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. 

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