What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
New review items
Latest activity
Forums
New posts
Search forums
Gallery
New media
New comments
Search media
Reviews
New items
Latest content
Latest reviews
Latest questions
Brands
Search reviews
Opus
Birds & Bird Song
Locations
Resources
Contribute
Recent changes
Blogs
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
ZEISS
ZEISS Nature Observation
The Most Important Optical Parameters
Innovative Technologies
Conservation Projects
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is
absolutely FREE
!
Register for an account
to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Forums
Birding
Your Birding Day
First visit to Rutland Water
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="GiG" data-source="post: 1711057" data-attributes="member: 6690"><p>Having never been to Rutland Water, an opportunity to visit came when my local group, Suffolk Ornithologists' Group (SOG), included a visit on their events card for yesterday (23rd Jan). With car sharing organised two cars left Ipswich, the weather improving as we left the A14 and on to the A1 and arrived just before 10, starting at the dam end. Walking up another group gave us a bit of info on what was about and we scanned the area. Good numbers of duck, though considerably less when one of the leaders had done a recce earlier in the week. Principally <strong>tufted duck</strong>, with some <strong>goldeneye</strong>, <strong>mallard</strong>, <strong>wigeon</strong> and a single male <strong>red-crested pochard</strong>. A fine male <strong>scaup</strong> drifted along mostly asleep, but occasionally lifted it's head up for us to admire it. <strong>Little grebe</strong> and <strong>coot</strong> were about and out in the distance lots of <strong>great crested grebe</strong>. We walked towards the far end of the dam and picked up first one then furthe along a seond male smew. Looking back over the fields behind a common buzzard. More duck were flying in to the area nearest to the car park so we headed back and picked up a 1w male <strong>scaup</strong> with at least 8 females along with 9 <strong>ruddy duck</strong> and closer views of the male <strong>smew</strong>. Back in the car park we had lovely views of a male <strong>bullfinch</strong>. </p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]239439[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Our next stop was at Whitwell where the sun now came out and it was nice to feel the rise in the temperature! The <strong>wigeon</strong> here especially looked lovely with the sun on them and to hear them calling made it very atmospheric. Towards the far shore we saw two redhead <strong>smew</strong> this time.</p><p></p><p>We then drove round to Barnsdale, and walking by the woods picked up a moving flock which consisted of up to 8 <strong>bullfinch</strong>, 3 <strong>treecreeper</strong>, <strong>coal tit</strong>, <strong>great tit</strong> and <strong>blue tit</strong>. Scanning the creek amongst the <strong>little</strong> and <strong>great crested grebes</strong> one member found a <strong>slavonian grebe</strong> and later a <strong>great northern diver</strong>, though it was difficult to get everyone to see them as they had a tendency to spend more time underwater then above!</p><p></p><p>The day was passing quickly so we headed for the reserve centre to have some lunch and check out the bird feeders - nice close views of <strong>goldfinch</strong> and <strong>reed bunting</strong>. Getting our permit we looked through the big window and saw a male <strong>goosander</strong> on the lagoon. We decide we would go straight to the owl roost, and came to the path where it was obvious people had been standing! Peering through the scrub we saw saw two <strong>long-eared owls</strong>, one of which was preening. After admiring them we went in to the nearby hide, where a friendly group told us where the short-eared owl could be seen and we swapped sightings for the day. Pretty much the same except they had seen red kite and but had not seen the slavonian grebe. Scanning from the hide revelead lots more duck and grebes including another male <strong>smew</strong> and more <strong>scaup</strong> and several <strong>teal</strong>. Up in the trees a <strong>kestrel</strong> and a flock of <strong>stock dove</strong>. </p><p></p><p>We carried to along the path and looking through the trees to the back of the scrub where the long-eared owls were, sat a cracking <strong>short-eared owl</strong>, up on branch so we could see it's legs, preening away - quite a sight! It eventually flew off to hunt so we headed back and whilst along the path 3 <strong>goosander</strong> flew over so we stopped at Mallard Hide, where looking back to Harrier hide we could see the <strong>short-eared owl</strong> hunting again and out on the lagoon counted a total of 21 <strong>goosander</strong>, mostly males, lovely birds to see and a great finish to the day.