Whilst on holiday in the Rutland area between the 7th and 14th of August, we visited Rutland Water for some birdwatching. I hadn't been before, and beforehand I was told that ospreys could be seen there. We wandered round the hides to see what we could see, but first, I set up my camera in the visitor centre of Rutland water to get some photos of various birds.
Amongst the usual species you'd expect to see at a feeding station, we saw some Tree Sparrows, a bird which I hadn't seen before. I knew what I was looking for though so they were easy to spot, and very different from House Sparrows. I know that this bird is currently in strong decline, so it really was great to see them so close up.
We then wandered round to the Opsrey hide. Whilst walking there, I was amazed to see a Weasel run right across the path in front of me. I really was so lucky to see one so close. I was unable to get a photo as it was there for only 5 seconds or so. When we first got to the hide, we saw everything but Ospreys...
The first bird I saw was an adult water rail, just in front of the hide. It looked like perfect habitat for the bird. None of my photos were particularly great, but I was still happy to get at least a few decent photos.
It was great to also see a juvenile water rail too...
Other birds such as this sedge warbler could also be seen from the hide (please excuse the record shot):
And another record shot of a reed bunting:
Eventually, we saw the ospreys from the hide, a couple of hours after we had got there- they spend much of their time flying around the lake out of view from the hide. The 3 juveniles which fledged the nest earlier in the year still used the nest as a perch and spent plenty of time sitting on it whilst the adults were out catching fish. By now, the ospreys will have started to migrate back to Africa. If you want to follow the osprey diary, click here. Here is my record shot of the osprey nest with the fledged juveniles sitting on it. The third juvenile was on a perch to the left of the nest, which cannot be seen in the photo below.
It really was great to see the ospreys here, along with the other people in the hide, especially since, despite their recent increase in numbers, they are still quite a rare sight in the UK. The nest really was too far away to get a close up photo with my camera, but I sharpened the photo on the computer to make the scene a bit clearer. Whilst looking for the flying adult opsreys (which we did see, but I was unable to photograph), lapwings could be seen flying fairly close to the hide.
I liked the effect I managed to get on this photo, despite the fact it wasn't intentional. Since we were so glued to the opsrey hide, we ran out of time and were unable to visit any of the other hides - maybe next time, eh?
