I picked David up at 07:30 and
we headed for Eyebrook Reservoir and as we were climbing the hill leaving
Blaston we had a Red Kite with two Buzzards over the road as we reached the
summit. There was also a Kestrel near
the farm between the Blaston turn and the turning for Eyebrook Reservoir.
There was no sign of the
Little Owls this morning but there was a Red Kite perched in a tree on the
opposite side of the road. We parked
near the bridge at the inlet hoping we might see a Kingfisher but had no joy. We remained at the bridge for a good forty
minutes seeing a distant Little Egret, a Red Kite, a Buzzard, a Kestrel, two
Raven and a Lesser Redpoll and David also had a brief view of a Siskin. We checked the feeders at the Stoke Dry car
park where there was a single Coal Tit but little else.
Mike had joined us at the
bridge and we all headed for the Lyndon Centre at Rutland Water. There were a couple of Fieldfare in the car
park area at Lyndon but the feeders were generally quiet, with exception of Blue
and Great Tits making regular visits there was a Coal Tit, Robin, Dunnock,
Chaffinch and Goldfinch and a Tree Sparrow was observed in the bushes to the
left. David picked up an Oystercatcher
at the base of Lax Hill and on scoping the area we also located five Curlew and
I found a pair of Goosander close to the Manton Bay bund.
We eventually moved on to
Whitwell where I was hoping to photograph a Great Northern Diver as they had
been performing quite well recently seeing a Peregrine on route as we
approached Edith Weston. On arrival we
soon located one of the juvenile birds towards the mouth of the creek and then
David noticed a second bird well into the creek, which was likely to provide a better
photo opportunity. Mike and I moved
further into the creek whilst the bird had dived and were able to get
reasonably close and fire off a few shots.
A Redshank also landed on one of the pontoons.
Juvenile Great Northern Diver in Whitwell Creek
When we got back to the car
Steve and Terry had arrived and after a brief chat they informed me that they
had seen the two Black-necked Grebes in the north arm and a Stonechat in the
fishponds area. We decided to make this
our next stop and after walking out to the point we found two Barnacle Geese on
the north shore and David picked up the two Black-necked Grebes. Bob had also joined us now but despite an
extensive search we were unable to locate the Red-necked Grebe but two Ravens
flew over the water and headed off towards Hambleton. We made our way back along the road to view
the fishponds from the cottage hoping to find the Stonechat but didn’t see it
and had to be content with a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker.
We decided to go to the
fisherman’s car park on the Hambleton Peninsular in the hope of finding the
Red-necked Grebe. We were out of the
wind and with the sun putting in appearance it was quiet pleasant and the light
was superb. We didn’t find the
Red-necked Grebe but I picked up an adult Great Northern Diver off the end of
the lane at Barnsdale and presumably one of the two Ravens we had seen earlier
flew over.
We left Bob in the North Arm
and headed for the Egleton Reserve where we had lunch before heading for the
centre. The water level had risen
further on lagoon one but there was still plenty of Pintail and I counted forty-nine
with another two visible on Lagoon Two.
Most of the birds on the lagoon then took to flight and David picked up
a Peregrine, which had obviously caused the disturbance and we were able to
watch it for several minutes before it stooped behind the poplars and
disappeared. As the birds began to
settle again we found a couple of Curlew on the long island and there was also a
party of sixteen Pochard. A Little Egret
flew over and a distant Buzzard was observed over the South Arm and there were
three Shelduck on the Wet Meadow.
We eventually set off for
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three and on arriving we had seen just a single Blue
Tit on route and generally it felt particularly quiet. Like Lagoon One the water level on Lagoon
Three had also risen but there was very little on the lagoon, the best being a
Little Egret. We did pick up two distant
Red Kites and found a single Snipe on one of the island and I doubt the
wildfowl number reached twenty in total, with just a few Wigeon, Teal, Mallard
and Goldeneye and a single Tufted Duck and two male and a single female
Goosander.
As we walked towards Dunlin
Hide on Lagoon Four we flushed a Green Woodpecker from off the Lagoon Four
bund. From the hide we found three
Pintail, a couple of red-headed Smew and the resident juvenile female Peregrine
was resting on the ground, which was presumably the bird we had seen earlier
over Lagoon One. The gull numbers
gradually began to build but most were Common Gulls, with smaller numbers of
Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gull but surprisingly no Lesser
Black-backed.
As the weather appeared to be
closing in we decided to make our way back to the centre but other than a male
and two female Goosanders there was little of note. Steve called to let me know he had located a
first-winter Mediterranean Gull on lagoon four but we decided not to go back as
the light was beginning to go and there was a risk that it would have moved off
before we reached the hide. As we returned
to the car eight Redwings flew over, which brought the total of species for the
day to seventy.
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