May 9th 2009

We abandoned the county for Leicestershire. A brief look at Eye-brook Reservoir produced 8 Shelduck, 5 Common Tern, 3 Ringed Plover and Kingfisher then it was on to Rutland Water where we had the summer plumage Cattle Egret showing well in front of the visitors centre on lagoon 1 along with many Common Tern, Sand Martin and Swifts before moving on to Lagoon 4. This new area is an excellent set up – designed for waders so won’t be surprised if we are back in the autumn and o boy do I wish we could have one at draycote. We found winter plumage and partial summer plumage Sanderling, Little Stint, Greenshank, Redshank, 4 Ringed Plover, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 20 Dunlin and 4 Oystercatcher. Not to be out done by the waders present an Osprey came in and landed on a sandy spit of one of the many island then walked out to bathe with a Red Kite showing distantly at the same time. As we made our way back to lagoon 1 we had fly by Cuckoo and Hobby and other birds of note were Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, 2 Egyptian Geese with 4 young and 40+ Shelduck.
Spent some time wandering around the Finshade area of Northamptonshire watching at least a dozen Red Kite then moved on to Daventry Country Park but unfortunately the Red-rumped Swallow that was present this morning had not been seen for a few hours but treated to 4 Hobbies feeding low over the water near to the dam.
Just completing this blog and the moth trap is going la la - Common Pug, 2 Brimstone, Muslin, Bee Moth, Least Black Arches, Garden Carpet and a couple I will need to Id later so a few more hours should see a couple of more species - I hope.

Richard