A VISIT TO RUTLAND AND THE BARN OWLS.

Sorry for the blog being so late, but I unfortunately had the Flu over the Bank Holiday weekend and still suffering with the after effects.

Richard and myself managed an afternoon out and had a visit to Rutland Water visiting our Little Owls sites on both the outbound and return journeys and seeing nothing in either direction, but we did hear two Little Owls call.

Rutland Water was really a bit of a disaster, very little of consequence to see as many birds are on the way South and we are waiting for the Northern birds to come South.

Richard had a wander round looking for Dragonflies that seemed absent, it has unfortunately been one of those Summers {if that's what you call it} that has not been conducive to these beauties appearing, we to be truthful other than early Summer when we saw considerable numbers of Emperor Dragonflies, the weather has been dire with large amounts of rain, wind and cold.

After our visit to Rutland we visited Eyebrook Reservoir for our teas and hopefully some sightings of the last few Ospreys that were about. 

As of today no Ospreys are on site at Rutland Water, they are all heading South to warmer climes, wish I was with them, could do with some good weather.

Southern Hawker Dragonfly, between Little Owl Sites 11 & 12.

This spotted by Richard as we drove down the road and we saw it land on the verge, so window down and out with the 600 mm and this was the result, Richard should have got considerably better results as he virtually had the lens touching the dragonfly.

RUTLAND WATER. 

Little Egret, Lagoon 4, Sandpiper Hide.

I was the only person in the hide {which is never a good sign}, so I am always very careful in opening the windows so if anything is close I don't disturb it. I had no cause to worry, this was the closest at about 60 metres. 

It then after a few moments decided to fly up to the other end of the lagoon.

Great Crested Grebe & Juveniles.

Always think the Juveniles are so beautiful with the head stripes. 

EYEBROOK RESERVOIR.

We stopped for a short time and had our teas when an Osprey appeared carrying a really large Rainbow Trout, I'm sure many anglers on the water would be cursing seeing the bird get away with such a trophy.

Male Osprey with large Rainbow Trout. {Awful Image}

This bird being chased by a gull appeared whilst we had our teas carrying this large Rainbow Trout.

OUR BARN OWLS.

We still have two Juveniles Barn Owls with us, the male and one female, They appear reasonably together most evenings but are tending to get later and its getting more difficult to get any images. 

I think the second female has also dispersed leaving us with just the Juvenile Male. 

Juvenile Male Barn Owl.

Usually the first bird to appear, sometimes its just a case of head out of the box and then retire back in.  

But this evening he came straight out and stood in the front of the box for a couple of minutes. Mind it was still almost dark.

Juvenile Male.

Giving his serious look. 

Juvenile Male.
Wind blowing the feathers on the back of his head. 

Having flown up into the trees at the back of our land, he sat and watched for about five minutes, managed this image without falling out my chair.

Juvenile Female.

Have not seen her since taking this image. 

How to tell if a box is in use, look for the dust on the box at the entrance.




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

Unfortunately the last ten days I have had the flu so hence not many comments posted on others blogs, sorry about this but will catch up in the next few days.