Sunday 9 July 2017

Rutland Water :: 8 July 2017

It has been about 25 years since I last visited Rutland Water. Last time was with a group of friends and we cycled around the perimeter of the site - around 23 miles if I remember correctly.

I'd seen that the final osprey chick in Manton Bay had fledged so dropped in to have a look. Another warm and sunny day. Unfortunately Charlotte didn't feel up to joining me this time and so I was just on my own.

The osprey nest in Manton Bay has been in use since 2007. OspreyThe first birds to breed on it were translocated male, 08(97), and Rutland-fledged female, 5N(04). 08(97) was one of the first ospreys to be translocated to Rutland Water, in 1997.

Paid up for parking and headed out along the path to the Waterscrape Hide. I wanted to make sure I caught up with my target bird so Manton Bay was a must. Met a nice couple of volunteers in the hide - the chap had been a metallurgist / microscopist and was from Scotland. Now retired, he and his wife had been volunteering on the osprey project since 2005.

I still find it comical watching cormorants roosting in trees - OspreyI think more so with larger numbers, around 12 in each of two dead trees.

Not difficult to spot the ospreys [139] were across the bay, flitting between the cross pole and the nest - female (2AN) and male (2AM). A heat haze made it difficult to get photos at this distance. Right in front of the hide a pair of sedge warblers played silently. Three Egyptian geese [140] cruised past, again at some distance - another year tick. Spotted a water vole cross the water directly in front but too fast for a photo.

I decided to drop into the Shallow Water hide as it might afford a different perspective on the ospreys - in some ways it is better. From here the birds got closer with pied wagtail, little egret, Little egretcommon tern, mallard and black-headed gulls all parading by - the pied wagtails were busy feeding their young with the abundance of flies.

Shame Charlotte wasn't here but I won't leave it so long between visits

Sightings today (38) included: black-headed gull, blackbird, blackcap, blue tit, buzzard, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, common tern, coot, cormorant, dunnock, egyptian goose, gadwall, goldfinch, great crested grebe, great tit, grey heron, greylag goose, house martin, lapwing, little egret, little grebe, mallard, moorhen, mute swan, osprey, oystercatcher, pied wagtail, redshank, reed bunting, sedge warbler, swallow, swift, tree sparrow, whitethroat, woodpigeon and wren.

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