Rutland visit

This is the first chance Ive had to properly catch up with the blog since returning from our week away, which started with a couple of days in Rutland, Leicestershire followed by a few more days in Norfolk. This was a return visit to Ashgate Annex in Oakham, Rutland where we enjoyed yet another relaxing weekend in Isabel & David's lovely self catering luxury accomodation. Its such a great place to stay, ideal for exploring Rutland Water & the surrounding countryside. Here follows a few sightings from the Rutland portion of our trip.

Just after arriving I spotted this female Common Blue on the driveway feeding on Lavender flowers.  

Despite the overcast weather at times, we still enjoyed some great sightings. We dropped into Egleton reserve at Rutland Water Nature Reserve and watched this Kingfisher appear in a flash of blue, disappear and reappear once more where it sat for a good 5 minutes.

We sat it out in this hide during a downpour, where even the Hebridean sheep decided to congregate while the heavens opened. Apparently they were introduced to the reserve back in 2001 to help control coarse grasses around the edges of the water.

Through the binoculars we had a good view of the Ospreys, we watched as an adult consumed its share of a fish whilst sat atop platform on the left, before depositing it on the nest on the right for the juveniles to finish off.

During this visit we ventured to some new sites that we'd found via the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust website. One of the most interesting was Prior's Coppice, to quote the website "is an ancient ash-maple ash-wych elm woodland, probably a relic of the wildwood which covered all of Leicestershire and Rutland before prehistoric peoples started to clear it".

Here's a couple of pics of the wide rides that contain woodland marshy grassland surrounded by lush canopies, it was a treat to explore and well worth a visit.

On entering Priors Coppice we were amazed to see well over 50 Common Blues, I'm used to seeing them singly or maybe in two's if I'm lucky, so this was a rare treat for me. Here are a few favourites.

There were lots of dragonflies around and about, zipping above our heads following the rides, occasionally we spotted one or two resting on nearby vegetation, I think these two are immature Male Southern Hawkers, but I'm happy to be corrected.

There were plenty of Damselflies too, they really stood out against the foliage and stems, I think these are Common Blue Damselflies, single stripe on side of thorax, mushroomy mark on segment two.