Saturday March 7th 2026
with Terry Mitchum
A singing Chiffchaff greeted members as they assembled in the Egleton reserve car park on a cool, overcast morning. There were other signs of spring – the cawing of nest-building Rooks by the Centre and singing Chaffinches and Greenfinches. The walk up to lagoon four was enlivened by more singing Chiffchaffs and Robins, a yaffling Green Woodpecker and the deafening song of a Cetti’s Warbler close by the service track. It was sad to note the demise of the Ash trees at the back of lagoon two due to Ash dieback – several have already been felled.
From Sandpiper hide on lagoon four we could see that the water level was very high, submerging most of the islands and leaving little room for the Lapwings and Redshanks present. Despite this Lapwings were optimistically displaying over the limited space available. Three Oystercatchers were seen – very striking with their pied plumage and red bills. Wildfowl were mostly paired, the males in smart breeding plumage, and there were good views of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Pintail, Gadwall and Tufted Ducks. A pair of Yellow-legged Gulls, perched near the Osprey nest pole seemed ready to take over the nest from a very vocal Egyptian Goose.
Moving on to Shoveler hide on lagoon three there were more close views of wildfowl, this time including Goldeneye plus Great White and Little Egrets. Two Snipe were greatly admired as they probed for invertebrates on one of the islands, well camouflaged with their streaked brown and buff plumage. Walking back, we stopped off at Grebe hide on lagoon two with brief views for some of a Curlew. There were more Goldeneye here and, best of all a flock of twenty Pochard, now quite a scarce visitor to Rutland Water. As we had also seen on lagoon three, the nesting platforms in the water were occupied by many raucous Black-headed Gulls – a further sign of the advent of spring.
Terry Mitchum