Rutland Ospreys 2011

Glorious scenes at Manton Bay. 21.9C here today with totally cloudless skies. Looks like the same weather prevailed down the road at RW (no speedboat today, jsb!):

Both on the nest in Manton Bay:

Just had to take advantage of another glorious day to pop down to RW this afternoon. I wanted to see the Manton Bay pair before she starts laying her eggs (which should be imminent) and becomes more tied to the nest.

Suffice to say we enjoyed fantastic views of 5R and Mrs 5R. The highlight was her bringing in a fish and literally dangling it in front of 5R before scoffing the lot on the T-perch! She even allowed him to mount her whilst she still had a (very firm) grip of the fish! Simply magical. :-))

5R wheels away after mating:

...but soon returns (I think she is saying, "Don't I even get a peck on the cheek, first?"):

5R has just brought in a fish and mrs flew off with it. First egg should be soon.

Spent a couple of hours in the Waderscrape hide this morning. Not quite so good for photos as Shallow Water hide but here are a few I took:

5R perched in dead tree to the right of the nest.

Mrs 5R on the nest:

Both birds on the nest:

Mating!!!

This one of the Manton Bay nest and 47 others.

The Rutland site has posted a very funny blog about "volunteer behaviour" written by volunteer Ken. More serious stuff too about preparations for the season.

The webcam seems to be down - just when an egg is highly likely!

Judging by the angle of those Garry Ridsdale photos, they were taken from the Shallow Water hide. He must have a mighty fine camera with a huge lens to take such clear shots.

Nice pics Sandy and Alan.

Gary Ridsdale's pics are fabulous Tiger. Mind you, small wonder with that whopping 800mm lens plus two extenders! Not worked out the maths but that is one heck of a focal length!

I would have to remortgage to buy that sort of equipment. The lens alone costs on average around £10,000.

His cameras are  2 x Canon 1d MK IV's and  a Canon 1ds MK111 (see his 'about me' page)