OUT ON MY OWN AGAIN.

Richard and myself talked on Wednesday and decided we would have a visit to the Egleton Reserve on Thursday to look for some Hawker Dragonflies. Wednesday Evening my wife and I sat having our tea when she said oh, what's that and then declared she had broke a tooth, not down to my cooking might I add as she was having a sandwich she had prepared herself. This however meant and early call to the dentist who bless him, fitted her into his list on Thursday afternoon but thereby ending our trip out. 

Richard carried on with the visit and had an afternoon at Egleton which after talking with him turned out to have been successful with Dragonflies and Great White Egrets. So this made my mind up to follow his example and visit Rutland and the Egleton Reserve myself on the Friday afternoon.

After getting the dogs sorted out and my wifes lunch, I managed to get on my way by 12.30 hrs and again drove straight through to Egleton, my idea to Little Owl on my return. So arriving at Egleton at about 13.30 hrs and got on my way through to Lagoon 4 hoping to see some Dragonflies on my way and the again try to see the resident Peregrine Falcon, this had apparently been using the Osprey nest site so I headed for Dunlin Hide. On arriving near the hide I had Hawker Dragonflies every where, but would they land!!, when one eventually landed it was immediately disturbed by another Hawker and this carried on whilst I watched for about 20 minutes. So I made my way up the ramp to the hide with Dragonflies even landing on me but not where I could get any images. When getting into the hide, I met up with a couple who had come down from Manchester and were spending some time staying at a relations house nearby. They had been on the Lagoon for about half an hour and had not seen the Peregrine, so after a while I headed for Plover Hide and then to Bittern Hide. Still chasing Dragonflies but still to no avail with the Hawkers, so I again headed for Shoveler Hide where I again met up with the couple form Manchester. After I had left Dunlin Hide they had eventually found the Peregrine but a long distance away and kept moving on the side of one of the Islands, most of the time hiding away.

After being in Shoveler Hide for a short time, Tim Appleton arrived with a hello John, so I introduced him to the couple, Richard had told me that Tim had been out on a mower the previous day so I couldn't resist saying have you been disturbing everything mowing again, to which he answered, "yes but I have just driven the mower into a ditch and got it stuck", I hope you haven't come here for a push I said, made my excuses and left the hide and headed towards Crake and Lapwing Hides. I then returned to Shoveler Hide and spent some more time again with the couple and then headed for the hedge that Richard had seen the Hawkers by, but no luck for me as it was reasonably windy and they were flying about  approaching the hedge and then flying over it. I even tried the other side of the hedge but still no luck.

After this I headed for the car park and headed towards our Little Owl Sites and also another visit for the Barn Owl and my tea. I eventually saw a Little Owl at Site 9, a single bird sat in the nest hole, so after this I travelled through  the rest of our sites on the way to the new Barn Owl site but no more birds were seen. I arrived for the Barn Owls a little on the late side at 18.35 hrs and quickly ate my tea only to be then joined by the farmers with a tractor and trailer who then commenced moving bales away on the trailer, so I decided as it was starting to get dark to make the best of it and head for home. I called past our other Little Owl Sites but no more birds were seen, mind it was virtually dark.        

EGLETON RESERVE.
23 rd September.

Common Darter, Female,  Near Redshank Hide.

Numerous sat on this section of fence but no Hawkers.

Common Darter Near Crake Hide on a new section of fence replaced over Winter. 

Damselfly.{ Not Sure as to the Specie.}


This sat on another section of the replaced fence, it has a grey body with a line of blue on its back.

Ruddy Darter, Male, again on the new section of fence. 

Common Darter. 

Comma Butterfly.

This and several Butterflies were in this section of hedge where Richard had seen and photographed the Hawkers. 

Pintail Duck,  Male in Eclipse, Shoveler Hide.

Many of these were on Lagoon 4 but a considerably farther distance away from the hide. This one pointed out to me by Tim.

Grey Heron, Crake Hide.

As I opened the shutter, the bird was immediately alert and started to fly away as the images below show. 

A quick shake and the water droplets. 

Great White Egrets, Shoveler Hide.

On my second visit to the hide, these two birds arrived after about five minutes, not the best of images as they caught me talking and not watching, so no negative EV put in.

Once below the tree line better images, this bird coming in to land with the feathers ruffled on its neck. 

The second bird coming in to land. 

And down. 

By this time a third bird had landed on the far side of the Lagoon, some 600 metres away. The other two spent most of the time flying about. 

These images were taken over about an hour and they hardly ever landed, that is until below. 

This bird attempted to land at the end of one of the islands, as you can see we have full air brakes on as getting very close to a disaster. 

And lands with a splash, frightens the Coot and way out of its depth. After this it managed to get onto the side of the island. 

This was just as the Egrets and myself left the Lagoon, you can just make out its tongue.

At least this week I managed to get the flight shots. 

Little Owl Site No. 9.

This the only owl I saw on my rip out, I will have to spend some more time concentrating on the Little Owls, Richard had seen two on the Thursday.

OUR GARDEN.
22 nd September.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly.

Sitting on an Hydrangea. this flower starts as white and slowly turns pink.  

A bit closer to the head and flower.




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

A VISIT TO EGLETON.

