Tuesday 25 March 2014

An afternoon’s birding at Rutland Water, Rutland - March 24, 2014

I went to Rutland Water this afternoon with Dave as I will be unable to go tomorrow as I am changing my car.

We went straight to the Egleton Reserve and initially viewed lagoon one from the centre.  The Black-tailed Godwit was still present on the lagoon island and there was also a single Oystercatcher and Curlew.  There was little else of note except for four Shelduck.


We the visited buzzard hide on lagoon three as we would be out of the wind in this hide.  Another two Shelduck, a Little Grebe and an Oystercatcher were the highlights but there was also a selection of commoner wildfowl, including a couple of Goldeneye and several Pochard.  We could see a few Sand Martins over the north arm and also saw a couple of Red Kites and Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk and a single Osprey.  Four more Oystercatchers were observed in flight over lagoon four.


Song Thrush on the Egleton Meadows


Song Thrush on the Egleton Meadows


Great Crested Grebe on lagoon three


Drake Shelduck on lagoon three


Drake Tufted Duck on lagoon three

From sandpiper hide on lagoon four we had a total of eight Red Kites over Burley Wood, five to the west of the house and three more well to the east.  There was also a couple of Buzzard near the filter beds just beyond the lagoon.  There were sixteen Shelduck on the lagoon and we did find five Ringed Plovers, four Dunlin and seven Redshanks and two Avocets flew in just before we departed and a Green Woodpecker was observed in flight over one of the bunds.


First-winter Herring Gull over lagoon four

As we started to walk back to the centre we had some nice views of a Green Woodpecker as it perched in a tree and then what was probably the same bird on a post in the first meadow.  As we approached lagoon one, we could see the Barn Owl in the entrance to the nest box on Brown’s Island and two Great Spotted Woodpecker were disturbed from a tree close to the centre.

Nothing new this afternoon but we did have a good selection of birds for an afternoon session.

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