A select eight members of rnhs met at Egleton Centre and ventured out into the breeze on a pleasantly warm February morning. The hides were even warm! although rocked by the wind that picked up, the sky’s were ominous but remained kind to us.
Lloyd Park treated us to some spectacular views of winter wildfowl on the lagoons with excellent commentary plus facts and figures.
Hambleton View
My highlights were: the Male Smew which looked transparent in the choppy water but turned into a milky white wonder when the sun hit. It kept chasing after three female red heads, which managed to evade him.
Also a female Peregrine Falcon which sat to the left of us on the Osprey nest platform. It was disturbed and took off, circling behind the hide, we then spotted it again because a large cloud of gulls and lapwings started to mob it. Eventually the bird flew straight across in front of us, before returning to it’s original perch.
What eluded me for a while were the camouflaged snipe resting on a small island, suddenly they snapped into focus and there were six – just sitting there huddled down out of the wind.
Lagoon 4 Rutland Water
The escape artists were the diving ducks, here they are, now their gone!
The Goldeneye were even more impressive in the flesh than the book, with a very large triangular head and black stripes on the flank, looking like they’d been painted with a fine artists brush.
What a morning!