Site map of Rutland Water

My first visit to Rutland Water, famous for it’s Osprey conservation work. Rutland is a man made reservoir  built in the seventies and run by Anglian water and the Leicestershire  wildlife trust. While visiting, work was underway for “birdfair” with tents and marquees being set up .A massive event for all things birding.

Entrance fee to the site is £5 per person for parking and entrance fee to both visitor centres, the Anglian and Lyndon. There was a warm welcome and information from the volunteers about what and where to see the birds showing.

Lagoon 3 and the views from the Bittern hides

Lagoon 3 was very overgrown by reeds close up but plenty of wildfowl could be seen in the distance including duck ,cormorant,terns ,chiff chaff and reed warblers ,which put on an excellent close up show.

Reed warblers and chiffchaff

Lagoon 4 has a high bank shielding it from the path ,;on the bank were some Hebridean sheep giving us the eyeball.

The plover hide gave us glimpses of terns, duck , little egrets, mute swans as well as grebe, ruff, green sandpiper, greylag, canada geese and lapwings.

Rutland scrapes

Moving on to the Dunlin hide more of the same for vistas and wildfowl until I spotted movement on a nest set up for Ospreys .Excited got my camera set and fired a volley of shots towards the target. Sadly not an Osprey but an Egyptian goose. Once the laughter died down about my ID skill,s we had lunch.

Egyptian goose ,anyone can make a mistake

After lunch (worthwhile bringing your own as there is not much available) we got into the car and travelled to Manton to where the Ospreys can be seen. They are best viewed from the waderscrape hide and the shallow water hide which brings you closer for photography (but you need a long lens or some good luck). Volunteers have scopes which bring them closer. I managed to take quite a few shots hoping to get one to be proud of; better luck next time. I will post some below ; that’s the beauty of photography there’s  incentive to improve. Enjoy.

Thanks to Paul R. for the day and being my ID expert

Birdfair ,Rutland Water ,Ospreys, Leicestershire, photography, birding in the UK.