THREE TRIPS OUT AND A SOFTWARE CRASH!!.

Might appear an unusual title but I will explain. 

Our local Bird Club had an outing out last Saturday the 27th June to Croxall Lakes and the surrounding area led by Richard. It turned out to be eventful with several birds and eventually a Mink taking a rabbit {this I missed as I was attempting to get images of a Banded Demoiselle Damselfly{thank you Richard}, and failed miserably unfortunately}. 

My next visit out was on Monday evening when I went owling and saw birds at Little Owl Sites Nos 1, 5 and 9, I also heard a bird at our New Site 18 but could not locate it however I tried. These were the only Sites I visited so not bad going.

Then on Thursday the 2nd July we were called in for an Osprey Duty, 13.00 hrs until 17.00 hrs. I being unable to get to Rutland Water for 13.00 hrs, we decided to go separately, so Richard had an early start and did his owling on his outbound trip, me arriving at Waderscrape Hide for duty at approx 14.15 hrs haven driven straight from home, with a temperature of 26 degrees and very humid, it was a sticky warm walk to the hide. We had an eventful duty  as we had a lady with us for training, and with telling her all she had to log, and how to treat visitors etc we thought we had missed the male 33/11 leaving the nest site only to find he was on the nest with the female approximately 10 minutes later???. Richard left the hide to set off home at about 16.00 hrs so I finished the shift as he had started as a singleton.

At the end of the shift I spent some time at Shallow Water Hide seeing if I could get any decent shots of the Ospreys flying but to no avail. The male Osprey left to go fishing whilst I was on duty and did not return before leaving Shallowwater Hide, but I will have to wait for another time, we hopefully will get them closer at some time. I left Rutland Water at about 17.45 hrs and went looking for Little Owls and also to have some tea.

I spent the rest of the evening visiting our Little Owl Sites but only seeing one bird at Little Owl Site No 9, when arriving at the site the bird sat in the nest hole entrance, managed one or two images and then it poured with rain, only for a short time but the bird did not appear again neither did any others on my trip back.

For those of you that read the comments section at the bottom of the Blog, you will notice that my farmer friends wife Margaret has found another Little Owl Site at the Farm, this original site being Site 13, so I will with her help try to get some images soon of the new birds, she also thought she had seen a juvenile so even better.

I then had some time taking images in our back garden and a small lake to the rear of our land and this turned out to be eventful with an Emperor Dragonfly. 

I then went to download my images and this went successfully until I went to open an image, the programme crashed and just kept shutting down, I could still access and look at older images but all the recent images crashed. So I emailed Nikon who emailed a new programme link, so I reloaded the programme but to no avail and Nikon are still attempting to find the problem. So I must apologise as some of the quality is not as good as I would like, but I am managing using another Nikon programme Capture NX-D as a stopgap.



  Croxhall Lakes.

Adult Common Tern and Young.

We watched these birds for a while, the young was continually food begging and the adult flew by and fed the youngster . This shot as the adult approached. 

Feeding as passing by. 

Fed, you can just make out the food in the juveniles beak. 

Scorpion Fly.

Looks dangerous but apparently harmless.

Rutland Water. 

Sedge Warbler, Waderscrape Hide.

Appeared to feeding young to the left of the hide, very busy all the time we were on duty. 

Osprey Family.

Male on the camera post, female and young on the nest. 

Female Osprey, Waderscrape Hide.

Female flying around Manton Bay, unfortunately it didn't come that close. 

Landing on the T post awaiting males return with a fish. 

 Young on the Nest, Manton Bay.

The young were ringed last Monday, 29th June and this shows S1, a female wing flapping, S2 is a male and S3 a female.

Black Tailed Skimmer Dragonfly.
Orthetrum Cancellatum.

Seen on the track from the hides back to the car park, could not get close at all, every time I moved it flew up the track so image taken at a distance with the lens at 500 mm. 

Water Vole, Waderscrape Hide.

These images taken last week but not put on the blog.

Apparently Formed by the Larva of a Spindle Ermine Moth.

Large numbers of nettles covered with this web, they can cover large areas when a real infestation occurs.

Our Garden and Local Small Lake.

Elephant Hawk Moth, Our Garden.

Even though a little worn around the edges, still a most beautiful moth.

Common Damselfly with Micro Moth.

This taken at a small lake to the rear of our property.

Large Red Damselfly at Small Lake. 

Common Damselfly in Tandem. Small Lake. 

Large Skipper Butterfly.

Taken at the Small Lake, this time with wings closed. 

Emporer Dragonfly {Male}, Small Lake near Home.
Anax Imperator.

Spent an age trying to get an image of these dragonflies, several at the small lake but always on the move, eventually one came that bit closer and I managed these images. Never knowingly having seen one before so a first.

Really pleased with these flying shots, a lot of luck in getting them, wound up the ISO and closed down the f. stop. 

Little Owls.

Little Owl Site No. 1.

This shot taken on my trip out on the Monday evening, again without Richard. 

Little Owl Site No. 5. 

Again taken on the Monday evening.

Little Owl Site No. 9.

This taken on return journey home after duty at Rutland Water, took this image and then it poured with rain and the owl shot back into the hole.
After this rain I saw no more owls so headed home after eating my tea. 

Hare below nest tree, Little Owl Site No. 9.

Took this quickly before taking the image of the Little Owl. It ran down the field and under the nest hole.



Thank you for your visit, please excuse the image quality but hopefully by next week, Nikon will have sorted out my problem programme.