Waxwings & excellent winter Rutland

Monday 02/01 offered my last opportunity for birding before heading back to work. Bad times! However, with the forecast looking clear cold and sunny, all was good!

I began my day with a quick drive around Brackley looking for Waxwings, with numbers rapidly moving south. No luck for me, so I rewarded my efforts with the real thing, heading over to Roade in Northants, 100 yards from my old school in fact!

Like most Waxwing twitches it seems, this was a nice social occasion and good to see a few people I hadn't seen for a while, as well as a few new ones too. There were around 10 Waxwings present sitting up in trees or house TV aerials, before coming down to feed on berries together with a good gathering of Blackbirds too! 

This was my first proper Waxwing fix for quite some time and so inevitably, I ended up staying far longer than I intended! With good company and Waxwings to enjoy, why not eh!

Despite the sun being out, it was still absolutely freezing and it got to the point where my car heater seemed a more preferable option. So I set off north, up past Northampton and beyond, to Rutland Water. The main reason for heading to Rutland was to connect with a long-standing bogey bird of mine and an excellent inland record; a 1st-winter Surf Scoter that had appeared by the dam in recent days, associated loosely with a flock of Tufted Duck. I was also quite keen to do a bit of birding here too with plenty about.

My first stop inevitably, was the dam. I soon connected with the scoter, showing fantastically well about half way along. Occasionally it would have a dive and several times too it set off on a flight around the vast reservoir, before again appearing a few minutes later by the dam wall once again. The last one of these flights saw it disappear completely, however by this time I had certainly had my fill of views. The bird was strikingly brown in the sunlight, together with the distinct face markings and pale belly, set this out as a 1st-winter.

I finished my visit with a prolonged look at the North Arm of the reservoir. Here, there was some fantastic birding to be had. A single Slavonian Grebe was giving decent views offshore, while a couple of Black Necked Grebes were also on show, but much further out.

There were at least 3 Smew were in the area, including a cracking drake around the fishponds, as well as a couple of surprisingly illusive Great White Egrets.

It was just the general fantastic numbers of waterfowl present here that I also enjoyed. Scores of Wigeon & Teal, plenty of Goldeneye and quite a few of both Pintail & Goosander. A Redshank was also kicking about.

To finish it all off, everyone there enjoyed a fantastic Peregrine show as it appeared out of nowhere to smash a Tufted Duck into the water. Unfortunately I didn't see this, however I did gain some great views of it as it cruised past, before swooping low after one of the female Smew (nooo not the Smew!). Thankfully it got away and the Peg headed off. Fantastic!

My feet and hands had begun to feel painfully cold and so with a bit of a drive ahead of me, I set off back to Brackley, concluding a heck of a good day out!