Rutland Water bird sightings

During our recent trip to Rutland Water we enjoyed some decent bird sightings, a frequent feathered face being these Warblers (a garden Warbler we think), the majority nesting amongst bramble thickets, busily collecting food for their dependants.


During our visit we stayed in a wonderful self contained luxury cottage in Oakham run by Isobel and David called Ashgate Annexe. If anybody is considering a visit to Rutland I'd recommend you stay here, Isobel and David are so hospitable, and the accommodation is incredibly cosy, clean, comfortable, quiet and very good value, its like a home from home, (well in our case an unusually tidy home from home).

At the Lyndon Visitors Centre we watched the live streaming from the Osprey nest, the first chick hatched in the early hours of Sunday morning. The latest update is that the three chicks have hatched, and you can watch live streaming of the nest on the Rutland Ospreys website. In this pic the female is on the nest to the right and the male is perched on the leftmost branch of the upturned tree.

From one of the South Shore hides we watched this territorial Shelduck take on a few of the locals.

On Sunday evening we heard our first Cuckoo of the year, yay! Friday evening brought both Barn Owl and Tawny Owl sightings. On the water were Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Gadwall, Oystercatcher, Mute Swan, Lapwing, Sand Martin and Swallow, Ringed Plover with chicks, Common Terns, Coots, Moor Hen, Canada Geese, Pink Footed Geese, a Barnacle Goose . From the Lyndon Visitor Centre on the South Shore we watched a pair of Kestrel take turns on the nest, a female pheasant safely escort her nine chicks to and from the feeder, Yellowhammer, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Starling chicks.

There are over 100 Egyptian Geese around the reserve, and apparently they're more aggresive than the Shelduck, a volunteer told us that he had to evict an Egyptian Goose after taking up residence in the Kestrel box located near the visitors centre, also that they cover the Osprey nest platforms prior to their return in order to deter the EG from setting up home. The Egyptian Geese on the reserve are descendants of escapees kept at Holkham Hall in Norfolk.