A day’s birding at Rutland Water, Rutland - November 16, 2013

I was on my own today heading for Rutland Water, seeing a Buzzard close to Tugby on route.

I initially went to the car park at Lyndon where there had been Siskin and Lesser Redpoll during the week but there was no sign today.  There were plenty of winter thrushes in evidence with close to two hundred with Fieldfare out numbering Redwing slightly.  There was also a Song Thrush in full song, which was surprising and it was my first record of this species for almost a month.  They appear to be coming increasingly scarce and can now be quite a difficult bird to find locally, until they start singing.

Red Kite

Song Thrush

I moved onto the north arm where I found the juvenile Shag on the bund with Cormorants and a single Black-necked Grebe close to the southern shore.  There was little else of note with the ten Barnacle Geese, a single Pintail and male Goosander being the best.

On reaching the Egleton Reserve I initially had a look from the centre where I counted fifty-four Pintail and saw three Little Egrets, two Curlew and the male Stonechat.

I went onto redshank hide on lagoon two where I had a Water Rail and two Green Sandpipers.

I the returned to the car park for lunch and met up with Ken.

After I had finished my lunch we walked to shoveler hide on lagoon three, which was extremely quiet with very few duck today, seven Pintail being the best.  A Buzzard was observed over the wood and a Raven flew over, giving good views as it soared above the hide before heading off to the north.

A walk to crake and lapwing hides produced very little and the water could be seen to have risen considerably again.

We also visited bittern and plover hides but saw nothing new and decided to return to the centre and lagoon one.  A Buzzard sitting on the manmade Osprey nest, a Kestrel and two female Goosanders were the only birds of note.

It had been a rather quiet day, particularly when compared to yesterday and the rather dull and colder weather hadn’t made it any better.  It is clear that the rising water levels due to pumping have had an adverse effect on the number of ducks, particularly Wigeon and Tufted Duck.