Trip reports

Field Trip to Rutland Water 26th April 2009

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

The visit to Rutland Water took place on a fine day and produced some good sightings of spring migrants. Our first stop was the dam end of the reservoir and most of the group took the opportunity to walk across the dam. From the dam 2 great northern divers were seen, surprisingly near to some fishermen; a pair of yellow wagtails were spotted on the landward side of the dam; and several wheatears were present on the dam. Once across the dam we were picked up and taken to the main reserve area at Egleton. Since our last visit in 2007 a new, large lagoon has been constructed which in future should attract waders and other waterfowl. On our visit the main attraction was three yellow wagtails which frequented the banks and islands of the lagoon. Waders were scarce, as they were elewhere on the reserve, but dunlin, oystercatcher, lapwing and little ringed plover were seen on the lagoon. The warblers seen (or heard) included blackcap plus willow, reed, and sedge warbler and, of the raptors, red kite, buzzard, sparrowhawk and (fleetingly) osprey were spotted. Intensive checking of the terns present unfortunately only revealed common terns. A bonus bird was the obliging male gargeney that turned up in front of the visitor centre. In total at least fifty-five species were seen - a good day's birding.