I was back on Osprey duty at Rutland Water on Thursday 9th September, and left home early to give me time to check up on the owls on my way there (none seen), and to enable a leisurely amble down to Waderscrape Hide, from which we monitor the Ospreys and help the visitors.
Although sunny and warm, it was very windy, so I was not too hopeful of seeing dragonflies, let alone photographing any.
A quick visit to Teal Hide, in the hope of another view of the Long-tailed Duck, didn't come up with the goods so, having taken a shot of a Tufted Duck in beautifully blue water, I set off on my way to Waderscrape Hide for my shift.
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| Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) (female) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
I'd not gone far before I was seeing dragonflies - and more of them than usual were tending to perch. I suspect that this was due to the wind. An additional benefit was that they were perching low, so that they did not get blown about so much.
The first subject was a male Southern Hawker. It was extremely obliging, and was still there when I left. This is possibly as close as I've ever been to a dragonfly, and I was amazed to see the number of elements in the eye, which seemed far greater than, for example, a Common Darter.
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| Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) (male) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
There were a few Common Darters around, but they weren't always easy to spot when settled, as you might be able to see from this next image.
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| Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (female) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
I next came across a female Brown Hawker which settled low down. The shot was difficult, however, because of intervening foliage. Fortunately, I did manage to find one angle that gave me an uninterrupted view, and it stayed there! I see from my photos that it kept crossing its anal appendages.
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| Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) (female) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
At one point, I was able to photograph a pair of Common Darter mating.
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| Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (mating) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
I suddenly realised that I'd forgotten the time and was in danger of being late for my shift, so it was somewhat frustrating when I found two Migrant Hawkers together. I quickly grabbed some photos - first with the camera in landscape attitude, and then close-up in portrait attitude. Those in landscape weren't so good in clarity, whereas those in portrait were relatively crisp - but I found that, in my haste, I'd managed to clip the end of a wing off one of the dragons in every 'portrait' image! |
| Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) (male) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
I managed to arrive at the hide only one minute late (13h01), and was kindly forgiven my transgression! I was greeted with the news that our last Osprey, 33(11), had departed at 10h00 and had not been seen since, and was almost certainly now on his migration to West Africa. As things at the hide were very quiet, I took half an hour out to wander down to Shallow Water Hide. On the way there I found a Ruddy Darter on the path. |
| Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) (male - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
Little of interest was seen from Shallow Water Hide with the only photos taken being of a distant Little Egret, and an even more distant Little Grebe.
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| Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
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| Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
On the way back to Waderscrape Hide, I took some shots of a Common Darter.
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| Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (male) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve |
Further on, a damselfly caught my attention. I believed I was looking at a teneral, but it took a while for me to come to the conclusion that it was a teneral female Common Blue Damselfly. The orange wing 'nodes' and the stripe on the eyes confused me initially, but the 'spine' under segment 8 of the abdomen says 'Common Blue'.
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| Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (teneral female) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve. |
Whilst I was away, John had received a call from base to say that if 33 had not returned by 16h00, and if we didn't have visitors in the hide, we could lock up and go home early. This proved to be the case, and so we set off back to the visitor centre. There were no photo opportunities on the way back.
As my wife and I were heading off on our 'Route 66' tour the next morning, I took the opportunity to get back home early, stopping off at some Little Owl sites on the way back. In the event, only one owl was seen.
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| Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.34 |
The only other remarkable sight was of a large number of Pheasant in the road which held me up for a while. These had, presumably, been recently released as 'cannon fodder' for the benefit of barbaric humans who still live in the 'dark ages'. Amongst these I saw three all-white birds (possibly there for the benefit of half-blind barbaric humans). I don't think these birds were albino as they had colouration in the eyes - probably just a melanistic aberration.
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| Sitting Target - near Lowesby |
That's all for now. My next post will probably be on 'Route 66'.
Thank you for dropping by.
