Banded Demoiselle - on 19th May, 2017

I had to go to King's Bromley, 18 miles (29 km) from my home to collect some wild bird food. On my way back I decided to call in at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's nature reserve  - Croxall Lakes.

Having parked my car and entered the reserve, the first thing I saw of interest was a male Banded Demoiselle damselfly. This was my first of the species for 2017. Sadly, almost immediately, this disappeared into a totally inaccessible area.

For the next hour I wandered the site and visited both hides and saw almost nothing which tempted me to release the shutter on my camera. I started to head back towards my car and, having just passed under the railway bridge that separates the two halves of the reserve, I met a couple coming from the direction of the River Thame.  We had a short chat, during which I mentioned I was hoping to see some damselflies, and the gentleman said that they'd seen some green damselflies by where the railway crosses the river.

I don't know why I hadn't visited this area in the first place, but suspect that it was because it was not a good location when my prime objective in the past had been birds.

Sure enough, when I arrived in the area I immediately found several Banded Demoiselle. This is a species that I have taken very few photos of, with females being particularly lacking in the files. It was, therefore, the females that I concentrated on. 

However, I didn't totally neglect the males. I always find it amazing how different they look in different lighting conditions. In the second and third images, the blue in the wings is outstanding, whereas, in the first, it's almost entirely invisible!

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) (male) - Croxall Lakes

In that last image, I'm not sure if those are the remains of its lunch round its mouth parts. 

Most of the females were coloured exactly as I'd expect them to be.

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) (female) - Croxall Lakes

However, a couple of the specimens present were very much of a golden colour, with just a hint of green - it made me wonder if I was seeing female Beautiful Demoiselle for the first time - or was it just a trick of the light? For the moment I'll assume the latter as the waters hereabouts are sluggish (Beautiful Demoiselle prefer faster moving water), but if you think otherwise, please let me know.

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens)? (female) - Croxall Lakes

I had to cut my visit short as I was already running well behind the time that I'd told Lindsay I'd be home for tea! Nevertheless, it was good to get some Banded Demoiselle images in the can - and it means that this is a short blog post from me, for a change!

Thank you for dropping by.

 

A Turn Of Duty - on Thursday 11th May, 2017

This year I have taken a bit of a back seat as a volunteer on the Rutland Osprey Project. Rather than book up for a regular fortnightly afternoon turn of duty, I decided to hold off, and just offer to fill in when there were gaps in the roster. This would give me the opportunity to enjoy being present at different times of day.

On this occasion, pal John had been rostered for an evening shift (17h00 to 20h00) on his own and so I put my name down to be his sidekick for the evening. 

On the way to pick up John at 14h30, I passed by my Little Owl  Site No.02 and found the male owl roosting in the remains of the roof.

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

Having picked up John, we set off via our usual route. The first owl we saw was at my Site No.37. It took a while before we noticed that there were two birds there - only the second time we have seen a pair here, and we missed seeing the pair the first time until we looked at the photos!

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

At my Site No.34, an owl was seen roosting at the foot of a hedge. It is reasonable to assume that this was the male of the pair here.

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

No further owls were seen before we reached Rutland Water. 

On arrival we checked in at the Visitor Centre and set off for Waderscrape Hide, where the Osprey monitoring takes place, and where we look after the visitors who come to see the Ospreys. The hide is a comfortable one, with good (but distant) views of the Osprey nest and there is a large screen which gives close-up views via a nest-cam.

On the way to the hide I photographed a couple of beetles, just to try and keep my hand in at macro-photography.

unidentified beetle species - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve

Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve

We arrived at Waderscrape Hide to be told by the people that we were taking over from that Sedge Warblers had been showing well, as had Water Vole, and that the people on duty before them had also seen a Water Rail.

Immediately the Sedge Warblers made their presence known, and I found myself distracted from the Ospreys by these delightful little birds. I'm not sure if it was just the one bird that was wearing a bracelet, or if there had been a mass ringing session, as all my photos show a ringed bird!

Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve

Osprey action was a little limited on this occasion as the female Osprey was busy incubating eggs at that time and the male Osprey went off fishing just before our shift started. From memory, he was gone a good hour and a half. In spite of the fine weather our last visitor left after about an hour, so we amused ourselves by watching the other wildlife action. 

I can say, with confidence, that I saw more Water Vole action in that one shift than I have seen in total over the whole of my ten years as volunteer on the Osprey Project. There were at least four voles, and we saw two altercations between voles, one of which went on for a minute or two and seemed to be particularly violent. Sadly, I was not able to capture the punch-ups as the action was so fast and most of the time took place in the thick of the reed-bed, its progress being only visible by the crashing disturbance of the reeds which was accompanied by squeals. 

Here are a few images from the evening.

Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve

When the male Osprey returned he took a fish to the 'T' perch that is close to the nest. He spent a long time consuming his share before dropping the remains of the fish into the water, leaving the female to go hungry. It seems that he had been making a bit of a habit of this lately - it would be interesting to know why!

I was hoping for some flight shot opportunities but the only birds to pass anything like close enough were a pair of Greylag Geese.

Greylag Geese (Anser anser) - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve

It was around 18h50 when a Water Rail suddenly appeared from the reeds and flew across in front of the hide. I was totally unprepared for the shot, and it was into the sun anyway. I was better prepared when a second bird appeared from the same place, but passed in front of the hide on foot, occasionally emerging from behind the reeds in front of the hide. 

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)  - Rutland Water, Lyndon Reserve

Although it had been sunny for much of the afternoon, the air had been rather misty, making distance viewing difficult. As the sun dropped the difficulty increased to the point that we could no longer see what was going on with the Ospreys through the 'scopes - it was just a blaze of bright light - so we finished our shift a few minutes early, there being no action to note.

