Winter Visitors: Wildfowl and Wader Day at Rutland Water
Few habitats change as dramatically in November as lakes and reservoirs, which welcome thousands of winter visitors escaping harsher conditions further north. On Saturday 21st November, you can explore Rutland Water’s winter birds with one of the area’s best-known experts.
Wildfowl and Wader Day
The Wildfowl and Wader Day is an excellent chance to see the variety of wildfowl passing through Rutland or arriving for winter. Previous highlights have included American Wigeon, Scaup, Eider and Great Northern Diver.
Travelling around the reservoir by car as a group, you’ll check likely sites and walk out onto the reserve. Your guide is Terry Mitcham, a well-respected birding expert who has written books and magazine columns and is the bird recorder for the local Natural History Society.
The day runs from 9.30am to 4pm from the Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre at Egleton and costs £15 per person. Book at www.lrwt.org.uk.
What to look for this November
- Whooper swans gliding across still water, their bugling calls echoing through cold mornings.
- Geese passing overhead in noisy V-formations, with wigeon, teal and pintail gathering on sheltered pools.
- Grey herons waiting along the reed fringes, and kingfishers easier to spot as the waterside vegetation dies back.
- Redwings and fieldfares from Scandinavia and Iceland feasting on hedgerow berries.
- Starlings gathering in ever larger numbers, hinting at the murmurations to come.
- If you’re lucky, an otter moving silently along quiet waterways at dawn or dusk.
November rewards slower walks and careful observation. Wrap up warm, and you’ll find the countryside never truly falls asleep.
