ANOTHER AFTERNOON AT RUTLAND WATER.

I decided to have another visit to the Egleton Reserve at Rutland for my afternoon visit this week. Following reports that a Cattle Egret and American Wigeon had been seen, the Egret at Fishponds and the Wigeon on Lagoon 2. I managed to see the Wigeon but no decent images to show for my efforts , on visiting Fishponds no one had seen the Egret during the afternoon.

On arriving at Egleton I had a walk through the hides and on arriving in Redshank Hide I met up with a gent I had seen on a regular basis at Cossington when we had the Short Eared Owls, so after a quick chat and a look from the hide we had a walk about for the afternoon.

We then visited Grebe Hide where an American Wigeon has been for a few weeks and with the help of another gent with his scope we managed to see this very stunning Drake, but when we tried for a photo, we all failed, the gent with the scope was digi scoping and he would look through his scope, get the bird in view, lift  his camera onto the scope and take a shot, to find no bird, we all three spent a considerable time and none of us had a clear and positive image, we must all be useless!!!!

We then visited Osprey Hide but nothing much was within reach so we headed for Sandpiper Hide, plenty of birds but all at a long distance, my friend tried a few shots but must admit I didn't bother.

We then moved onto Shoveler Hide where we could see plenty of ducks, the area to the front of the hide that is normally a shallow pool is virtually dry, not sure as to why this should be with all the rain we have had, so again all the birds were well away. Another gent who was in the hide said he had been in the hide the previous day and a Bittern had walked along the dry bank about 60 metres from the hide and walked about for about ten minutes, makes you sick, no sign during my visit.

We then walked onto Buzzard hide where we managed a few ducks and then onto Crake Hide where we were told a Water Rail had been seen earlier and whilst we were in the hide we heard it call but no bird was seen. A couple of Kingfishers were about but never landed anywhere useful for an image. 

After this I headed back towards the car park and a visit to Eyebrook Reservoir for my tea. My pal was going to Plover Hide  and then onto Bittern Hide, so we said our goodbyes and parted company, hopefully to meet again soon. 

Again unfortunately I saw no Little Owls in either direction, I hope once the leaves are away from the trees, hopefully I will start to find them again.

American Wigeon, Grebe Hide, Lagoon 2.

Myself and two other gents attempted for a good twenty minutes to get a decent, in fact any image of this Wigeon. It has been on the Lagoon for the best part of 3 weeks. It is a most delightful bird with a green stripe above its eye and a pale line down the forehead, I could see it in one of the gents scopes,but unfortunately never with the lens. The other gent with his new 600 mm prime lens on a new D5 also suffered  with the same problem as me, all we could put it down to was it must have been bum up when we took an image, eventually after searching through the images I found the ones below                                     

General consensus is the bird to the right of the upended duck is the American Wigeon. Must try harder on my next visit.

Silly distance image, and I was focusing on a duck six to the left. 

Cormorant, Crake Hide, North Arm.

Beautiful eye, but they sit so deep in the water, this one was hardly showing but continuously diving and swimming just under the surface, the fish must have been swimming very shallow.  

Little Egret, Crake Hide, North Arm.

This bird came just that little bit closer and managed to get an image of its head for my header. 

HERON, CRAKE HIDE, NORTH ARM.


Those of you that follow my blog on a reasonably regular basis will have realized I enjoy taking images of birds in flight. On arriving in the hide I found this Heron about 60 metres away and decided to give it time to see if it would fly and sure enough eventually it didn't disappoint.  

 First time ever, a head on view of what appears to be a three legged Heron

Which then after about ten minutes did as required and flew towards me and then turned and headed for the far bank. 

At this point I just kept the button pressed and took about 30 images.

 Here with full flaps and air brakes getting itself lined up to land.

Legs up and here we go. 

Both feet down, just got to get my balance sorted out. 

And that's it folks.

Then a quick move and it had a preen.

What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon getting these images.

Drake Wigeon in Eclipse. Crake Hide, North Arm. 

Only a few of these birds were visible from this hide, far more were on Lagoons 2 and 3.

Gadwall Drake, Buzzard Hide, Lagoon 3.

I always think they are a very stylish duck.

Just having a quick preen. 

Red Kite, Eyebrook Reservoir.

 Having had a good walk around the Egleton Reserve, I headed for Eyebrook for my tea, I saw several Red Kites but this was the only bird that I didn't have to take the image direct into the sun.




My thoughts at the moment is for another visit to Rutland for another try for the American Wigeon, lets hope I meet up with someone to help find the bird again.

