AND WE HAVE FOUR OSPREY CHICKS.

Yes after the long wait the fourth Manto Bay egg has hatched and all four chicks appear fit and healthy. Things will start to get much busier  for the male as these chicks grow but he has also done his fair share of incubation duties. Luckily he's a very good fisherman so I cannot see the young going hungry and he also is good at feeding the young which he has been doing his fair share of.

I had another Osprey duty on Thursday the 16th and this again turned out to be a busy afternoon with the chicks starting to hatch and signs of the adults feeding the young, and with having the television in the hide gives  that extra interest for the visitors. Again we had a mixture of people that had visited previously and also first time visitors, they are always amazed to see the birds and always ask the most questions, this afternoon mostly on the migration route and as to why the birds migrate, I began to wish we had Dr. Tim in the hide to give the answers.

So after another interesting and enjoyable afternoon, I departed for home and my tea.

Buzzard, Our garden.

Having been out on my tractor cutting the grass and seeing several Buzzard, I had a few minutes out in the garden with the camera and after a short time this bird circled over the garden,unfortunately not as low  as some of the others earlier.
 

Robin, Our garden.

The bird sitting on the side of the Barn Owl feeding station I use when the weather is really severe just to help the bird through the worst of the Winter .

OSPREY DUTY.

Female Osprey sitting on the three young and the last egg.

This is the view I had when taking over for my duty of the female. 

The Male however was seeing off a couple of intruder Osprey. 

He then returned to the T post and kept an eye on the nest.

He then flew across to the nest. 

And made sure all was in order and landed next to the female, its going to get a lot busier for you young man in the weeks ahead. 

The after a short time he flew down to his favourite perch. 

And here he remained until the end of duty. 

Female feeding the three hatched young, the egg is out of sight.Taken from the screen in the hide, never that successful or clear.

Swan sitting on nest.

This is the nest the Canada Geese were sitting on two weeks previous, if successful it will be in a perfect position to watch from the hide. 

Male Shelduck, Waderscrape Hide.

This bird suddenly appeared and flew past the hide, so it was grab the camera and see what I could get.

Not the best of images but I kept it in due to the feathering. 

 A VISIT TO CALKE ABBEY.

With  the lighter evenings I decided to have an evening visit to Calke, to hopefully see some of this years young Red Deer and also to have a visit for the Badgers.

Unfortunately on arrival no Red Deer or any Deer were visible anywhere, so after a quick visit into the bird hide I got on my way across the fields and into the wooded area where the setts are situated to sit it out and wait for any Badger activity, I did not expect to see any youngsters but what I hadn't realised was that the bracken has hardly started to grow so where last year we were watching them moving around in the Bracken.
21st May.   

Juvenile Grey Squirrel, Bird Hide.

Very few birds were showing but this young squirrel was trying his hardest to get onto the feeders only to be bullied away by two adults. 

Badger Area.

This is the area where last year we saw numerous Badgers, as you can see the bracken is only just showing so this in some respects helps. 

Slope where the Badgers appear.

This slope appearing from the top right is where we see the Badgers when the first appear, I saw six Badgers appear but they turned away into the trees to the left and never came out into the open. They started to appear at 19.55 hrs.

Badger towards the top of the slope away from the setts.

I had set my camera on its tripod on the opposite side of the area to where the Badgers appear. Like a fool I had left my sweater in the car and a cool wind had got up so I took some cover by tucking myself in behind a large Oak tree. I suddenly heard some noise behind the tree and so very slowly I peered around the tree, not more than 5 metres away was a Badger, but my camera was behind me, so after a slow retreat, the camera was moved but the Badger had heard me but no panic, it just steadily walked  away but then went behind a clump of trees and then appeared eventually about 70 metres away from me so it was a case of press the button and hope for the best, I was shooting at ISO 5000 and really could have done with being slightly higher.

  

I then saw another but this one was just trotting along at a steady pace. I intend when possible to return on a weekly basis and hopefully soon the young Badgers will be out and about earlier and with a few peanuts I will be able to tempt them that bit closer.

AN AFTERNOON AT EYEBROOK.

I think this has been the quietest afternoon bird wise I have ever had at the Reservoir. The Male  Osprey spent the whole afternoon at the nest site and I only saw one Red Kite and that was a considerable distance away, However in the morning the local farmer had been cutting the hay in a field on the opposite side of the reservoir and a friend I spoke with told me that about 10 birds circling and watching for any food available.
23rd May.

Please click on the read more to get the remainder of the post

A VERY - VERY WET OSPREY DUTY.
FOLLOWED BY A RAINY AFTERNOON AT EYEBROOK.

I arrived for my turn on duty knowing that Shelagh was unable to attend due to other commitments but as far as we knew, Hilary was still due to turn up. However I finished up on a singleton shift.

Having walked down to Waderscrape Hide in the dry, carrying my trusty umbrella just in case and carrying the camera in the back pack.