</p><p></p><p>A great amount of birds were seen and as usual a good laugh with the group so I was glad I decided to sign up for the visit and will return again next year as it was deemed such a success that the leaders will book it in for next years events.</p><p></p><p>Gi</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GiG, post: 1711057, member: 6690"] Having never been to Rutland Water, an opportunity to visit came when my local group, Suffolk Ornithologists' Group (SOG), included a visit on their events card for yesterday (23rd Jan). With car sharing organised two cars left Ipswich, the weather improving as we left the A14 and on to the A1 and arrived just before 10, starting at the dam end. Walking up another group gave us a bit of info on what was about and we scanned the area. Good numbers of duck, though considerably less when one of the leaders had done a recce earlier in the week. Principally [B]tufted duck[/B], with some [B]goldeneye[/B], [B]mallard[/B], [B]wigeon[/B] and a single male [B]red-crested pochard[/B]. A fine male [B]scaup[/B] drifted along mostly asleep, but occasionally lifted it's head up for us to admire it. [B]Little grebe[/B] and [B]coot[/B] were about and out in the distance lots of [B]great crested grebe[/B]. We walked towards the far end of the dam and picked up first one then furthe along a seond male smew. Looking back over the fields behind a common buzzard. More duck were flying in to the area nearest to the car park so we headed back and picked up a 1w male [B]scaup[/B] with at least 8 females along with 9 [B]ruddy duck[/B] and closer views of the male [B]smew[/B]. Back in the car park we had lovely views of a male [B]bullfinch[/B]. [ATTACH]239439._xfImport[/ATTACH] Our next stop was at Whitwell where the sun now came out and it was nice to feel the rise in the temperature! The [B]wigeon[/B] here especially looked lovely with the sun on them and to hear them calling made it very atmospheric. Towards the far shore we saw two redhead [B]smew[/B] this time. We then drove round to Barnsdale, and walking by the woods picked up a moving flock which consisted of up to 8 [B]bullfinch[/B], 3 [B]treecreeper[/B], [B]coal tit[/B], [B]great tit[/B] and [B]blue tit[/B]. Scanning the creek amongst the [B]little[/B] and [B]great crested grebes[/B] one member found a [B]slavonian grebe[/B] and later a [B]great northern diver[/B], though it was difficult to get everyone to see them as they had a tendency to spend more time underwater then above! The day was passing quickly so we headed for the reserve centre to have some lunch and check out the bird feeders - nice close views of [B]goldfinch[/B] and [B]reed bunting[/B]. Getting our permit we looked through the big window and saw a male [B]goosander[/B] on the lagoon. We decide we would go straight to the owl roost, and came to the path where it was obvious people had been standing! Peering through the scrub we saw saw two [B]long-eared owls[/B], one of which was preening. After admiring them we went in to the nearby hide, where a friendly group told us where the short-eared owl could be seen and we swapped sightings for the day. Pretty much the same except they had seen red kite and but had not seen the slavonian grebe. Scanning from the hide revelead lots more duck and grebes including another male [B]smew[/B] and more [B]scaup[/B] and several [B]teal[/B]. Up in the trees a [B]kestrel[/B] and a flock of [B]stock dove[/B]. We carried to along the path and looking through the trees to the back of the scrub where the long-eared owls were, sat a cracking [B]short-eared owl[/B], up on branch so we could see it's legs, preening away - quite a sight! It eventually flew off to hunt so we headed back and whilst along the path 3 [B]goosander[/B] flew over so we stopped at Mallard Hide, where looking back to Harrier hide we could see the [B]short-eared owl[/B] hunting again and out on the lagoon counted a total of 21 [B]goosander[/B], mostly males, lovely birds to see and a great finish to the day. A great amount of birds were seen and as usual a good laugh with the group so I was glad I decided to sign up for the visit and will return again next year as it was deemed such a success that the leaders will book it in for next years events. Gi [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes...
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Birding
Your Birding Day
First visit to Rutland Water
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more...
Top
