WE HAD TO GO AND SEE THE OSPREYS.

As normal Richard and myself had our afternoon out on Thursday the 9th and he arrived at our house at 14.00 hrs so we decided to have a trip through the normal Little Owl sites but not to hang about at any of them and head for Rutland Water.

Yes as I reported in my updates in my last blog, the Manton Bay Ospreys have returned. 33/11 was the first to arrive very closely followed by the female. When the male returned to the nest site, he found a pair of Egyptian Geese in attendance, who had apparently just produced an egg. They were however attacked with great gusto by 33 who virtually knocked one of the geese off the nest in one of his attacks, they then however left the nest. Having seen his escapades whilst we were on site I can't say as I blame them. On our visit it appears that 33 has decided that any Egyptian goose is going to try to take the nest back. We had one swimming innocently across the bay but towards the nest and the results of this are shown below. It was certainly entertaining to watch. The previous Manton Bay male 5R/04 had a thing against Cormorants and would take great delight in knocking them out of the tree in front of Waderscrape Hide.

On our walk down to the hide we passed Deep Water hide and Tufted Duck hide but nothing was seen at either so we carried on through to Waderscrape and sure enough both Ospreys were on the nest, lovely to see. They had obviously had a very slow journey back due to the weather conditions on route. The satellite tagged bird 30/05 had taken 21 days on the journey, this being an extra 7 days to normal. 

Having taken a good few images we set off to walk back to the Lyndon Centre car park to try and visit the Little Owl sites we had seen no birds at as on the outbound journey we had a very lean time only seeing two birds , one at Site 2 and on at Site 12. We did however see a Barn Owl sitting in the front of its nest site which was wonderful to see. You will also see below that one of our sites has had a disaster Site 17 where the area around and above the nest hole has collapsed and fell onto the rest of the tree, this we made another trip back to on the 10th as we had to be sure no birds had got trapped in the hole which they hadn't, in fact the farmers wife felt sure she saw one fly away as she drove down the road towards the site.

After Little Owling we sat in the car in the area where we had seen the Barn Owl last week. We sat and had our tea and no signs of the bird, then after we had finished it appeared flying down the ditch line as previous, across the road and along the hedge line behind us. But we had again seen the bird. 

Buzzard, Our Garden.

We see Buzzards on a regular basis flying over the garden, as a rule by the time I have manged to get into the house, get the camera, check the settings and get back out they are long gone but this one however staid a little longer so I could get some images.  

Waderscrape Hide, Manton Bay, Rutland Water.

The site that greeted us on our arrival at the hide with both birds in attendance on the nest. Unfortunately it was sunny and we were looking straight into the sun, not the best, we should have walked down to Shallow Water hide where I am sure we would have got a lot better shots.

This shot is taken at a distance of 320 metres, the below are at about 350 metres.

Osprey 33/11 Starting His Attack on the Egyptian Goose.

Sorry about the quality of the following images but we were shooting directly into the sun, not the best.

The dots are splashes of water flying into the air and the hump in the water is where the goose has dived under the surface to get out of the way. 

He flew by and immediately turned around and as you can see the goose also dived again very quickly by the splashes.

He passed and again turned back and had another go at the poor goose who like a fool was still when above water swimming towards the nest, 

Turned again and returned with his legs forward and talons also forward and turned again and did another circle. 

He was determined to get the goose but at last it got the message and went the other way. 

33 back on the nest, the intruder sent on its way.

Female on the nest. no ring believed to be a Scottish bird. Image taken from the television in the hide. 

Mallard to the front of Waderscrape Hide.

Common but pretty bird. 

Reed Bunting, Waderscrape Hide.


Very busy bird all the time we were at the hide.

We all sat in the hide waiting for 33 to decide to see these away. 

Red Kites near Little Owls site No.9.

We stopped on our way out to Rutland at the site and two Red Kites appeared. Suddenly a third came on the scene and it looked as if the first bird was being chased by the second and third. 

These birds were well into the distance but they then all went in different directions. 

Little Owl Site No. 2.

This little fellow had tucked himself well in the nest hole. We were not sure as to whether the weather was a bit warm for them. 

Little Owl Site No. 9.

Again here we only saw the one bird. 

Little Owl Site No. 7.

Richard spotted the bird and then it flew to the left and I eventually found it. We had to move the car and shoot through a very small gap. Only saw the one bird. 

Little Owl Site No. 17.

Or what is left of it. We returned on the Friday night being concerned as to birds being trapped in the nest hole. They could get out if it had happened whilst they were in the hole. 

Site as it was previously.



Thank you for your visit.