I had only been in the hide for a few minutes and it started to rain and boy did it rain, the gent who I took over from had to wait about half an hour  before leaving, but to my surprise I had a very busy afternoon with numerous people arriving, one couple on arrival said they thought the centre should have supplied life jackets, they were soaked.

We had a couple from China, the gent in the morning had some people from Australia all arriving to see the Osprey.

The rain was making it very difficult to use the scopes through the large closed windows with the water running down the glass so in the end I opened  one of the windows and let the rain run in, at least the visitors could then make out the birds.

Upon the completion of my shift it stopped raining so I walked back to the car park carrying my umbrella again, I could have left it in the car, but then it would have rained on me.

Addition to post, two eggs have hatched at Manton Bay on the 11th of May.

Male Osprey 33/11. Waderscrape Hide.

Here sitting on one of his favourite spots along the shore line to the left of the nest, the bird is about 350 metres away from the hide This is where he sat upon my arrival in the hide.

 Female Osprey, Waderscrape Hide.

She spent the first half an hour incubating the four precious eggs.
  

The Male then moved up to the right of the nest and settled on a fallen tree. 

He then flew to the nest and took over the incubation duties to give the female a rest. 

She then immediately flew down the bay and landed on the branch that the male had been on when I arrived.

She then had a quick fly around the bay, and flew back to the nest and landed. 

The male has ducked down out of view,  she then flew out into the bay .

And had a quick bathe, I would have thought the rain would have given her a good shower. 

 Starting to come out of the water.

Virtually clear. 

Clear and away for a quick flight around the bay. 

A fly past of the nest with 33 keeping an eye on her. 

She then landed on the T post to the left of the nest, and that's where she remained until the end of my shift.

Canada Goose, Waderscrape Hide.

Initially we just had this single goose arrive and leave the water.

Canada Geese, Waderscrape Hide.

We then gained another bird and they appear to have the start of a nest to the front of the hide, it will be wonderful if this happens and we can watch them with the young. I really find it impossible to sex these birds, they are totally the same to look at. 

Robin, Our Garden.

When ever I'm out in the garden, I invariably have a Robin with me, today I was out re-seeding some areas that suffered during last summers weather and it came within about 600mm of me, I must take some Hobnob biscuits out with me and see if I can tempt this one to feed from my hand,

A RAINY AFTERNOON AT EYEBROOK.

Even though the forecast was not very good, I decided to still have a quick visit to Eyebrook Reservoir, unfortunately not the best of decisions but it was enjoyable and I saw a few birds that braved the rain.
The male Osprey was about but not fishing so did not get that close, I had to chase him this time.

Male Osprey, 03/09.

I had parked in my normal spot opposite Stoke Dry village and whilst looking about through the rain I spotted something white in a tree in the fields on the far side of the water, { after checking on Google Earth I found this was in excess of 900 metres away} so after a quick drive around the top of the reservoir I managed to find the Osprey in the dead tree. Even after the drive around the bird was still 360 metres away and the camera was really struggling to focus on the bird. I managed some good sharpish branch images however.

Female Osprey, Site 'O'.

I had a quick drive round to the gateway from which the nest can be seen and sure enough the female was sitting on her eggs. 

Common Tern, Tern Raft.
These birds are still increasing in number which is good to see, a gent I see on a regular basis says he had a visit out to the rafts and one raft appears to have Black head-headed gulls in residence, but the other raft has at least 20 nests.

 Black-headed Gull, Opposite Stoke Dry village.

Numerous of these gulls about and much easier to get an
image of than the Terns.

 Swallow, Opposite Stoke Dry Village.

Numerous Swallows, Swifts and House Martins about so I tried to get some flight shots, I lost count of the attempts to get a reasonable image, they are even worse than the Terns in changing direction and swooping about. I would estimate I took in excess of 150 image attempts of the birds and these two are the only average ones.
Must try harder next time.
  

Robins Nest, in my Farmer friends garage.

I visited my friends on Wednesday afternoon and was greeted by Margaret with come and see what we have got in the garage. This old coat was hung on the wall and you can see the bits of straw sticking out of the pocket, just below the top of pocket line sits the Robin. We did not go any closer so as not to disturb the bird but also this was the closest I could get to get the lens to focus.


Thank you for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did in the getting of the images, even if it did rain a considerable amount.


It appears we have probably lost our Barn Owls to incursions by a pair of Kestrels, I am seeing no signs of the Barn Owls or Kestrels so as to what is going on I'm not sure. I will keep you all updated.

Some good news after that, the Tawny Owl I got some image from last Autumn and then a box was erected by the Hawk and Owl Trust earlier this year and the bird took up residence immediately. Simon from the Trust called by to see Reg and Jill and upon the opening of the box found a very unhappy female Tawny with two Owlets, absolutely brilliant news so watch this space for when they start to appear. 

.