Red-necked At Rutland

 Alan Shorrock and I took a drive over to the dam at Rutland Water today in search of the juvenile Red-necked Grebe that has made this spot its home over the last couple of weeks. We had considered popping over last weekend but storm Darragh put a stop to that. No such weather worries today, there was a bit of a breeze but other than that nothing to worry about and the sun shone throughout our time there.

Red-necked Grebe

On arrival I had a quick chat with another birder and his news was good, the grebe was showing fairly close by and three Great Northern Divers were also present in the neighbourhood. A short walk  along the shore took us to the spot where the grebe was favouring and true to form it showed well, we watched it for some time and had some good views of it in decent light. The divers were nowhere near as obliging however, I had a few brief glimpses of at least two and probably all three birds but they were spending very little time on the surface and were difficult to see. One did eventually show for a little longer near the dam but it was too distant to photograph. Other birds in the general area included Goldeneyes and at least one Raven but there wasn't that much else to support the headliners.

Goldeneyes and Smew

Rather than visit the North Arm in search of the long staying Slavonian Grebe we chose instead to visit Eyebrook where the first Smew of the winter is currently residing. Saturdays here can be dodgy as there is often plenty of shooting on the neighbouring estate which causes lots of disturbance. The gun toting moron squad were doing a bit of recreational killing but it stopped fairly soon after we arrived. Alan found the drake Smew from the gate near Hollyoaks which while distant showed well enough in the sunlight. We drove around to the car park at Stoke Dry and managed to get better views of him though the light was not quite as good. Other decent birds on or around the reservoir included twenty plus Pintails, a few Dunlin and a large flock of Golden Plovers as well as a Kingfisher and Raven. We left feeling pretty satisfied with our day and a pint of festive ale in a local 'spoons added to that sense of enjoyment.

Raven, Kingfisher and Pintail