A bright Saturday morning saw Sue, Keith and me on the 120-mile journey from home to Rutland Water nature reserve in the East Midlands. Rutland water was the first nesting site for Western Osprey in England and is still the most southerly of the few known sites.
Rutland Water
Sue dropped us at the reserve and went off to do a couple of visits to nearby craft shops, whilst Keith and I set out to see the target species for the day – Western Osprey and Tree Sparrow. The latter proved to be no problem as 3 Handsome male birds sat on the feeders outside the visitors centre.
Tree Sparrow
From here we made our way towards Manton Bay, where one pair of Ospreys were nesting. In front of one hide we had excellent views of Sedge Warbler as it displayed and sang hoping to attract a mate.
Sedge Warbler
The Osprey nest was clearly visible on its platform and the female bird, incubating 4 eggs, could just be made out. The male returned to the nest 3 times, although he didn’t bring any food and eventually decide to perch in a tree before he headed off again.
Osprey nest
Male Osprey perched in tree
No, we didn’t climb up to the nest for this one – taken from the CCTV camera feed observing the nest
On the way back from Manton Bay we were fortunate to get another excellent view of a warbler – this time Willow warbler as it sang from its perch on a wire – they are not normally so obliging.
Willow Warbler
Eurasian Coot
Great Cormorant
Target species were seen but what would the rest of the visit bring – Part 2 of our trip to follow tomorrow.
