An afternoon at Rutland Water, Rutland - February 17, 2015

I went over to Rutland Water today with David seeing Buzzards at Newton Harcourt and Great Glen and then Red Kites at between East Norton and Belton-in-Rutland and over the roundabout at Uppingham on route.

With news of a good selection of geese on the Hambleton Peninsula we arranged to meet Erik at the end of the road.  We scanned the south arm from the entrance gate for a Great Northern Diver without success and eventually moved off towards the north arm.  We found quite a large party of geese in one of the fields to the south of the track and we soon found a single Brent Goose and fifteen Barnacle Geese amongst the more numerous Greylag and Canada Geese.  As we continued scanning we then found the two European White-fronted Geese and a single Pink-footed Goose.  Despite further scanning we were unable to locate the Greenland White-fronted Goose, which had been reported earlier and there was no sign of a diver between Whitwell and the dam. When we got back to the entrance gate we had a further scan of the south arm but there was still no sign of any divers, although Erik did find a Peregrine perched on a post on the edge of the first field.

We eventually drove to Egleton and after parking went to the Bird Watching Centre to view lagoon one, seeing a Marsh Tit on the feeders.  Surprisingly there were just a single pair of Pintail present but six Shelduck and thirteen Curlew were observed.  A walk to Bittern hide on lagoon three produced very little on route but on entering the hide we found a single drake Scaup and a male and six red-headed Smew and there were also four Snipe just in front of the hide and a nice female Sparrowhawk perched to the left.  A text from Steve indicating that the first Ringed Plover of the year was on lagoon four, prompted us to move off to Dunlin hide.  A Green Woodpecker flew across the path as we walked around to the hide and there were two Long-tailed Tits actually hawking insects from bush quite close to the hide.  Steve and Terry were in the hide and they provided directions for the Ringed Plover, which was resting on island nine.  Further scans produce a couple of Golden Plovers and at least ten Pintail.  The Lapwing then all took to flight and David picked up a single Dunlin amongst them but we were unable to see what had caused the panic.  They eventually settled back onto the lagoon and Steve then found a second Dunlin and two Curlew arrived, which we assumed would be two of the same seen earlier from the centre.  Steve and Terry had seen two male and a red-headed Smew earlier and I found one of the males and a red-head close to island ten.  There were two Shelduck on the lagoon and a Little Egret flew over, which was my first sighting here since January 18^th.  There were quite a few gulls at the back of the lagoon but all we identified were Black-headed, Common, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls and also a single Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Quite a number of the Herring Gulls were looking rather smart in their fresh summer plumage with several showing distinctly darker mantles, indicating that they were probably of the northern European race.

David and I made a quick check for a Barn Owl on lagoon one before heading off home but without any success, although it had been seen earlier.