Rutland Water 1st May 2016

On the first day of our holiday we stopped over at Rutland Water where we started out at the visitor centre at Egleton. From the reception hide there were a few ducks to be seen out on the water and the usual Geese and Cormorants. The best of the birding was a fair sized group of Common Terns. Apparently they have had Arctic Terns passing through recently but all the Terns we could see were Common. We asked about the Ospreys and we were given good advice from the staff in the reception area.

They said that whilst there are Ospreys at the Lyndon part of the reserve, the birds there were on eggs. They suggested, instead, that we went out to the Sandpiper or Dunlin hides at the Egleton end because the birds there were not sitting on eggs yet so they were a lot more active.

We headed off to the Sandpiper hide and immediately we saw two birds on a nest. The views were pretty good with bins but with a scope they were superb. I managed to get some phonescoped video of them as they moved around the nest. Occasionally the male would rise up on the wind, hovering, only to land on the female, tread on her back, and then mate. He did this about three times, although once the female didn’t look particularly impressed. At one point he flew off returning quite quickly with a fish. He even flew down to the water level and preened a bit whilst standing in the shallow water.

All this meant we rather ignored the group of Common Terns, the Oystercatcher, the pair of Wigeon and pair of Teal that were around the island. Another birder in the hide pointed out two Hobbies flying around just over the tree line and I managed to get one in the scope to great effect.

After a bit, we decided to make room for other visitors to the hide and wend our way back to the visitor centre. En route we could hear all the usual woodland birds plus Chiffchaff and Blackcaps. It was quite a warm, if overcast, day so we decided to walk on the other side of the reception building and got as far as the Snipe hide. By far the best thing here was the new Sand Martin bank on the right as you walk to the Snipe hide. A gap in the bushes afforded us really close views and I got the best scoped views of these birds I have ever had !

As time was getting on we decided to go down to the Lyndon Visitor Centre but we only had time to go to the Deep Water hide. Apart from Great Crested Grebes and Tufted Duck, the main attraction was the good number of Swallow, Sand Martins and House Martins all flying over the surface of the water at their individually preferred heights – one of the joys of Spring.

With time getting on we decided to get a move on to Peterborough where we were staying the night. A great plus was our first Red Kite of the year and, as we drove into the Premier Inn we were greeted by a welcoming Song Thrush

Year Ticks : Red Kite, Osprey, Hobby, Common Tern

Bird Sightings : 1st May Rutland Water Environs

Species	Count
Common Pheasant	1
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1
Eurasian Jackdaw	8
Rook	20
Sand Martin	60
Barn Swallow	6
Common House Martin	2
Great Tit	1
Eurasian Blue Tit	6
Common Chiffchaff	6
Blackcap	4
European Robin	1
Eurasian Blackbird	4
Common Chaffinch	10
European Goldfinch	2
House Sparrow	30

Bird Sightings : 1st May Rutland Water Egleton

Species	Count
Greylag Goose	20
Canada Goose	10
Mute Swan	12
Common Shelduck	8
Gadwall	2
Eurasian Wigeon	2
Mallard	8
Common Teal	2
Common Pochard	2
Tufted Duck	30
Great Crested Grebe	10
Great Cormorant	1
Little Egret	2
Osprey	2
Eurasian Marsh Harrier	2
Common Buzzard	1
Common Moorhen	1
Common Coot	4
Eurasian Oystercatcher	1
Northern Lapwing	8
Black-headed Gull	70
Common Tern	32
Eurasian Hobby	2
Sand Martin	60
Pied Wagtail	1

Bird Sightings : 1st May Misc

Species	Count
Red Kite	1
Song Thrush	1

Rutland Water 1st May 2016