Just two of us set off for this delayed trip to Rutland Water. Our first stop was at Grafham Water near St. Neot’s where in the car park, Cliff spotted a pair of Yellow Wagtails amongst many Pied Wagtails feeding on the grass. Later we discovered that this pair turned out have young  when we saw two much paler immature birds with their parents. It was very blustery at Grafham and the water was very choppy; only Cormorant, Great Crested Grebes, Greylag and Canada Geese were seen on the water itself and a lone Turnstone was the only wader on the shore.

So on to Rutland Water where on the feeders by the centre were the usual Tree Sparrows, Chaffinchs, Greenfinchs, Great and Blue Tits.  The water level in the lagoons was very high due to recent heavy rain and in some of the hides, the water seemed to go right underneath. As a result the only wading birds to be seen in any of Lagoons I, II or III were Lapwing. However we did get good views of Great Crested Grebes feeding young and Sand Martins making good use of their three-storey man-made nesting site. A second look at Lagoon I on the way to the South Arm, revealed a Yellow-Legged Gull. A little further on, Cliff stopped having heard what we thought was a Turtle Dove and, sure enough, we soon saw it high up in a dead tree. A Blackcap and Long-Tailed Tits were also flitting about in the nearby bushes.

Distant view of the Osprey nest site in Manton Bay, Rutland Water

At the South Arm we looked over towards Manton Bay from the Heron and Wigeon Hides and saw the Ospreys’ nest high up on the nest pole (follow the link

http://www.ospreys.org.uk/Breeding2007A.htm

for photographs of the birds at the nest). From these two hides we were treated to very good views of one of the parents in flight over the hides. We also saw both of the young birds which seemed to be near to their first flights, and the other parent on the nearby perch. These excellent views of these charismatic birds made our day.  

It was an excellent day out and our total species count for the two sites was 53, not bad for a quiet day in July.

Stuart Harrison (photos by the author)