Driving over to Martin's, we loaded up his VW Golf with three weeks luggage and set off pretty much on time. The weather was fine and today's main destination was to be Rutland Water, named after what was once England's smallest county. But the water itself is, by surface area, the largest reservoir in England, but the bird reserve area takes up one little corner. It's main attraction for us was the presence of ospreys and we set off for the Dunlin hide, which gives the best view of them. Having said that, their nests were pretty distant but it was a joy to see them fly. Photography was mainly focussed on the more regular species like greylag geese, egyptian geese [below], little egrets and the like. Pretty bog-standard stuff, but the light was nice on them. Eventually, it was time to make tracks, but I'm aware that we only visited a small part of the reserve, so maybe a future visit is in order?
Martin had booked up tonight's accommodation - the White Bull in the Lincolnshire village of Coningsby, but when we arrived the place was firmly locked with the promised note on the door showing a phone number to ring for the guy to open the place up was totally absent. So I was soon on the phone to a nearby hotel of superior standing - the Petwood in Woodhall Spa is one that is surely used for Royal Air Force squadron reunions with the panelled corridor walls full of paintings of aircraft such as the wartime Avro Lancaster. Not surprising really, when you consider that the local, now disuded, airfield was the home to 617 'Dambusters' squadron and that the hotel itself was used as an officers' mess in the war years.
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