AN AFTERNOON WITH ARTHUR AND

 A VISIT TO THE EGLETON RESERVE.

This week Richard was on airport duty collecting his friends from Canada who have come over to see him and Lindsey with the intention of doing some bird watching around the country. Yesterday they visited Rutland Water plus our Little Owl Sites, all as Arthur and I had done on Thursday. Arthur and I saw one Little Owl, Richard and Co saw ten, this can't be right, sorry Arthur they were obviously saving themselves for the Saturday company.

That aside however Arthur is our local bird expert who I have mentioned before and has been out with me previously and came along with me to see hopefully some Little Owls and of course the Ospreys at Rutland Water. The Ospreys were very obliging flying around Manton Bay virtually the whole time we were on site, where as the Little Owls laid low and we managed just the single bird at Site No. 5.

On our outward trip we saw no Little Owls and arrived at Rutland Water at about 15.45 hrs and went into the Lyndon Centre to book in and have a quick chat with Paul Stammers. This following the visit of the television companies to celebrate the fledging of the 100th Osprey Juvenile since the project commenced, what a milestone and achievement for all who have been involved since the project commenced. 

After that we set on our way towards Waderscrape Hide and the Ospreys,taking a few images on our way down. At Waderscrape Hide the young were very active and kept having short flights around the nest but always returning to the nest initially. We then visited Shallow Water Hide and got a real treat from the young, we believe it was S1 that flew from the nest and washed her feet in the water and eventually landed on a section of dead tree on the opposite shore of the bay. She was then followed by her brother S2 who like wise landed on the dead tree and eventually flew around and landed next to her. S 3 was also taking flights and just prior to us leaving all three young returned to the nest.

After about an hour we had a slow walk back to Waderscrape Hide and then a steady walk back to the car park.

We had a bit of tea and then got on our way to see if we could find any Little Owls and eventually stopped at Site No. 9 so I could finish my tea and lady luck was not with us as we only saw a single bird on our return journey.

Thanks Arthur for the company,it was good to be out with you, sorry for the lack of Little Owls but hopefully the Ospreys made up for any disappointment.

I then decided on Saturday as it was a better day, to have another visit to Rutland Water but to go to the Egleton Reserve to see if we had many Dragonflies etc. I left home at about 13.30 hrs and was back home for 17.00 hrs so not a long visit. I saw a good number of Dragonflies, Brown Hawkers, Common Darters, Ruddy Darters and even some Emperor Dragon flies at Mallard Hide.

 Lyndon Reserve.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, Lyndon Reserve.

Again saw a good number of Butterflies but it was somewhat windy and they were not easy to capture. 

Common Darter Dragonfly, {Male}.

This seen near Waderscrape Hide, we also saw an Emperor Dragonfly as we stood talking to the two volunteers going on duty, it actually flew around Arthur twice. From previous experience they dont land very often.

Not sure as to what Caterpillar it is.

I am still looking for the answer but as you can see, we had the larger caterpillars to the right, but the web was full with smaller ones to the left.

Very distinctive colour, any ideas from anybody????

Egleton Reserve.

Common Darter {Male} Dragonfly.

Saw these in reasonable numbers, but very few landing for any amount of time.

Immature Common Blue Damselfly.

Seeing large numbers of Damselflies all over the reserve.

Adult Common Blue Damselfly. 

Twin - lobed Deerfly {Horsefly} and  Large White Butterfly.

This is a better image of the fly than I got last week against the window in Waderscrape Hide.

Ruddy Darter Dragonfly.

Beautiful dragonfly but in an awful position to get an image, I finished up hanging over a fence!!

Just Emerged Dragonfly.

A gentleman who was with me at the time I spotted this thought it was a Brown Hawker and I was not going to argue with him, he certainly appeared to be on the ball dragonfly wise.

Banded
 Banded Demoisselle Damselfly.

A very beautiful creature but unfortunately a long distance shot.

Ospreys at Manton Bay.

Osprey Juvenile S1 about to leave the Nest. Shallow Water Hide.

Washing her feet. 

And away to the dead tree farther along the shore. 

S2 who Had Sat in the Dead Tree Behind the Nest.

Flying up the Bay to join his Sister on the dead tree. 

As you can see by his swooping around, they are really enjoying the freedom that flying has given them. You can see the white edges to the flight feathers that the juveniles have. 

S1 to the Left and S2 having just landed to the right. 

S1 and S2 together. 

All three Juveniles on the nest.

This shot taken just as we were about to leave Shallow Water Hide.  

White Throat.

On walk back from Waderscrape Hide to the Car Park.

Little Owl. { In the Singular}

Little Owl Site No. 5.

 Not a good image but as this was the only one of the day??
Unfortunately the light was going but he sat out for us.


Thank you for your visit, not the best of post owl wise but will try harder next week. Please feel free to leave a comment.