A VISIT TO EGLETON AND BARNACK HILLS AND HOLES RESERVE.

I decided on Monday the 15th of August to have an extra visit to Rutland Water and have an afternoon looking for Damselflies and Dragonflies, I managed to get away from home by about 12.30 hrs and headed straight for the Egleton Centre with a slight diversion to the vets to collect some medication for one of our dogs. I arrived at about 13.45 hrs and after booking in I went straight round to the dipping pond, which has in previous years been very productive, but this year not very good and afraid to say it let me down again. I then got on my way towards the Woodland Walk and the hides associated with it, and after a short walk through the Bird Fair marquees and all the workmen putting everything together for the weekend, I started on my way down through the Woodland. I soon was seeing plenty of Dragonflies but as usual not many were landing, I was seeing Hawkers and Darters all over the place and after a short time and visiting the hides, I made my way towards Lagoon 3 and Shoveler Hide, just outside to the side of the ramp something caught my eye, not very big and not a shape I was able to recognise, was a fly. After trying to find out myself as to what I had found, I in the end contacted Sarah Proud at the Volunteer Centre, who is our on site expert who e-mailed back saying it was a fly from the Ichneumon family, impossible to say as to which but at least this was a start and she also gave me a link onto hopefully the real experts, so I forwarded a copy of the image to them, so watch this space. 

Then Richard and myself had our normal Thursday afternoon trip out, it was my turn to drive and Richard arrived at 12.45 hrs and we got on our way, Richard had seen that Chalkhill Blue Butterflies had been seen  at the Hills and Holes Reserve at Barnack near to Stamford so we set our course to go straight through and Little Owl on our return journey. Richard was on duty at Bird Fair on the Friday morning so we didn't want to be late back, he would have to get up by 05.00 hrs to be on site in time. 

On arriving at Barnack the Reserve was easy to find and we were soon walking round but initially hardly anything Butterfly like was seen, however after leaving the outside path to the reserve and following some paths across the centre, I eventually found what we were looking for and called Richard over as he was walking an adjacent path running parallel with mine. These are most certainly a very pretty Butterfly even thought we were a little late in the season and the wings were getting a little torn and tattered. We spent a couple of hours on site with the Butterflies and Dragonflies. This is most certainly a very productive area for the future, with signs showing areas of Wild Orchids and many other wild flowers so next year we will be visiting again and earlier in the season.

We then had a quick visit to Bloody Oaks Quarry, a site near Empingham Village, a site Richard had visited with Sarah some weeks previously so on our way by we had a quick walk around, its only a very small site and would be very easy to drive by on the road. From here we had a quick stop at Little Owl Site No.11 and then onto Site No. 9 for a well earned tea and saw a Juvenile sitting in the nest hole but no signs of the adults. After this we carried on through our normal sites but no more birds were seen and we were home by a reasonable time so Richard could get home and be up early the following morning.   

As an update on the Manton Bay Ospreys, T6 got on her way migrating on Monday last, the  15 th of August, she has not been seen since, we wish her good luck on this perilous journey.  Also T7 has also got on his way on the 18th, so we have 33, Maya and T8 still in Manton Bay. Must have a quick visit before they have all migrated. 

RUTLAND WATER,
Egleton Reserve.
Woodland Walk.
15 th August.

Speckled Wood Butterfly. Female.

Many of these flying about but this one has the least damage to the wings. 

Common Darter, Immature Female.

On the walk I ws seeing these flying all over the place, some were even up high in the trees. 

Southern Migrant Hawker, Female.

Saw considerably more Brown Hawkers but managed no decent images of them.  

Ruddy Darter, Male.

Ruddy Darters were again all over the Reserve area in large numbers, great to see that after such a slow start in seeing Dragonflies, they seem to be making up for lost time.  

Common Darter, Female.

Fly from the Ichneumon Family, waiting to find out which it is.
Anybody any ideas???.

This is the fly I mentioned above. Total length is probably only 16 mm to the end of what appears to be its sting. This is flying along the handrail alongside the ramp up to Shoveler Hide .
    

Peacock Butterfly, on Flowers outside the Egleton Centre.

Couldn't resist an image, first time I have noticed how colorful the underside of the wings are.

HILLS AND HOLES RESERVE.

Barnack.

18 th August.

Another Wild Flower I 'm not Sure as to What It Is.

Such a beautiful flower, you helped me last time Margaret, hopefully you can look in your book again and come up with an answer.

Six Spotted Burnet, landed on some more of the same flowers. 

Common Blue Butterfly, Male. 

To me this is a stunning butterfly.

Chalkhill Blue Butterfly, Male.

As you can see the wings are not perfect but what a stunning Butterfly, so pleased we visited the site and found them.

Chalkhill Blue Butterfly, Female.

Again a stunning butterfly, the wings on this female in far better condition. 

Under wing pattern on the female. 

Field Grass hopper. 

Small White Butterfly, Female.

Common Darter, Male.

We saw a reasonable number of Darters around the site, and were informed by a lady that some of these were female Ruddy Darters, I personally didn't see any. 

Small Skipper, Bloody Oaks Quarry.

We only had a very quick visit to this site as we wanted to get on our way home and visit the Little Owl Sites and also have our teas. After taking this image and walking back to the car we saw a Lizard sitting on a stump, unfortunately it also saw us and was away.



Thank you for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed the images as much as I did in getting them.