Chapel Carn Brea

It was a fine sunny afternoon with little to no wind yesterday,  I took a trip up to Chapel Carn Brea in the company of Peter Tonkin looking for Birds of Prey,  It is very close to Lands End Airport and the first big bird we saw was the colourful twin engine Skybus featured below,

We soon had sight of a female Merlin that seemed to be going somewhere in a hurry, It was shortly followed by a more leisurely female Kestrel that hovered gracefully above us until it was rudely interrupted by a feisty Skylark that was determined to evict it,

I tracked the skylark back on to a hedgerow where it posed quite nicely showing off its identifiable crest and extended rear toes, Bored with posing it dropped into a very muddy and flooded tractor tyre track intent on taking a bath but Peter Tonkin surprisingly beat him to it throwing himself horizontally into the mud with great gusto,  By the time I managed to pull him out excluding his boots he resembled and smelt like an old duck pond!!  I Hadn't realised that he had a fetish for mud but I guess it is each to their own,  I kept upwind of him after that,

As the sun headed for the distant horizon over the sea I picked a grassy route along Cornish stone walls back to the car park trying to avoid any more mud slicks incidents with Peter and was presented with this nice Buzzard take-off sequence and a cheeky male Stonechat on the way,

The setting sun had turned the calm sea to a shimmering gold creating a lovely backdrop for a silhouetted image of the Longships Lighthouse which was around six kilometres away and looking far more peaceful than it did a week ago during Storm Brian.