After The Storm - on Friday 24th February, 2017

Pal John and I didn't have our usual Thursday afternoon out on 23rd February as Storm Doris held this area in its grip throughout that day with rain, and winds up to 100 km/h, and the recommendation was to avoid all unnecessary travel. 

By the Friday morning, things were looking completely different weather-wise and, with some trepidation, I set off for John's place at around 10h45. I'd left a little earlier than usual as I wanted to check out my Little Owl Site No.02. My concern was that there is so much of the roof missing that a strong gust of wind would lift the rest of the roof off, like a kite.

I arrived at No.02 to find things looking remarkably unchanged. At first I did not notice the bird which was tucked into the edge of the end wall with just its head visible from my position. I took a few photos from the roadside, and had a chat with a gentleman who was valiantly picking up litter from the adjacent gateway.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) (male) - my Site No.02

The owl was still there when I decided to make a closer inspection of the building. As part of this process, I halved the distance between me and the owl. This resultant shot is for Noushka and Doug - it's a foot thing! I'm pleased to say the owl was still sitting there when I departed in my car.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) (male) - my Site No.02

Feeling a little more confident, I continued to John's place, encountering only minor debris on the road. It was John's turn to drive and we set off on our usual owling route so that we could check on the situation. We did see the occasional blown-down tree, and quite a few broken tree limbs. 

On arrival at my LO Site No.41 we had a major disappointment.  When John and I first became aware of this site, it was because the farmer was bemoaning the loss of a major limb of the tree that his owls resided in. The owls were, fortunately, unaffected by this. However, just three months later, we arrived on site to find that a huge part of the tree had split off, totally destroying the nest cavity. John and I quickly erected a nest box, but this was never used. The owls spent all winter over on the far side of the field, returning to the original tree in the spring of 2014 where they found another nest hole and raised young that year.

Now we arrived to find that the rest of the tree was down, leaving just the stump of the trunk, although our nest box was still in place as you can see on the right of the remains in the next image. 

my Little Owl Site No.41 - remains of nest tree

I spotted an owl fly up from the debris on the left and land in a nearby hawthorn bush, then John spotted a second one sitting on those remains.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.41

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.41

It was good to see that the birds were still around and had survived the experience. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they find another home nearby, if not in the owl box. We shall be keeping an eye on things, but being careful not to disturb them at all.

As we approached a corner on a country lane I spotted a pair of Stonechat. The female kept her distance, but the male was less concerned by the car.

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (male)

We've only ever seen a solitary owl at my Site No.37, but this seems to be an extremely hardy bird, and out in the most unexpected weathers. When we first stopped, with the usual tree on John's side, John couldn't see the bird as it was so well hidden. In the end, I managed to point it out to him, and then went to try and get a better viewpoint.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.37

We stopped for our picnic lunch by my Site No.34. All seemed fine here, with both birds visible in the nest opening. 

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.34

We saw no further owls that afternoon, and set off to Eyebrook Reservoir in the hope of seeing and photographing Kingfisher. This was not to be, but a gentleman on the bridge pointed out a distant Great Egret. At first, it was only showing by the top of its head becoming visible from time to time. Then it moved into a more prominent position. Google Earth tells me that it was 220 metres away at this point. Although this has become a relatively common bird at Rutland Water in the past 12 months, it was a noteworthy sighting for Eyebrook.

Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) - Eyebrook Reservoir

I changed my position and waited, and eventually it fully appeared, although further away by now.

Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) - Eyebrook Reservoir

A Little Egret was somewhat closer, landing at one point on the perch often used by the Kingfishers.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - Eyebrook Reservoir

John had a call from home to say that one of his dogs was poorly, so he needed to pick up some medication from the vet's on the way home. The Kingfisher had still not shown when we set off homeward, stopping briefly at the second stockade on the west side of Eyebrook Reservoir. Here I attempted some distant shots of Pintail and Snipe.

Pintail (Anas acuta) - Eyebrook Reservoir

Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) - Eyebrook Reservoir

There were no further sightings of note and, having picked up the medication at the vet's, we arrived at John's home at 17h00. As Lindsay wasn't expecting me home until sometime between 18h30 and 19h00, I decided to pay another visit to my LO Site No.02. Both owls soon appeared and, although there was no hanky-panky, there was plenty of calling and they did sit together for a while. Unfortunately, at this site, evening shots will always be directly into the low evening light.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) (male on left) - my Site No.02

I watched for a while and eventually they departed so I set off homeward. Five minutes later I found myself looking at a Barn Owl. What a wonderful end to the day!

Barn Owl (Tyto alba) - near Ashby de la Zouch

If it hadn't been for the upset at Little Owl Site No.41 it would have been a most satisfying day, with 7 Little Owls and one Barn Owl seen. 

Please can I leave you with a request. The raptors in UK (and in many other parts of the world) are suffering terribly at the hands of mankind - either through persecution or from environmental destruction. If you only do one thing this week please make it something, no matter how small, to further the cause of these wonderful creatures. Better still - make it a weekly target!

Thank you for dropping by. 

Making The Most Of It - on 28th October, 2016

John had been unable to make our usual Thursday afternoon out as one of his dogs was poorly (now OK, I'm delighted to say), so we switched to the Friday.

The day started very dull and damp but, fortunately, things had dried out by the afternoon. It remained very dull and grey for the rest of the day, but it was quite warm for the time of year and it wasn't windy - although it did get a bit breezy later on.

