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.

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