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.