We again ventured out for our Thursday visit to our Little Owls and Rutland Water. The weather was not perfect and the light was awful, but we still needed our outing. It was my turn to drive so Richard arrived at 13.30 hrs and got on our way as quick as possible and headed towards Rutland.
We visited our Little Owl sites on the outward trip calling at all our sites and saw birds at site Nos 2, saw a bird but got no image as it went around the other side of the tree, we then saw a bird at Site No 6 and got some images. We then moved onto site No 9 and saw an advanced juvenile farther down the field from the nest site, we managed to get some images but mine were no good, the bird was buried in foliage and unclear to see. After that we saw a bird at Site No. 15 and again managed some images.
We had decided to go directly to the Lyndon Centre as we wanted to say a fond farewell to the female Osprey at Manton Bay but on arrival we were met by Paul saying "your two and a half hours late, she's gone".
So at last all the Manton Bay Ospreys are heading South, as you saw from my previous Blog S3 came back and was fed by 33 until Wednesday when she left in the morning and this time did not return, she was closely followed by 33, I think he thought get out of here whilst you can in case his daughter decided to return again. The bird fitted with the satellite tracker {30/05} left Rutland on Sunday and by Wednesday was 75 miles South East of Madrid, looking this morning at the track she was South of Marrakesh so she is really covering the ground.
So after a chat with Paul we decided to visit the Egleton Reserve and have a walk about.
We saw no point in looking for Dragonflies, the weather and light were awful so we set forth to Lagoon 3. On arrival we could see Green Sandpipers which by the end of our visit to the hide we had six. We also saw a couple of Redshank and out on the main Lagoon {so it said on the board} were two thousand Tufted Ducks. After we had been in the hide for about half an hour I spotted an Osprey so we both fired away, Richard has faired better than me, I only managed one reasonable image, settings totally wrong, unfortunately when you see a bird with not much time before it disappears, you just have to shoot.
We then visited Lagoon 4 and sat on the T post in the middle of the Lagoon was the Osprey so I manged some stationary images, I think this will be the last Osprey we will see until next March.
After about another hour we left Rutland Water and headed towards home spending time at some Little Owl sites and having our tea at site 9. No more Little Owls were seen so we finished up getting home reasonably early.
After down loading the images from Thursday. I decided on Sunday to make another quick visit to Rutland Egleton Reserve and hopefully get some better quality images, and with the sun being out hopefully some Dragonflies.
We visited our Little Owl sites on the outward trip calling at all our sites and saw birds at site Nos 2, saw a bird but got no image as it went around the other side of the tree, we then saw a bird at Site No 6 and got some images. We then moved onto site No 9 and saw an advanced juvenile farther down the field from the nest site, we managed to get some images but mine were no good, the bird was buried in foliage and unclear to see. After that we saw a bird at Site No. 15 and again managed some images.
We had decided to go directly to the Lyndon Centre as we wanted to say a fond farewell to the female Osprey at Manton Bay but on arrival we were met by Paul saying "your two and a half hours late, she's gone".
So at last all the Manton Bay Ospreys are heading South, as you saw from my previous Blog S3 came back and was fed by 33 until Wednesday when she left in the morning and this time did not return, she was closely followed by 33, I think he thought get out of here whilst you can in case his daughter decided to return again. The bird fitted with the satellite tracker {30/05} left Rutland on Sunday and by Wednesday was 75 miles South East of Madrid, looking this morning at the track she was South of Marrakesh so she is really covering the ground.
So after a chat with Paul we decided to visit the Egleton Reserve and have a walk about.
We saw no point in looking for Dragonflies, the weather and light were awful so we set forth to Lagoon 3. On arrival we could see Green Sandpipers which by the end of our visit to the hide we had six. We also saw a couple of Redshank and out on the main Lagoon {so it said on the board} were two thousand Tufted Ducks. After we had been in the hide for about half an hour I spotted an Osprey so we both fired away, Richard has faired better than me, I only managed one reasonable image, settings totally wrong, unfortunately when you see a bird with not much time before it disappears, you just have to shoot.
