Rutland is a wonderful place for Nature lovers, as I write this on a bitterly cold afternoon in January I have come in from the farm in the Welland Valley having seen a kingfisher, a buzzard, a pair of red kites, a little egret, yellow hammers, wrens, long tailed tits goldfinches, redwings, swans (13 of them!) and lapwing. This list could just have easily included my much loved resident barn owl who often takes ethereal silent flight ahead of me along the river at dawn or dusk, but it was the wrong time of the day! Harringworth village is a great place to start a walk along the Welland, it is about 5km to Barrowden where you will find a lovely community shop which does excellent home made drinks and cakes, or the pub for a refreshing pint on the village green!

We have otters on the farm but they are so secretive that I have to be without the dogs and an approaching from down wind to have any chance of seeing them. There have been recent sightings of otters at Rutland Water, where you will also find yourself elbow deep in waders and other water birds. Its hard to talk about Rutland Water and nature without talking about the Ospreys which are majestic and well worth seeking out if you visit in summer. If you are simply looking to whet your appetite or indeed dreaming of Rutland you can look at them on the web cam during the summer using this link https://www.mangolinkcam.com/webcams/birds/osprey-rutland-water.html

The Eyebrook reservoir is not particularly accessible as it was owned by British Steel, but if you take the road from Stoke Dry to Stockerston not only is the view lovely, but there is often a lot of birds on the shore and in the water. I could also recommend carrying on up the hill from Stockerston, and turning left to Great Easton where you will find our friends at Eyebrook Wild Bird Feeds https://www.eyebrookwildbirdfeeds.co.uk/ who sell their own farm produced seed, and a lovely range of gifts for the birder or nature lover in your life. Great Easton also happens to have a lovely pub so why not stop in for something to refresh you?