With reports of two Otters on
the River Welland in Market Harborough Dave and I made it our first point of
call. On arrival there was no sign but
it wasn’t too long before we found one and shortly afterwards both were seen
together. The river is only a few meters
wide and the views were exceptional during our hour long stay. By about 09:15 we were feeling a little cold
and so we decided to go to Rutland Water.
European Otter
On arrival at Rutland Water we
made a brief visit to the centre but other than three Shelduck and a female
Goosander there was very little on view, although the light was pretty awful as
we were looking towards the sun. We made
brief visits to both snipe and fieldfare hides on route but other than another
Shelduck and a Little Egret on the wet meadow it was rather quiet. On arrival on Lax Hill we went into an area
to see if we could find a Woodcock but this proved unsuccessful and so we
walked back to the centre calling at harrier hide on lagoon one. Fifteen Curlew flew over while we were in the
hide and I counted thirty-seven Pintail and eight Goosander. The Pintail numbers are quite high for this
time of the year as most autumn birds have normally departed by the year
end. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was
observed near the centre but another brief call at the centre produced just a
single Redshank but very little else.
Curlew over lagoon one
Dave checked the log book in
the centre and five Brent Geese had been reported off Whitwell. After lunch we decided to go to the dam in
the hope of seeing the geese. One of the
first birds we saw on arrival was the Black Redstart on the pumping station
building and a quick scan of the water produced both the Black-throated and
Great Northern Divers, which were quite close together. A few minutes later Dave picked up five geese
in flight and we watched them as they joined a party of geese on the Hambleton
Peninsular, distant but definitely the Brent Geese.
We dropped down to the
hedgerow where a Siberian Chiffchaff had been reported both yesterday and early
this morning. We observed the area for a
good thirty minutes without any sign but it was seen again shortly after we
left.
Back on the Egleton Reserve I
walked down the service road towards lagoon three as the normal footpath was
flooded. I had a couple of Jays and some
nice views of a party of Redwing feeding in the last field, which were
accompanied by two Fieldfares and a Song Thrush.
From shoveler hide on lagoon
three there were two Redshanks and a Green Sandpiper but very little else was
observed, except for a single Snipe in flight and a Green Woodpecker.
A late call to dunlin hide on
lagoon four produced a few gulls, mainly Herring and Great Black-backed but we
did find a single Caspian Gull before they all flew off towards the main water.
A bit of a mixed day in terms
of Rutland Water but with some good birds from the dam and the views of the
Otters would make any day really special.
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