4th Feb - cloudy morning, sunny intervals pm, 12C, light/mod westerly

I ventured off to the north arm of Rutland water particularly to see the wintering Grebes that have been there for a while.  I quickly found the Red-necked Grebe, but after prolonged searching I could not find the Black-necked and Slavonian Grebes.  Great-crested and Little Grebes were present, 2 Oystercatchers and 8 Redshank settled nearby. The usual selection of ducks were present, plenty of Goldeneye and Gadwall, several Egyptian Geese, but still no B-n or Slav Grebes.  After 2 hours I decided to head off to the Egleton reserve to see what was there.

Two redhead Smew were distant from the Sandpiper hide.  Lots of Gadwall, Shelduck, Teal, Shoveler, Pochard, Goldeneye and Pintail, one Little Egret was preening on an island.  A female Peregrine sat atop one of the Osprey platforms.  Several Song Thrush were singing and a Mistle Thrush was near the car park.

I decided to give it another go to find the Grebes back in the north arm so headed back the short distance to view from the fish ponds lane end.  Another birder was just leaving and told me he had just been watching them.  On searching, this time I quickly found a little group of grebes busily feeding, a good view showed them to be 3 Black-necked Grebes and one Slavonian, to see them together was really good and allowed their features to be compared well.

All the time one could hear the 'grunting' of Cormorant at there colony at the end of the fish ponds, a look when leaving showed there bulky untidy nests being attended to.