I set off for John's place, stopping at my Little Owl Site No.02 en-route. An owl was out on the remains of the roof, so I took a shot from inside the car. I'm concerned that the building is now decaying very rapidly, with around 50% of the roof disappearing this year.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.02

Having transferred to John's car, we set off towards Rutland Water, making a brief diversion to check on one of our owl sites. One was spotted sitting in the nest opening. The leaves are just starting to turn , and I wouldn't be surprised to find the leaves all gone by the time of our next visit.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - my Site No.34

There were no further sightings of owls as we continued to Rutland Water. We arrived at the Egleton Reserve side and, as a couple of Peregrine had been seen earlier on Lagoon 4, we made our way there. 

We'd not gone far along the path when I called for John to stop. There was a Wood Mouse on the path in front of us. It seemed to take absolutely no notice of our presence. At one point it ran into the grass beside the path, but it didn't take long to come back. It was finding something to eat, but I was unable to see what, although I believe it was a seed of some sort. I suspect that, at one point, we were photographing it at a distance of around one metre - maybe closer!! Here are a few images.

Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

Whilst John went to see if he could see the Peregrines from Sandpiper Hide, I went to scour a hedgerow for dragonflies, as we'd already seen a few Hawkers (Migrant, and probable very late Southern). I didn't have any luck, although a Peregrine flew over heading towards John. However, John didn't see it as he was scanning elsewhere through his binoculars.

We continued to Shoveler Hide, where the area near the hide was virtually totally dry. There were a few birds, including Redshank and Curlew, visible at around 30 metres, but the light was awful. John pointed out the Great White Egret in the middle of a group of Cormorants  on an island too far away for sensible photography. Our luck changed when the GWE took to the air and flew towards us, landing only about 50 metres away. I'm relatively pleased with the images I got, considering the light conditions - more by luck than judgement as I wasn't set up for flight shots.

Great White Egret (Egretta alba) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

The GWE waded south round a headland, heading towards Buzzard Hide, so we headed off there. At Buzzard Hide, I opened a window and put up a couple of Cormorants that, unbeknown to me, were just below the window. This, in turn, put up some ducks that were further away, and these put up the GWE which flew back northwards again!

We spent more time looking around, but it was getting extremely dull now, and although I took many more photos, they've virtually all been consigned to the recycle bin. If I tell you that this (taken when we returned to Shoveler Hide) is possibly the best of the others, you'll see my point!

Curlew (Numenius arquata) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

Shortly after arriving at Rutland Water, we'd seen an RAF Chinook helicopter fly over,  in an unusual colour scheme. On the way back to the car this same helicopter flew over again, and I managed some slightly better photos that enabled me to identify it. The aircraft is Chinook HC.4 ZA712/W of 18(B) Squadron, based at RAF Odiham (Hampshire), uniquely decorated to celebrate 100 years (1915-2015) of that squadron. I understand that it is shortly to be returned to 'standard RAF colours'.

RAF Chinook ZA712, over Rutland Water Nature Reserve

The journey home didn't yield any excitement but, in spite of the lousy photographic conditions, we'd had a pretty good time, with both of us considering the Wood Mouse to be a charming highlight.

I have no idea, at this stage what the subject of my next post might be.

Thank you for dropping by.

Rutland Water - the non-dragon bits - on 22nd September. 2016

In my post, last week, I featured the dragonflies and damselflies I saw on Thursday 22nd September. At the end of that post, I said that my next post would feature the non-dragon aspects of that visit. Well, here we go!

Along the hedgerow on which I saw several Migrant Hawker dragonflies, there were also several Comma butterflies - all in quite good condition.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

Further on, by the start of the track that leads to Shoveler Hide, there were four Red Admirals on the gate, and a couple more on nearby fence posts.

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

I then went into Shoveler Hide, where there was a Green Sandpiper in the water at the end of the bar that runs in front of the hide.

Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

Of greater interest to me, however, was the Great White Egret which was somewhat further away.

Great White Egret (Ardea alba) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

This bird was busy fishing, and with some considerable success too!

Great White Egret (Ardea alba) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

I noticed that, after catching a fish, it tended to do a bit of a shake of the neck as if it was trying to help its dinner down the hatch! On one occasion, it did this to the extreme!

Great White Egret (Ardea alba) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

I think that last one was a burp!!

I took a few more shots of the GWE before it disappeared round the corner. It's amazing how long that neck can look sometimes! I was cussing at the box being in the way for that last one.

Great White Egret (Ardea alba) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

I went to the next hide (Buzzard Hide) to see if the GWE had arrived in sight there, but it hadn't, so I returned to Shoveler Hide to find the GWE was back, and a Little Egret had also appeared. I spent half an hour or more, hoping that the two egrets would end up close to each other for the 'comparison shot', but it didn't happen. This is the closest, and the light was difficult, to say the least!

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) and Great White Egret (Ardea alba) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

It was now time to start heading back as I had a potential Barn Owl site to stake out from a distant hillside, whilst consuming a late picnic tea.

Heading back to the car, I took some more shots of dragonflies, and a Comma butterfly in the low late-afternoon sun.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) - Rutland Water, Egleton Reserve

It's just occurred to me that it's not often one can write a report which starts and ends with a Comma, as well as a Capital and Full-Stop!!!

So that's two posts on the subject of 22nd September. I believe this date will also feature in my next post, which I hope will be about recent owl sightings!

Thank you for dropping by.