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Tuesday 25 April 2017

A VISIT TO EYEBROOK.


Richard and myself had our normal Thursday visit out on the 20th of April, our initial thoughts were for a visit to Ketton Quarry and some butterflies  but as time went by the forecast changed from sunny and warm to cloudy and cooler with a chance of rain so we opted for Rutland and the Egleton Centre, but once underway and we ran into rain we had to think again and decided to visit Eyebrook Reservoir instead as we would not be over far from the car if it rained and we still had a good chance of seeing some Ospreys.

So we got underway with my turn to drive and headed through our Little Owl sites and saw a bird at Site 5 in the fallen tree but this was the only bird seen on the outward journey. 

On arrival at Eyebrook we had a drive around looking for Red Kites but non were seen so we headed for the area where we had seen the Ospreys previously. We saw no Ospreys but saw my first Common Terns of the year which is always good, they are such acrobatic birds. We then spent some time at the Bridge over the inlet brook hoping to see the Kingfisher, but this was again a vain hope. We managed a few birds and then visited one of the stockades  for bird watching. After this we returned to our original area and had the first half of our teas. We had a reasonable afternoon with the birds but no Ospreys arrived, I think this is the first time I have visited Eyebrook in the Osprey season and not seen at least one bird, never mind.

After this we retraced our steps through our Little Owl Sites and stopped at Site 9 for the other half of our tea and upon arrival no bird was evident, but after a short time a bird appeared in the nest hole so we were delighted with this. Hopefully the female is sitting on eggs. After the remainder of our tea we carried on through our remaining sites and saw a bird again at Site No. 5, most likely the bird we saw earlier but at our last site to visit, Site No.1 we saw a Little Owl, this was a super end to the day as we have not seen a bird at this site for a considerable time.





EYEBROOK RESERVOIR.
20th April.




Common Terns on raft
.
Looked at the Tern raft and saw four birds, took the image and only three?? Houdini Tern.  



 They are such wonderful birds to watch in flight, they are so agile, this bird in a vertical dive and pulled out just above the water.






Black-headed Gull.

These are around in reasonable numbers and tend to chase the Ospreys hoping to steal a meal, I have never seen this happen however.




Red Kite, whilst we were watching for an Osprey .

This single bird flew across the Reservoir. 







Grey Heron when we moved to the Bridge.

This bird was wading in the shallow water at the side of the feeder stream. 






Goldfinch Near to Bird Feeders. Adult Male.

Several birds were visiting the feeders and managed to catch this on on its way in. 



Small Fish to the side of the Bridge.

looked over the bridge and saw these fish they were about 25 mm. long, you would think the Kingfisher would have been tucking into them. Mind that's probably why we didn't see it, it was still full from earlier.



Skylark.

This bird was gaining height and singing away to our left, it then flew across towards us and I couldn't resist an image. 



Chiffchaff.

This bird flew into a Willow tree next to the bridge, so I very carefully picked up the camera for a record shot.



I then very carefully shuffled to my right and managed to get some more images without so many leaves in the way. 



Cock Pheasant under the Bird Feeders.

This and the following image just shows the variation in colours we encounter. 



This bird was by Little Owl Site No.9 whilst we had our tea.





Kestrel.

This bird appeared whilst we had our first bit of tea in the area where we usually see the Ospreys.  









LITTLE OWLS.





Little Owl Site No. 5.

This image was taken on our outbound journey. 




This on our return and looks to be the same bird, its sitting on what remains of the stump after the tree blew down. 







Little Owl Site No. 9.

This again taken on our return journey, we stopped for our tea and after a short time this nosy little beggar had to have a look to see who had turned up to disturb his peace. 





Lambs Near Little Owl Site No. 6.

These lambs were initially using mum as a trampoline.



This then changed into a game of King of the Castle.




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

About Me;


Titus White:
Hi I am Richard Peglers friend Titus White, and those who follow Richards posts will understand the name and reason for it. I have been birding with Richard for 3 years and a volunteer at Rutland Water on the Osprey Project for 2 years. My early images were taken on a Nikon D80 with a 70 - 200mm lens. I updated the lens to a 70 - 300mm VR lens but still was not happy with the results. Eventually when Nikon announced the D7100 I decided to change so upgraded the camera and also invested in a Sigma 50 - 500mm lens.
I first met Richard through Arthur Costello as I was having the occasional visit from Little Owls on our land. We eventually found the Little Owls through another contact about 100 metres away. Photo's will follow on future posts.
I have recently upgraded my camera to full frame, this is a challenge I am at the moment enjoying trying to get the best out of the beast.
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