A morning at Rutland Water, Rutland - September 15, 2019

I was back at Rutland Water today helping with the WeBS Count and was assigned my normal areas of South Arm Three and Lagoon One.  I started off at the Old Hall and then walked west to finish counting the rest of South Arm Three.  I couldn’t locate yesterday’s Red-necked Grebe, but it was seen later in the day.  I did count the following: Canada Goose [4]; Mute Swan [8]; Gadwall [11]; Mallard [44]; Eurasian Teal [4]; Tufted Duck [529]; Little Grebe [9]; Great Crested Grebe [243]; Grey Heron [1]; Little Egret [6]; Great Cormorant [171]; Common Moorhen [1]; Eurasian Coot [162] and Common Tern [2].  Two juvenile Western Marsh Harriers were observed over the Lagoon Three bund and there was a Yellow-legged Gull preening on the water.

As the sun was shining I went to Mallard Hide to start the Lagoon One count, which proved to easier as the island vegetation had been cut and the following were counted: Canada Goose [5]; Mute Swan [1]; Northern Shoveler [86]; Gadwall [28]; Eurasian Wigeon [8]; Mallard [51]; Northern Pintail [9]; Eurasian Teal [103]; Common Pochard [9]; Tufted Duck [14]; Great Crested Grebe [1]; Grey Heron [2]; Great Egret [6]; Little Egret [10]; Great Cormorant [565]; Eurasian Coot [36]; Northern Lapwing [31]; Eurasian Curlew [2] and Common Tern [2].  I suspect that the Great Cormorant total, included most of the birds seen in South Arm Three earlier and the 565 was probably a total on both count areas.  There was also a juvenile Western Marsh Harrier over the lagoon, which presumably was one of the two seen earlier.