Last week I visited Rutland Water with friends from the Wildlife Art Society
International.
It was a typically April day, between showers and sunshine, but it was good to see
and hear many spring migrant birds, including chiff-chaff, willow warbler, blackcap,
swallow, house martin, sand martin, and of course the Ospreys.

We were able to see a close-up of both of the Ospreys in the artificial nest on a tall
pole by watching the live web-cam in the visitor centre, and were delighted to see
that so far they have three eggs to hatch.

We then walked around parts of the Water and visited various hides, allowing us
further views of all the birds.
Other parts of the Water gave us views of waders such as redshank & greenshank,
and a little Egret.
The woods were full of clumps of primroses, and the emerging leaves on the trees
were all encouraging signs of spring.