Up date on the Barn Owls.

Young male is still with us and appears to be making no effort to move on.


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

TWO TRIPS TO RUTLAND WATER.

I decided to have two trips to Rutland, one to the Egletone Reserve and one to Lyndon, neither were that productive bird wise but I had a good walk about and saw several people I had met on previous visits.

On my first visit to the Egleton Reserve, I made my way through the hides and eventually arrived in Sandpiper Hide, here I met a gent who said "we have a Kingfisher keeps landing in the reeds to the front of the hide", so it was keep your eyes peeled and see what happens. After about five minutes I saw the bird flying around at the end of the bay and it eventually landed some  80 metres away from the hide, somewhat different to my last post where I had to change the focus distance onto the shortest for the lens, they were almost in the lens hood. 

I then visited Shoveler Hide but nothing much was showing so I headed for Buzzard Hide where a Bittern had been reported, here I met up with a husband and wife both firing of shots at a great rate of knots, the husband said Kingfishers to the front of us, which I soon spotted but these were in excess of one hundred metres away. 

I then had a quick visit to Crake Hide where another gent said "Kingfisher in the reeds," which sure enough it was, but buried much too deep in to get an image. I then returned quickly to Shoveler hide as I thought the Kingfishers would be closer than I had seen them from Buzzard hide, and sure enough they were { still about 60 metres away} and the couple from Buzzard Hide and the gent from Sandpiper Hide were already in place.

I have returned several times to the Leicestershire Reserve to try for more close up Kingfisher images but the birds appear to have moved on and not been seen for a couple of weeks unfortunately.

I then on the 6th of October had a visit to the Lyndon Centre, my first return since the Ospreys headed South. I had a very pleasant, but very quiet with only me on site walk about and visited all the hides but similar to Egleton, still short on Winter visitors.

After both visits out I had my tea at Eyebrook Reservoir but nothing of consequence was seen either times.

I drove through the Little Owl sites on both outings and again saw no birds unfortunately.  

EGLETON RESERVE.

Great White Egret. Grebe Hide. Lagoon 2.

Unfortunately a long shot, hopefully in time we will find the birds closer to a hide. 

Little Egret, Sandpiper Hide. Lagoon 4.

Kingfisher, Sandpiper Hide. Lagoon 4.

First seen by a gent already in the hide when I arrived but then he had lost it. I managed to find it some 80 metres plus away sat in some reeds.
Sorry for the image quality. 

It then moved onto an old tyre where it sat for a good time and was still in place when I left the hide.

Kingfisher, Buzzard Hide.

This bird upon checking was 120 metres from the hide and the lens was more tending to focus on the box the bird sat on.

This being the second bird from Buzzard hide. 

Kingfisher Female, Shoveler Hide.

This is one of the birds I had seen from Buzzard Hide, the second bird had departed, probably sitting to the front of Buzzard. 

Green Sandpiper, Shoveler Hide.

Just I was about to leave when this beauty turned up.

LYNDON CENTRE.

6th October.

I arrived for about 14.30 hrs and had a walk around all the reserve, I spent some time in Waderscrape Hide and it seemed lonely without the Ospreys to amuse us. Lets hope they have all arrived safely in Africa.

Kestrel, to the rear of the Centre.

This bird was hovering over the grass area to the rear of the centre.  

Heron, by Tufted Hide.

This bird flew in and landed on this branch and put the fear of god into the poor Egret.

Cormorant, Tufted Hide.

This bird sat on these dead roots about fifty metres from the hide, Rutland is a wonderful place to visit but most of your images are over a reasonable distance. 

Ruff, Shallow Water Hide.

This bird was with me most of the time I was in the hide but never came very close. 

Cormorant on Osprey Nest, Shallow Water Hide.

As you can see the Ospreys have placed plenty of nest material ready for next season. Before they return the nest will have been rebuilt by the permanent site staff.  

Lapwing, Shallow Water Hide.

Still not arriving in large numbers, more have arrived at Eyebrook Reservoir.

 

Cock Pheasant, on the fence opposite Deep Water Hide.

As I walked back to the car park, I saw this bird fly in and couldn't resist a shot.

He then decided to have a call.

UPDATE ON OUR BARN OWLS.

We still have the young male with us keeping himself very comfortable in the large box. Hope fully he will move on sometime soon, lets hope its before the next mating season. Trying to get confirmation as to whether this is still an active nest site, the law for schedule 1 birds states " A nest site is still active until the last bird leaves or dies." Will keep you up to date.  

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