We started off at a traditional Lesser Spotted Woodpecker site. After a bit of a mooch about, we failed to locate any sight nor sound, though a nice selection of the standard woodland species, plus a Red Kite overhead.
Next up, was a stroll around Clifford Hill GP on the edge of Northampton, somewhere I haven't been for quite a while, but is always likely of having something of interest. Sunday was no different.
The place was holding a pretty decent amount of wildfowl, with particularly good numbers of Wigeon, Pochard, Shoveler & Goldeneye. Dan was pretty envious already, as his local area of south Warwickshire has very few waterbodies to bird, with Draycote the only standout site to bring in any numbers or variety.
After a walk along the southern edge we were just about to head back to the car when I managed to pick up a distant winter-plumaged Black Necked Grebe. Excellent little find! On our walk back we managed to get better views, however still pretty distant as you can see from the extremely grotty photo below!
We next moved on along the A45 to Summer Leys to have a quick look about and to hopefully catch up with both the Great White Egret & Scaup. We soon caught up with the female Scaup. We however only managed to find a couple of the Egret's smaller cousins. Oystercatcher and 3 Shelduck were also seen, as well as the usual stunning views of several Bullfinches at the feeding station.
We were then thinking it was time to give Rutland Water a go to see the Long Billed Dowitcher that had been there for the last few days. First though, we gave Stanwick GP a bit of a go, to give us both a bit of that gull fix that we're always craving for. It was also hoped we could catch up with the adult Glauc that had been about recently.
Low & behold, the eastern end of the main lake had a decent gathering of big gulls. No Glauc, but in no time at all, we managed to bag 2 lovely Capsian Gulls, a brute of an adult and a really striking 1st-winter. The adult soon disappeared unfortunately, however the 1st-winter performed really nicely until we left (bird in flight: Pic 1 & just left of centre: Pic 2).
Buoyed by a couple of nice finds so far, it was time to reward our efforts with the Rutland Dowitcher. A trouble-free drive complete, we arrived at Egleton Nature Reserve, Rutland.
Absolutely starving by this point, it was pretty disappointing to find no cafe but just flapjacks and crisps (think they're missing a trick here!). The coffee machine wasn't exactly co-operative here either, producing nothing more than a cup of frothy milk for Dan, much to my amusement!
After all this shenanigans, we ambled off to the Shoveler hide, over-looking Lagoon III. The hide was surprisngly empty, with only a couple of people there, though I guess being Sunday afternoon, most had already made the trip.
We were soon enjoying great scope views of the Long-Billed Dowitcher. It spent quite a bit of time lurking in the muddy, vegetation on a small island, probing away for food in very similar fashion to the handful of Snipe alongside it.
Having taken in the Dowitcher and all it's features, it was nice to enjoy the good number of other birds about in nice light. These included a distant pair of Scaup at the back of Lagoon III, a Curlew, Several Pintail, Shelduck and a nice selection of more common wildfowl.
We had a bit of a look at the adjacent Lagoon IV too, from a couple of the hides. A few more nice birds on offer here including a drake and 5 very energetic female Smew, constantly diving for food. Two of the females came pretty close at times and afforded some very decent views.
Dan also picked up a nice juvenile Peregrine sat on one of the islands. Some enjyable scope views were had, as the bird just sat there chilling, with everything seemingly largely oblivious to it's presence. A few more Pintail and Shelduck here too. A large gathering of gulls appeared to hold very little so with the light still good, we decided to finish our day looking at the North Arm of the reservoir, involving a short drive along the road. The walk back to the car produced a couple of resident Egyptian Geese, surprisingly the only ones we saw.
A scan of the vast North Arm eventually picked out the 3 long-staying Black Necked Grebes, alongside the single Slavonian Grebe, all very distant. A Couple of Dunlin flew over calling loudly and Dan picked out a couple of grazing feral Barnacle Geese close to the far shore. Goldeneyes were in particularly good numbers here too.
There was though no sign of either the Great Northern Diver or Red Necked Grebe that were apparently present somewhere, though we couldn't be greedy! That drew an end to a fabulous day's birding.
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