My Birdwatcher's Guide: A Morning at Rutland Water

We set off for Rutland Water at 9am in the morning. Chris picked me up from my house and then we set off to get Clive from Haynes, the roads were quite clear so we made good time and arrived at about 10.20am, it was easy to find and was quite a pleasant journey.

We parked the car and went into the Visitor Centre to get our Permit for the day. I thought it was a bit expensive £6 each but it all goes to a good cause and keeps the reserve in good condition.

We were told the best place to go to see Birds and set off for a walk around the reserve, we arrived at our first Hide and sat and watched Cormorants flying in, a small flocks of Widgeon and Godwits and then a Great White Egret flew in to the reeds on the far side of the lake and a Heron landed and started looking around for some fish to eat. It was quite a nice day, the sun was shining and alot of birds were flying in. We sat for a little while and watched and then decided to move on.

I saw the Great Egret land further up stream from where we were and I hoped it was near the next Hide along from the first one. We opened up the shutters and there it was stalking in the reeds in front of us and it fortunately didn't fly off and I got some great pictures of it. It is about the same size as a Grey Heron but all white, it has a thinner neck and a bright yellow beak. It eats fish but it uses its beak as a dart and stabs the fish rather than catching it in its beak.

We then saw a pair of Goosander's cross in front of us, a male and female and a pair of Cormorants constantly diving under the water to catch fish. One came up and shook the fish in his beak, it was quite a big fish and the Cormorant was shaking it in the air before swallowing it whole.

It was quite a pleasant walk through a wooded area with lots of fungi and mushrooms before we can to yet another Hide which looked out onto the far side of the Lake. As we sat down a huge flock of Lapwings flew up into the air and flew around for a little while. We wondered why and a lady said "Look, a Peregrine". It was on the far bank sitting on a post. It was a bit too far away from us so we couldn't get a great picture of it. Among the Lapwings was a Green Sandpiper and a few Plovers.

We sat for a while hoping the Peregrine would fly up so we could get a decent picture of it, unfortunately it was tidying itself up but the Lapwings were aware it was about and kept flying up into the air in anticipation of attacking them.

We then decided to walk back and go to the other side of the Visitor Centre where we told we might see a bird called a Bearded Tit, a little bird I have never seen before. We saw a few birds fly over, more Cormorants and Herons and then a Hare came bounding along in front of the Hide. We thought he was going to run off but he sat directly in front of us and started munching the loss wet grass.

The Rutland Nature Reserve is definitely worth a visit and we intend to go back in March/April next year when the Osprey's return to nest and hopefully get some pictures of them.