On our way back to the car, John remarked that he felt cold - the significance of this was lost on me at the time, although I did think that he'd been acting a little disinterested during the evening. John rarely ever feels the cold. A call from John on the Saturday to say that he'd returned home on the Thursday to find he was running a temperature of 103 degrees F suddenly made sense of the situation.

As we approached my Little Owl Site No.41 I could see the silhouette of an owl poking out from the stump of what used to be the nest tree. I pulled up alongside and took ages to find the owl in the near dark conditions. It took me even longer to find it through the viewfinder and I don't think that John, who was on the owl's side of the car, ever did find it? 

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

It had been a super evening out, but I'm sorry to say that John is still not well, and is staying close to home. I hope that you're better soon, John.

FOOTNOTE

The day after we were on duty, the first of the Osprey chicks hatched out (12th May). A second chick hatched out the following day. Sadly, one of these two chicks died in the night of 14th May - possibly as a result of an accidental injury inflicted by the female Osprey. The third chick hatched on 16th May, and both remaining chicks were doing well. The fourth hatching was on 18th May, but but the chick didn't make it through the night. Four eggs is a relatively unusual situation, and raising all four was never going to be easy. The success rate at Rutland Water has been very good in the past, and whilst upsetting, this is not a major setback. If the remaining two chicks can be taken through to a successful fledging it will still be a positive result. We wish these tiny chicks a long and healthy future.

A Visit to Ketton Quarry - on 5th May, 2017

John had been unavailable for our semi-regular Thursday afternoon out on 4th, due to one of his dogs being unwell. We'd tentatively postponed our excursion until the following day but, in the event,  John didn't feel confident enough to leave the dog on the Friday either, so I set off late-morning for Ketton Quarry in Rutland in the hope of finding some butterflies, snakes and lizards to photograph. However, the weather looked questionable as, although it was sunny, there was a stiff breeze blowing.

I took the usual countrified route and, stopping at one of my Little Owl sites, found a Red-legged Partridge to photograph.

Red-legged  Partridge (Alectoris rufa)

Due to the windy conditions I was not surprised that the only Little Owl I saw was tucked well in at my Site No.34.

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

 Further up the road a Meadow Pipit was on a roadside post.

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)

I arrived at Ketton Quarry just before mid-day, and took the decision to have half my picnic lunch before setting off into the site.

Suitably refreshed, as I entered  the site I noticed that the leaves of the Twayblade Orchids were showing well. As I was hoping for some close-up work on butterflies, I took a shot of a dandelion head to check my settings. I found that I rather liked the results, so I kept one of the photos.

Dandelion sp. - Ketton Quarry

I spent some time in the  area which can be good for lizards and snakes, and also butterflies at times. In spite of it being nicely sheltered from the wind, it came up with nothing, so I headed up to an area which is a good place for Green Hairstreak butterfly at the right time of year. I found one almost immediately at the start of the usual hedgeline (also nicely sheltered and in the sun) but it stayed high in a bush and I couldn't get closer than around 3 metres.

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi) - Ketton Quarry

I continued along the hedgeline and, near the far end, found an extremely obliging specimen.

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi) - Ketton Quarry

For those of you unfamiliar with this tiny, but beautiful, butterfly, it is the only green butterfly found in UK . It is only just over half an inch (1.5 cm) from head to wing-tip. I've yet to find one settle with its wings open, but the upper side of the wings is a milk-chocolate brown.

Also in this area were a couple of Holly Blue butterflies. These are a bit bigger than the Green Hairstreak, but still very small. This one represents the female of the species, with its dark wing-tips. Sadly, this one also kept its distance.

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) (female) - Ketton Quarry

Having spent some time here, I set off down into the adjacent hollow. Nothing of note was found here, but I did manage some shots of a female Brimstone butterfly and a Bee-fly.

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) (female) - Ketton Quarry

Dark-edged Bee-fly (Bombylius major) - Ketton Quarry

On my way out of this area, I stopped at the hedge again, and took more shots of the Green Hairstreak and a Holly Blue (this time a male) which was a little more obliging. I tried getting a head-on image of the Green Hairstreak, but it had a very strange behavioural pattern - as I approached, it quickly turned from head-on to side-on. When I backed off it switched back again. I tried this many times - each time with the same result! In the second hairstreak image, you can just detect the brown of the upper wing surface.

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi) - Ketton Quarry

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) (male) - Ketton Quarry

I next set off into an area which can be good for skipper butterflies, but none were seen. I only took some shots of a day-flying moth - the Common Heath.

Common Heath (Ematurga atomaria) - Ketton Quarry

On my way back towards the entrance, I stopped to shoot a male Brimstone.

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) (male) - Ketton Quarry

As my return journey took me past the hedge that had been so rewarding, I had a quick look once more, and took some more shots. The first was of a wasp!

Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) - Ketton Quarry

The second was of the male Holly Blue as, so far that day,  I'd not managed to capture the underside of this butterfly.

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) (male) - Ketton Quarry

I headed back to the area that I'd started in, which I believe is known as 'The Barbecue' to local enthusiasts. I'd almost given up when I found my first Dingy Skipper of the year. This butterfly is even smaller than the Green Hairstreak.

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages) (male) - Ketton Quarry

I had one last-ditch attempt to find some lizards, visiting a narrow gully where I'd seen lizards several times in the past, but there was a cold wind blasting up the gully, so I gave up, having the rest of my picnic lunch at 16h30, before I headed for home! 

Thus ended another rather rewarding, and highly enjoyable, day

Thank you for dropping by.