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Thursday 7 July 2016

ANOTHER OSPREY DUTY.


We had another busy Osprey Duty on Thursday the 30th of June as usual Richard was on site before me arriving before 13.00 hrs with me arriving at 13.20 hrs, he had phoned me on his outbound trip to say he had seen four Little Owls on his trip, I saw none on my return however. The bulk of the time we were on duty we had a reasonable number of people in the Hide this time all asking numerous questions which between us I think we came out on top. The birds were not overactive, the male having brought back a pike not long after Richard was on duty, and the female feeding the young and then having a bath to clean away the smell of fish.

After this duty Richard returned along the Little Owl sites and I visited Eyebrook Reservoir for my tea and any Ospreys, the only Osprey seen was about 600 metres away and not even worth a chance image. So after this I had a slow trip home going past the Little Owl sites with a little rain to make things worse and saw nothing. 


Osprey Update 7-7-2016.
T6 & T8 Have both fledged just waiting for T7 who sits on the nest on his own.



I must also apologise for the problems people had last week in leaving a 'Comment'  not really sure as to what had happened but with Richards help all, I think has been resolved.


RUTLAND WATER.
30th June.




Ospreys Manton Bay. Waderscrape Hide.

Male in his usual position, female on the nest feeding the young and how they have grown. 



Female having a bath.


Out of the water and away, please remember these images are over 320 metres away. 




And in again 




And away for a fly around the bay, in the opposite direction to us unfortunately. 



The three young on the nest, T6 female, T7 male & T8 female its is thought. 



Female coming a little closer. 








Around and onto the nest and the young. 



Drinker Moth Caterpillar.

Went out of the hide to phone my wife and this sat on top of a post.



Grey Heron, Waderscrape Hide.

Bird flew across near to the reservoir. 





KESTRELS, OUR GARDEN.

Those of you that follow my blog will have read that a pair of Kestrels some weeks ago ousted our resident Barn Owls and have since bred and have raised three young. I have spent some time of a evening out in the garden with the camera on a tripod taking images of the youngsters as they have developed. They have not been easy subjects to photograph being white and when taking images with the sun on the box I have been shooting at   -1.00EV and ISO 1000. I have been out on my tractor this afternoon cutting the grass and they have been watching me intently all afternoon. I feel as I should be out with them again this evening trying to get more images hopefully some with the adults feeding them. 



First chick seen, even managed what appears to be a bluebottle flying across the entrance into the box. 



All three waiting to be fed. 








Getting a little older and you can see the start of a Kestrels colouration. 




 Adult arrives with food and chaos ensues.




Adult leaves so back on waiting duty for the next feed. 



A quick poo out of the doorway, they have since I have seen them done this and kept the box clean. 












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




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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