February 23rd, 2009 by admin

We decided to take a ride down to Marazion by the sailing club and I took a walk around to cabbage patch and to my delight spotted my very first razorbill of the season…

 There he was just bobbing about on the high tide making the occasional dive for food and washing himself down and flapping his wings to dry..

 See more shots of it in the Natural World Gallery

 The tide was getting quite full so not wanting to be cut off and have to walk back through the town I set off back to the van, just off the next part of the beach I saw a female red breasted Merganser just cruising around the rocks feeding..

that was about it for the exciting species, just a cormorant hanging out in the bay and a few red shanks, turnstones and rock pippits.

Back to the van and up to the gate for a cuppa and see what was on the marsh though the light was fading fast by now.
An egret was fishing so I thought I’d try the high speed sequence shoot and see if we could grab anything… here he is complete with catch albeit in low light

complete with catch

Well thats the blog for today.. see ya later
Don’t forget to view larger images go to the Gallery

February 18th, 2009 by admin

17th February 2009

 I kept the water pipit to myself mind you, well he was all dressed in his finery and breeding plumage so I thought it polite to not tell anyone where he actually was.
I did feel a bit like I was being taken advantage of by these touristy types questioning whats that big lanky thing on top of that Bush?  Cornish Fish Owl I replied convincingly.. doesn’t look like an owl.. came despondant replies.. ahh! thats because its cornish.. Oh right..

Here he is.. the long nozzled Cornish Fish owl on a flyby…

The Long nozzled Cornish Fish Owl

 here’s the we kept well hidden Water pipit for you now you’ve all gone home and are sat reading this haha!

Water Pipit in Winter/Mating Plume

 This one kept me amused for a few minutes as he ran around his beak trying to weedle this worm from its hole.. he won of course and looks elated with his lunch..

Oystercatcher, not the pied chuff as I mentioned to some

 Well apart from a few of the Usual tenants the Stonechats, Snipes, Rails, Teals, Moorhens, Coots, mallards, and wagtails and of Course the local munchers el rabbito, there wasn’t an awful lot else happening so we opted for a brew in Newlyn Harbour on our way Home… Glad we did.. the Glaucous was free and agreed a fee for a portrait session… here he is.

Glaucous Gull Newlyn Harbour

Supped up, on through Mowzl and up to Trungy Bungy for us and the end of another days foot ography.. haha, quite fitting that name if you could see the amount of pics of my feet I’ve shot accidentally with the portrait shutter button.. I’m overtired.. TFB

MORE PICS IN THE GALLERY

February 17th, 2009 by admin

February 16th, 2009 by admin

15th February  2009

we started off through Mousehole today and stopped at Newlyn harbour as we saw the Glaucous Gull as we dropped down the hill.

Glaucous Gull in Newlyn harbour

 a little scout around and sure enough lurking over the other side was the icelandic gull

Icelandic Gull in Newlyn Harbour

 we weren’t alone in our search today, so we left this chap to it and headed along the bay to Marazion for our daily heron watch..

Our nesting herons were still building and he kept nipping off for an hour and coming back with a stick.

Egret fishing

Stonechat Male & Female

Snipe, wagtail and a Great Northern Diver

 Leanne spotted the diver as we drove back towards Newlyn just around sunset, I pulled into cripple creek and managed to grab a few shots..

and then to my surprise Leanne shouted me and pointed just over my left shoulder and up popped a female Merganser.. a perfect end to the days shooting..

Female red breasted Merganser

Todays Gallery

February 16th, 2009 by admin

February 14th 2009

Everybody wants a shag for valentines day, and Leanne and I got ours down in the harbour at Newlyn.
And what a beautiful Shag it was too, only a young shag can be this satisfying… 
we also had a little visit to Hayle and were lucky enough to observe the Greylags and Canada Geese arriving in the estuary.

February 16th, 2009 by admin

Lucky? or Unlucky, who knows but what I do know is that superstition aside I was down on the fal river at malpas and Deveron in a T-Shirt, yes a T-shirt and was still too warm.
Out of the wind it was just like a typical Cornish summers day.
Nothing much out of the ordinary other than that, and a Dunnock in the car park at malpas hanging with the wagtails.

I wonder how many overlook this haven only minutes out of the city centre of Truro….

View of Truro Cathedral from Malpas

 

 

 And here’s a few more of the specimens we found on the river bed and surrounding as we walked on a glorious sunny afternoon.

 

 

 And we leave those with the fabulous specimen of a woody (wood Pigeon) sat metres from the van on Deveron Quay, and drive off back to Marazion to finish our day off with a cuppa and watch the sunset over Paul, and check on our nesting pair of Herons….

This Shag flew over head as I stood by the gate, thankfully it went to the right of me as it flew over, otherwise i would have been well and truly in the proverbial S&*t

February 12th, 2009 by admin

It seemed for a time today as though it could well be finally on the way, after this bitter spell we’ve just had it was a welcome calm that hung over the bay and the life on the Marsh was abundant and mating was in full swing for the teals and herons at least.
The Nesting herons continued to build and the Teals put on a wonderful dancing display which kind of reminded me of Morris dancers.. sadly

The nesting pair at Marazion

Bringing Sticks

 The Circle is formed amidst a lot of cackling and singing from the Teals

The Tea - L Dance

 The males circle around in front of females displaying themselves no doubt in the hope of scoring a partner.

 They drop their heads downlow to the water then seem to flick themselves way up and then repeating themselves over and over.

 The remaining Female gets the full display from her champion,

 

 

 Its almost as if he Bows to her at the end of his performance, and then the matched pair move off into the reed beds probably for some Ducky Nooky.

Meanwhile the unsuccessful males move on to another female and the process begins again.

 Other species around the edges today were the Snipe,

 A few water Rails

 

 Coot – Little Grebe -  Moorhen in abundance

 Wagtail, Stonechat and Swans

and Finally Mallard overhead, followed by a cormorant and the Blackhead Gulls

All in all a good day and great to feel it so mild. lets hope tomorrow is another of the same.

 

February 9th, 2009 by admin

In all its glory in the P*”$$*ng Rain this afternoon…. Popped down to Lidl’s for milk etc and called in for a looksee and there it was.. Bonus shame about the light, even on High ISO in that miserable dinge I could only get a max of 1/50th Sec shutter speed, so forgive the blurr.

 Thought I was probably Hoping too much when it took flight but hey if ya don’t shoot it ya don’t get it so here’s a couple at 1/100th sec

 And we’ll leave it there and hope for a nicer day to get some decent shots before it flies off.
Fired off a few as it flew past and also caught this angry looking sod, thankfully no puffins in the harbour lol.

And that was abpout it b3efore the light faded completely for the evening and we leave this wet and miserable post with our friend the Great Northern Diver at the far end of the harbour just before diving.

Byee

February 8th, 2009 by admin

We had a fruitful day at Stithians with the small birds at the feeding station by the Southern Cut off Hide.
Even had a visit from the female Greater Spotted Woodpecker along with Great Tits blue tits long tailed tits green finch chaffinch reed bunting coot greater crested grebe along with the little grebe and plenty others ..
So all in all a good day topped off with a nice specimen of Buzzard sat on the telegraph pole as we drove away.

Female Reed Bunting

Male Reed Bunting

Long Tailed tit

Female Greater spotted woodpecker

Thats it for now folks