Last Wednesday, 23rd July, with little occurring locally, a friend and I, decided to pay a visit to Rutland Water. I have not been here for a year of so so it would be interesting to see if much had changed and before the work starts on the Birdfair in three weeks time.

I always start at Lyndon Reserve on the south shore as all hides face north for the sun - and last Wednesday was a really hot sunny day. Surprisingly, the water level was very high so that one of the hides that is normally excellent for waders this time of the year was useless. Carrying on, it was only the last hide, Shallow Water Hide, that produced anything worth photographing - a Green Sandpiper displaying very nicely and a Common Tern feeding a juvenile on one of the posts.

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A pair of Ospreys quietly arrived at the nest site in the distance, no-one saw them arrive, they were suddenly just there, albeit too distant for a photograph. These were failed breeders, we were informed by a local and they both disappeared just as quickly.

Moving on to the north shore and the Egleton Reserve for the afternoon, it rapidly became obvious that the water levels were affecting these hides too, the only one producing any movement was Shoveler Hide where there was plenty of mud. There were a few more Green Sandpipers

and a Curlew flew in to drink and feed. www.hubmagic.cz

Too distant were Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and Black-tailed Godwit but as we were expecting family at home that evening, we left around 4.00pm, totally knackered due to the heat.

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