East Anglia trip 16th -19th May 2025 (cont. from that thread)
Our return home was via a short stop at Rutland Water, where the lakeside pair of Ospreys were both visible from the Waders Scrape hide, both through the windows and via the nest cams which gave some views of the 4 chicks they're raising thanks to the abundant fish which the male is 'spotting' from a nearby tree.
Headed on from here to Eyebrook Reservoir for the Spotted Redshank reported that morning. It was showing nicely from one of the pull-ins on the perimeter road with a Common Redshank for company, well illustrating the size difference. While we were there one of the local birders picked up one of the two Black Terns feeding with Common Terns off the small carpark. While we were watching that an Osprey appeared and made a couple of of circuits but didn't attempt to fish. He proved to be one of three around the reservoir. During our lunch break there we also had a pair of Red Kites, two Hobbies and several Buzzards, many in view at the same time. A quick call into the car park as we were leaving failed to get us better views of the terns but we did have an in-view Garden Warbler and a Yellowtail Moth caterpillar. Given the warm sunny weather and the comparative absence of a cold wind, probably the most enjoyable couple of hours birding of the whole trip. We finished with a group total for the four days of 122( all seen, no heard only)
-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Wednesday 28th of May 2025 06:41:30 PM
Starting this as a "general" Leicestershire thread since the others seem to be for a specific location.
Yesterday Sun 28th August @ Swithland Reservoir
Hobby - then I realised there was more than 1, then I found the whole family of 4 sitting on a high-up branch - adults hawking and bringing the dragonflies back for the juveniles to eat - stunning view unfortunately no camera to record it.
I remember that this was a "usual" place to see Hobby in the autumn before we moved to Manchester (i.e. before 2005) but I wasn't back into bird-spotting then and never took advantage of it (although I did see the wintering Peregrines when climbing there).
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Monday 29th of August 2022 11:41:04 AM
