Header: Night Heron. West Africa.
Richard and myself did our usual shift at Rutland Water, on duty with the Osprey project. We even had three visitors from Australia in the hide, over the moon in seeing the Manton Bay pair of birds. They had been to other sites over the country without seeing a single bird so at least they went away happy { to say the least, ecstatic is more the word }. We did our usual route taking in as many little owl sites as possible and even though it was so hot a few birds were seen, I'm sure Richard will agree but it was really hot, 29 degrees in places. We had a trip down to Shallow Water hide on arrival after our compulsory ice cream and arrived at Waderscrape hide extremely warm and sweaty, luckily we had a lovely breeze which made things more comfortable. We had another visit from the Little Egret and male Osprey 33/11 gave us a fly past at a better than usual distance, so with a reasonable amount of cropping I have got so better than usual images, we are as a rule shooting at a distance of 300 to 350 metres.
When arriving to go on duty we were informed that this year we have had 5 nest sites at the reservoir and 11 fledged Ospreys. If Manton Bay had not been a disaster it would have been the most nest sites ever. Mind it looks good for next year with several other birds looking as if they will pair up.
Richard and myself did our usual shift at Rutland Water, on duty with the Osprey project. We even had three visitors from Australia in the hide, over the moon in seeing the Manton Bay pair of birds. They had been to other sites over the country without seeing a single bird so at least they went away happy { to say the least, ecstatic is more the word }. We did our usual route taking in as many little owl sites as possible and even though it was so hot a few birds were seen, I'm sure Richard will agree but it was really hot, 29 degrees in places. We had a trip down to Shallow Water hide on arrival after our compulsory ice cream and arrived at Waderscrape hide extremely warm and sweaty, luckily we had a lovely breeze which made things more comfortable. We had another visit from the Little Egret and male Osprey 33/11 gave us a fly past at a better than usual distance, so with a reasonable amount of cropping I have got so better than usual images, we are as a rule shooting at a distance of 300 to 350 metres.
When arriving to go on duty we were informed that this year we have had 5 nest sites at the reservoir and 11 fledged Ospreys. If Manton Bay had not been a disaster it would have been the most nest sites ever. Mind it looks good for next year with several other birds looking as if they will pair up.
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| Little Owl Site No 3. We are still only seeing one bird and feel that we have more than likely lost one of the pair. |
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| Little Owl Site No 9. Adult out and about siting on fence post just away from the nest site. |
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| Little Owl Site No 9. Juvenile sound asleep in the nest hole. He didn't realise we had been to see him. |
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| On our return from Rutland Water and getting late, we again passed by site 9 to find a juvenile sitting on a fence post farther down the field. |
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| Little Owl Site No 13. Had a visit to my farmer friend to see his sows farrowing, saw some beautiful piglets, very small and surprisingly noisy. He told me he had seen a little owl in one of the large barns but as we walked round to have a look I spotted him in a smaller barn and got a quick image. |
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| Male Osprey 33/11 on a closer than usual fly by. |
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| You can just make out his blue ring but not the number at this size. |
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| Little Egret with fish. |
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| With fish and splash. |
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| Fish just about to disappear . |
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| Trying for another. |
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