Today I had been invited to
the opening of the Volunteer Training Centre at Rutland Water and therefore
didn’t arrive on site until just after 11:00 for and 11:30 start. The new centre was to be formally opened by Sir
David Attenborough and he arrived with Tim Appleton just after 12:00. After an initial walk around the outside of the
building he went to view the inside, whilst myself and other attendees waited
patiently outside. A number of speeches
were then made, including one by Sir David, before he officially opened the
centre by cutting a red ribbon.
Sir David cutting the ribbon
Apparently he is eight-nine
years old and I must say I was extremely impressed with his energy and passion
during the event. After the cutting of
the tape he spent a considerable amount of time being interviewed by local TV,
radio and press and remained on his feet the whole time, a remarkable man.
After the event I went back to
the Bird Watching Centre and discussed the option of going to Frampton, where
there was an adult White-winged Black Tern.
Steve was keen to go but Terry declined as he didn’t want to be too late
leaving. Erik who was also around was keen
to come as it was a lifer for him and so Erik, Steve and I left off for
Frampton.
Just before arriving we
arrived on site Erik received news that the tern was now at the reservoir so we
headed in that direction. When we
arrived at the reservoir Erik saw the tern straight away as it feeding over
towards the far bank. We then had some
nice views of a superb summer adult as continued to feed, flying into the wind
before quickly returning and then repeating the process. I walked further along the path hoping to
perhaps get some photos but it then suddenly changed tactics and flew back towards
the reserve and so we returned to the car and headed in that direction. We checked the farm yard on the right, which
is a favoured location for Turtle Dove and found one feeding on the ground but
it flew off onto the roof and when I inadvertently caught the car horn it and
two Collared Doves disappeared.
We continued to the car park
and then walked along the path towards the sea wall. The White-winged Black Tern was now feeding
over the pools to the south of the 360 hide but as we were watching it flew
over to the lagoon viewed from Reedbed hide.
We decided we would walk to
the sea wall as apparently there was a good selection of waders and two
Spoonbills visible from there. As we
walked down the road a Golden Plover flew over and we found seven Spotted
Redshanks before we reached the sea wall.
There was also plenty of Black-tailed Godwits scattered around and we
also saw a couple of Little Ringed Plover and several Ruff. As we continued scanning we saw at least
three Snipe but we couldn’t find the reported Wood Sandpiper. Steve then found the two Spoonbills that were
over towards the East Hide but we could only see the tops of the birds and as
usual they were inactive. There was also
a single Brent Goose on the marsh, which is presumably an injured bird that had
been unable to make the return migration.
We eventually walked back the car and had further views of the tern and
this time I managed to get a couple of record shots. A Pink-footed Goose, of perhaps dubious
origin, was then seen amongst a party of Canada Geese as we continued to head
back to the car.
White-winged Black Tern
It had been a pleasant and
quite successful day despite the late start and to put icing on the cake I got
a photo of the Turtle Dove as we were leaving.
Turtle Dove
Painted Lady
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