As Richard was away with his wife for a few days to celebrate her birthday, I pondered as to where to visit for the Thursday visit out.In the end I decided to visit the Egleton Centre at Rutland. On arrivial I booked in with David who told me he had been to Lagoons 3 and 4 in the morning and had seen numerous waders plus a Peregrine Falcon. I therefore decided to start by visiting the new dipping pond to see if any Dragonflies were about, totally the opposite direction to which being recommended and of course being new very little was about so I carried onto Mallard Hide, and then round to Snipe Hide  and Wet Meadow, from here I carried on round to Harrier Hide but after seeing very little, decided perhaps to follow Davids recommended route so I returned to the Egleton Centre and carried on past and through the Woodland walk and made my way to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon 4. Here I met up with a couple of gents who put me onto to numerous birds, all of which were silly distances away from the Hide so after a short time in the Hide I said my farewell and headed for Plover Hide. On arriving I had hoped to be closer to the Peregrine  but as is usual, I had moved towards the bird and the bird had moved onto the Osprey nest site at the opposite end of the Lagoon just where I had just come from.!!.

After this decided to call it quits and headed for Shoveler Hide on Lagoon 4, as a rule I manage some reasonable images from this Hide I thought so in I went. I found several people in the hide, two ladies to my left, one of which spent much of the time coughing and causing general chaos, at the other end of the hide was one of the gents from Sandpiper Hide, who had been joined by his wife. They finished up sitting next to me after the coughing lady departed and turned out to be a lovely couple who were visiting Rutland on the way home to Southampton Water having been visiting Kielder Water. After about an hour I started to make my way back towards the car park and away towards some of the Little Owl sites and also a Barn Owl site we were put onto on Sunday evening.

I saw one Little Owl at Site 9, and then went straight to the area where a Barn Owl had been seen and set myself in a spot where I had a good view of the area where the bird had been seen, I got stuck into my tea when one of the farmers visited me and told me the area where she had seen the Owl, this was followed about five minutes later by the other farmer driving by, this being the farmer where the birds are in his old milking parlour and again another ten minute chat and then he was away. I sat this site out until it was virtually dark and no bird was seen but both the farmers see the birds on a regular basis, so watch this space.



EGLETON RESERVE.
15th September. 

Ruddy Darter, Female, Near to the new Dipping Pond.

Ruddy Darter, Male.

Saw many Darters sitting on the fence posts, this one near to Snipe Hide. 

This one near to Plover hide. 

Common Darter, Female.

This near to Snipe Hide. We appear to not have the numbers of Dragonflies in general this year as over previous. Saw Hawker Dragonflies but not in great numbers and they seemed reluctant to land. 

Common Darter, Male.

Speckled Wood Butterfly, Near Sandpiper Hide.

Again a reasonable number of these flying about. 

Comma Butterfly, between Sandpiper and Plover Hides.

These were also about in reasonable numbers.  

Red Admiral, near Shoveler Hide.

When I think back to when I was young, we used to see large number of these, this was only the second I saw whilst out.

  

Little Egret, Lagoon Four, Sandpiper Hide.

Again this week numerous birds around but not many close enough to get a decent image, a gent with a scope pointed out a Curlew Sandpiper, I think the first I have ever seen with its slightly downward curved bill.

 Ringed Plover.

These were about in reasonable numbers over the Lagoon, This being the closest at about sixty metres, such pretty little birds.

Canada Goose, Sandpiper Hide.

Taken just to keep my hand in at capturing flying birds, shame I forgot when I got to Shoveler Hide.

SHOVELER HIDE,

LAGOON FOUR.

Lapwing, Shoveler Hide.

I arrived at the hide after an unsuccessful visit to Plover Hide and found these birds to the front of the hide and got some quick images before looking round much.  

I then had a scan around the Lagoon as a Bittern had being flying round the Lagoon the previous afternoon. I soon spotted a Little Egret followed by two Great White Egrets so things at last looked a lot more promising. 

Green Sandpiper, Shoveler Hide.

Another real favourite of mine, such a pretty little bird. 

Little Egret.

This bird was stood on one of the islands to the front of the Hide, It then walked away and into the Lagoon. 

Great White Egret Number One.

Not the same bird as last week as no black on its bill. A bit of a rushed and distant image, the lady I mentioned  who was coughing had just stood up with her phone and the Egret was heading towards going behind an island, so it was a quick image in front of her before the bird disappeared from view, mind it was over 160 metres away, so not sure as to what picture she was hoping to get. 

Great White Egret, Number Two.
Again I think a different bird to last weeks, not so much black to the tip of the bill. Denise and David both call these birds Great Egrets.  

Looks here to be practising a ballet step.  

Followed by a stretch of the wings and neck. 

Then it turned around and repeated the whole process. 

It then walked towards the end of the wooden structure and this is where I got it wrong, yes the bird flew and my practise image at Lagoon Four was forgotten and I have six hopeless images of the bird flying towards the Little Egret, this when the G W E got close and the Little Egret flew onto the shore.  

Little Egret after Escape.

This is where the bird ended after the G W E flew at it. 

It then eventually made its way back into the Lagoon. A Little Egret is not a small bird, but this gives an idea as to how big the G W E is.




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