were very few birds and I then noticed a tractor that was obviously being used to cut the vegetation.  I feared that it might have been disturbed but on scanning the area found the bird where Steve and Terry had seen it.  As I was watching the bird the grass cutting continued and the bird did flush and flew towards the hide and I was able to confirm that it was a female and when it landed quite close to the hide it emerged onto the bank I could see that it was a juvenile.  It flew again as the tractor approached the hide but this time flew over the far side and I lost it.  A Redshank was also observed before I started to walk back to the centre.

Seeing very little on the walk to the car I went straight back to Egleton and to the Bird Watching centre to view Lagoon One.  There were plenty of birds on the lagoon but Steve and Terry hadn’t seen much of note but I did see two juvenile Shelduck, five more Pintail and four Curlew.  When a threatening black cloud had passed we decided to move onto the northern lagoons.

We called at Sandpiper Hide overlooking Lagoon Four to find there were far fewer gulls, which might have been due to the rising water levels.  There also appeared to be very little else but Terry found an adult Shelduck and Steve found three Golden Plovers on one of the islands but there was no sign of any Ringed Plover or Dunlin.  Whilst we were in the hide the heavens opened and the rain was so heavy that we had to close the flaps and move to the back of the hide in order to keep dry.  Despite having the flaps closed the hide selves still managed to get very wet as did the seats and with nothing new we moved on Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.

As we walked down the track to the hide a Cetti’s Warbler called and Terry and I had brief views as it flitted through one of the bushes.  There were very few birds on lagoon three as there had clearly been a working party cutting the vegetation and after a short while we moved on to Lapwing Hide to view South Arm Three and Lagoon Two.  There were a few Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe on South Arm Three but nothing unusual was with them.  A Great White Egret was feeding on Lagoon Two and just after Terry had departed I found a Greenshank, which he then returned to see.  I moved off to Crake Hide, whilst Steve returned to Shoveler Hide but on seeing very little from Crake I also went back to Shoveler Hide.

Tim was in the hide with Steve when I arrived and shortly afterwards Tim Mac and Lloyd appeared and with seconds of sitting down Tim Mac picked up the Bittern in the reeds.  I got onto just as it flew and watched as it circled over the water defecating as it did so before returning and perching in the reeds.  Its head was visible for a few minutes before it dropped lower and out of sight and was not seen again.  Lloyd then picked up a party of circa thirty Siskin in flight and saw them land in the alders close to ringing hut and I was able to see them through the scope as they moved within the trees.

Tim Mac and Lloyd went off to view lagoon four and Steve went to the reedbed with Tim and I was left in the hide alone for a few minutes before I called it a day and headed off to the car park.