There had been a Pectoral
Sandpiper on Lagoon Four at Rutland Water yesterday and so I headed for Rutland
Water this morning. I parked in the
Egleton car park and made my way to the Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four hoping that
it was still present. When I arrived
there didn’t appear to be many waders visible and all I could see were a few
Ringed Plovers. Stephen then joined me
in the hide as he had seen several Ringed Plovers and Dunlin from Sandpiper Hide
and was hoping to get a better few of them from Dunlin Hide. We soon relocated the small party of birds
feeding on the end of island seven but his identification was correct and there
were just Ringed Plover and Dunlin. As
we continued to scan I found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers and there were
four Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the more numerous Black-headed Gulls and a Herring Gull. I then picked up a flock of
waders, which contained more birds than we had been seeing and when they
climbed high I thought they were off. I
continued to watch them and they suddenly came back and dropped low over the
lagoon and were joined by even more birds before alighting on island one, which
is the most distant. I could see that
most were Ringed Plovers but there were also a few Dunlin in the flock and I
counted thirty-seven Ringed Plovers and at least seven Dunlin. As I scanned again I picked up a bird
preening amongst the rocks, which I was pretty saw it was the Pectoral
Sandpiper. I got Stephen on the bird and
as we watched it, it came out of the rocks and started feeding on the shore and
although distant we could see a clear pectoral band a stripes running down the
back and we were happy that it was the Pectoral Sandpiper.
Herring Gull on Lagoon Four
Herring Gull on Lagoon Four
There were eight Pintail and
five Little Egrets also on the lagoon but with the waders becoming scattered
around the lagoon I moved on to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker
flew into the dead trees alongside the path and I then found a Chiffchaff in
the bushes surrounding the trees.
From Shoveler Hide there were
a couple of Green Sandpipers to the left of the hide and I saw a Water Rail as
is strolled between two of the islands but I didn’t bother going through the
wildfowl as the light was pretty poor.
I came out of the hide and
went towards Lapwing Hide but stopped to view the area just beyond Smew Hide
where I had views of a couple of Reed Warblers and another Chiffchaff. I went into Smew Hide to view Lagoon Two
where I counted twenty-three Pochards and there was a Hobby near the Sand
Martin construction but there was little else and so I made my way back to the
car park.
Wren from Smew Hide
Migrant Hawker from Smew Hide
I had spoken to Terry earlier
and he was walking around the Hambleton Peninsular and had seen a Goldeneye on
the far side of the Old Hall and so I went to see if I could find it.
After parking at the bottom of
the lane leading to the Old Hall I walked as far as the entrance to Armley Wood
in order to view the large flock of Tufted Duck. However other than a Little Egret at the edge
of the wood all I found were Tufted Ducks but a lot of them. With no sign of the Goldeneye I made my way
back towards the Old Hall and then continued on to view South Arm Three. There were no large concentrations of birds
today but with little wind it was quite easy to see birds on the flat water and
on my fist scan I found the female Goldeneye.
I made a brief stop at the
fisherman’s car park to look for the Red-necked Grebe but there was no sign but
I did see a couple of Red Kites and three Buzzards over Burley.
After parking in the unnamed
road I went down to the spit and viewed the north shore. There were five Pintail in the first bay and
four Ruff and five Greenshanks were feeding on the shoreline. As I scanned further along the shore there
were several Curlews and two Black-tailed Godwits and as I counted the Curlew I
noticed that one looked quite small, particularly when it got alongside one of
the seven Curlews, and was clearly a Whimbrel.
There were two other birders
in the North Arm and in chatting with them they were particularly interested in
seeing the Red-necked Grebe and knowing that Terry had walked around the
peninsula there was a good chance he might have seen it, so I gave him a
call. He didn’t answer but appeared a
few minutes later and confirmed that he had seen it between the tower and the
fisherman’s car park. We spent a little
more time scanning the north shore before moving into the field and walking to
the far side to get a better view of the area and in the shelter of some trees.
I soon found an adult
Black-necked Grebe that was still in summer plumage and then Terry found a
second bird, which was either a winter adult or a first-winter bird. We were joined by the other two birders and
after getting them on the Black-necked Grebes, Terry found what he thought
might be the Red-necked Grebe. It was
very distant but was clearly the Red-necked Grebe but a fishing boat got rather
close and it dived and we couldn’t find it again and so the other two birders
decided to walk towards the fisherman’s car park hoping to pick it up again.
Kestrel over the North Arm
Terry and I made our way back
to the cars for lunch and shortly afterwards Roger arrived to hopefully see the
Whimbrel. He had made a visit to see the
Pectoral Sandpiper, which he had seen very well, and had come around hoping to
get the Whimbrel before collecting his grandchildren from school. Terry and I left for Egleton before he returned
but he did manage to find the bird before he left.
After parking and applying
some sun cream Terry and I went to the centre to view Lagoon One. One of the Great White Egrets was resting on
the island at the back of the lagoon and two Little Egrets were feeding on the
lagoon. There were two Snipe on the long
island but otherwise it was pretty quiet and so we moved onto Dunlin Hide on
Lagoon Four.
Just after leaving the centre
we bumped into Mike, who had seen a Knot on Lagoon Four but not the Pectoral
Sandpiper. We continued to Dunlin Hide
but sadly the Pectoral Sandpiper still hadn’t been seen. As we scanned the area there appeared to be
far fewer waders than this morning and after a short while Terry went to
Sandpiper Hide to get a different view.
Mike then joined me in the hide but shortly afterwards Terry called to
say he was in Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three and might have a Bar-tailed Godwit.
I left Mike in Dunlin Hide and
headed for Shoveler Hide hoping to see a Bar-tailed Godwit that would probably be
the bird seen in the North Arm by Tim this morning. However when I entered the hide Terry was
apologising as he could now see the bird better and thought it was a
Black-tailed Godwit, which it was. There
were now five Green Sandpipers on the lagoon and three Red-crested Pochards on
the water and a Red Kite was observed to the north.
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Mike then came in the hide to
inform us that the Pectoral Sandpiper had been re-found when some waders flew
around. It had however gone behind an
island and couldn’t been seen from Dunlin Hide.
I wasn’t surprised that it was still there and Terry and I then went to
Plover Hide on Lagoon Four to view the other side of the islands. Terry picked up the Pectoral Sandpiper almost
straight away as it was feeding along the shore of one of the islands. It was quite a bit closer than this morning
and provided some nice views. As I was
watching the sandpiper Terry noticed a Greenshank with two other waders feeding
along the shore of the near island. I
swung my attention to the group of waders and realised that the other two birds
were juvenile Spotted Redshanks. They
continued walking around the island and provided some great photo
opportunities. I called Tim to make him
aware of the find and he informed me that he was about to cut the vegetation on
the islands but would now postpone that activity and then joined us in the
hide.
Spotted Redshank and Greenshank
Spotted Redshank and Greenshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