We then visited Lagoon 4 and sat on the T post in the middle of the Lagoon was the Osprey so I manged some stationary images, I think this will be the last Osprey we will see until next March.
After about another hour we left Rutland Water and headed towards home spending time at some Little Owl sites and having our tea at site 9. No more Little Owls were seen so we finished up getting home reasonably early.
After down loading the images from Thursday. I decided on Sunday to make another quick visit to Rutland Egleton Reserve and hopefully get some better quality images, and with the sun being out hopefully some Dragonflies.
EGLETON RESERVE.
 |
Crane Fly, Dipping Pond. This was the time of year when I really enjoyed trout fishing at Rutland Water, the Daddy Longlegs really brought the rainbows up to the surface. This is the first time I have tried for an image and I'm reasonably happy with the result. You can see the counter balance stubs on the right behind the main wings. |
 |
Southern Hawker, Dipping Pond. I had only been in the area for a couple of minutes when this dragonfly appeared and landed, so managed a couple of stationary images and then it flew. |
 |
Common Darter, Female Near Egleton Centre. Saw a large number of darters all over the reserve. |
 |
Common Darter, Male, Near Osprey Hide. Probably no surprise to anyone that I'm very fond of Dragonflies. |
 |
Very fond of the pattern in the wings. |
 |
Red Admiral, Dipping Pond. |
 |
Southern Hawker, Dipping Pond. Again tried and this time a bit more successful in catching one flying. |
 |
Probably should have wound the ISO up to 2000, these taken at 1250. |
 |
Then another one appeared. |
 |
After this image they both went away over the trees so I headed towards the bird hides. |
 |
Common Darter, Male Near Shoveler Hide. Love the eyes and wings. |
 |
Heron, Shoveler Hide, {Thursday} One of the few images used from Thursday. |
 |
Lagoon 3 from Shoveler Hide. All the birds you can see are Tufted Ducks and carry on around to the left, on the board at the centre it said 2000 Tufted Duck Lagoon 3. Must admit we didn't do a check count. |
 |
Shoveler Duck, Sandpiper Hide. {Sunday} Bird was about 50 metres out in the Lagoon, in winter plumage. |
 |
Then decided to have a shake. |
 |
Green Sandpiper, Shoveler Hide. {Sunday} Saw the birds initially at the far end of the small area of water in front of the hide, they eventually moved a bit closer to the hide. |
 |
A bit muddy just here!! |
 |
A very pretty bird, saw six of them by the time I left the hide. |
 |
Lapwing, Shoveler Hide. {Sunday} The sheen on its back fascinated me so had to take an image. |
 | |
Redshank, Shoveler Hide. {Thursday}. Again saw several of these birds on both visits.
Ospreys.
|
 |
Osprey, Shoveler Hide. {Thursday}. I think this will be the last Osprey we will see this year. Only image that was anything like, you can see it is carrying a large trout head first. |
 |
Osprey Lagoon 4, Sandpiper Hide. At least I had a second chance with the bird attempting to eat its trout on the T post. |
 |
At one point in the shot above, we thought the bird was going to drop the fish but all is under control in this image, this is when we left for the car park.
Little Owls.
|
 |
Little Owl Site No. 6. This image taken on Thursday. when we arrived no bird was to be seen and as we were about to drive away, this bird arrived, where from we didn't see. |
 |
What a difference the sun makes, this image on Sunday, shows how they are creatures of habit. |
 |
Little Owl Site No. 15. This taken on Sunday, bird sat in the tree watching me intently. |
 |
Red berries, Christmas card image. |
 |
Little Owl Site No. 15. This taken on Thursday, much lower in the tree and sound asleep. Sorry about the fence wire. |
 |
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly and Wasp. Nr Little Owl Site No. 13. Unusual combination, the Butterfly did a runner. |
 |
Another Shield bug at home, {stink bug, are they trying to tell us something???. Thank you for your visit, it has taken two visits to get this blog to this stage, hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have in putting it together. Please leave a comment, I will reply to them all. |
