Rutland Water & Eyebrook Reservoir  27th Nov 2004 

This was my first visit to Rutland since March 1991 and it was interesting to see the changes that have occurred over the last thirteen years.

Fourteen people enjoyed this shared car trip, arriving at the reserve at about 10 o’clock. Walking from the car park to the visitor centre one of the first birds seen was Tree Sparrow. As these are not too common today it was a good sighting. We booked in at the visitor centre, which was well stocked with goods for purchase, although not too good for food & drink. There is a viewing room upstairs (with heating) for looking out over one of the lagoons. From here we saw a group of twelve Goosanders that seemed to dive in sequence. A Kingfisher was also spotted from this room.

After a short while we decided to set out to various hides overlooking the lagoons. A pair of Kestrels and a Sparrowhawk were the only raptors seen on the day. A good number of winter thrushes were feeding on the berries, and numerous chaffinches & tits were in the woodland. 

Thirteen types of duck, and seven different waders were seen, the most numerous being Lapwing followed closely by Golden Plover. Wave after wave of these waders were coming into roost for most of the day.

The weather was kind to us, although overcast, it stayed dry.

We left Rutland at about three o’clock to go to Eyebrook Reservoir where we had heard that  there had been sightings of a  Slavonion Grebe & a Caspian Gull (which nobody, nor any of our books seemed to have heard of).

The light was failing as we arrived. We did not see the Grebe, and the local birders that we spoke to had not seen, nor could identify the gull. Apparently there is one local who usually arrives by bicycle who could pick out any gull in the roost. Unluckily he did not turn up while we were there. We did see large flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover, numbering hundreds of birds, coming in to roost; they made quite a dramatic sight against the darkening sky.

Just before we left a flock of Dunlin & a solitary Curlew arrived.  By now it was getting dark and cold, so we headed for home after what turned out to be a good days birding.

Dave Jones