Goldfinch and Wren,

A few portraits of the resident Goldfinch and Wren at Stithians southern cut-off yesterday.

Water Rail Portraits

The southern cut-off hide at Stithians is well used by wildlife photographers that are attracted to the hide by its star performers,  Up until March this year there was an amazing Water Rail in residence that would come within a few metres of the hide to forage on feeder fall out on a regular basis, this allowed photographer using telephoto lenses to take extremely close portrait images like the first one posted below.

From early March up until today the Water Rail has been off of the Star Performer list but I did here of one seen very briefly at a distance a few weeks ago, anyway from today on it looks as though the show is back on as four of us at the hide today had a very good show for several minutes at a distance of around ten metres during which time the sequence of six images posted below were taken, perhaps the sound of cameras clicking away sent the Water Rail off into the reed beds sooner than it might have otherwise done but if its anything like the last one it will hopefully learn to accept it for the benefits it receives from under the feeder frames.  Happy Days !!

Great White Egret at Stithians today

When I arrived at Stithian reservoir this morning I was in formed by Bob Sharples that a rare Great White Egret was showing on the opposite bank from the Stuart Hutching hide so I popped in there first and did the best I could over the several hundred metre distance that the egret was showing,  It did a nice pass of a mature Grey heron on the waterline which was useful for scale and a few minutes later took off and headed north along the reservoir affording me a few flight images,  I took a few shots of around a couple of dozen Lapwing roosting along the near shoreline and moved off to the Cut-off hide.

I re-joined Bob and Peter Tonkin in the cut-off hide and within a few minutes we had a very low flying male Sparrow hawk come in from the water straight through the feeders,  He missed the birds and we all missed the shots and things returned to normal until the Sparrow hawk returned again to perch in the dense but leafless canopy of a waterside tree, It worked its way behind a mass of thin branches and we all complained  but it was still watching the movement of every bird that approached the feeders, The thin stems broke up its form to blend with its horizontally barred chest but those piercing yellow eyes were ever watching for the right opportunity to take prey.

The feeders were busy with pairs of Greater spotted Woodpecker, Bullfinch and my first pair of Firecrest showing within a couple of hours along with a family of Long tailed Tits and four Greenfinch that were constantly calling each other,   An interesting if cold day with two 'firsts' for this year from the Great White Egret and the pair of Firecrest

The moon as seen through a cloud of Guiness

Sorry guys no wildlife today,  All of the members on the Cornish Camo Club went on a Jolly to Brixham for the day on a self-help Xmas shopping exercise to bye goodies like cameras and lenses,  We then took the scenic route home stopping off at 'The Halfway House' for a very pleasant late lunch and the odd pint or two of Guinness while discussing the pro's and cons of today's purchases,   So the only thing that I photographed today was this image of the moon as seen though a cloud of Guinness when I finally arrived home,  We will all be back on the case again early AM tomorrow to check out the new kit !!

Focus on Bullfinch

Bullfinch have been very prominent around the water margins at Stithians southern cut-off again today,  They are thriving on the abundance of seed heads of several species of margin plants and looking back through all my recent images I could not find one with a clean beak.  It was interesting to watch them work their way up the plant until they reached thin stems that bent this way and that under the weight of the feeding birds,  The bullfinch always wanted to reach the next one up the stem that sent both bird and stem crashing over,  No problem to the bullfinch which just hopped on to the next stem to repeat the exercise all over again,  With six birds on show it was not long before I was able to capture the male and female together in the pleasing portrait below.

Sunday morning at Ryan's field

I called in at Ryan's field again this morning looking to catch the Spoonbill fishing but I guess I was a bit early as the Spoonbill though present spent most of the time that I was there sleeping with its head and bill resting on its back,  Golden Plover stole the show flying in in large numbers to be followed by around a hundred Lapwing,  A small flock of five or six rarer Greenfinch were next to show perching briefly on one of the bank trees.  Daily residents such as a Lone Curlew, several Black -headed Gulls were as always busy fishing for shrimps, and an amorous male Redshank made several attempts to mate with a couple of un-cooperative female The Spoonbill finally decided that it didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot  and made a small effort to catch a few shrimps before flying off over the estuary,   All in all, A pleasant pre-Sunday breakfast visit !!

Spoonbill at Ryan's field this morning

A maturing Spoonbill flew in to one of the Islands in Ryan's field as I walked along the Hayle causeway just after sunrise this AM and it was nicely backlit by the rising sun,  It entered the shallow water of the lagoon as I watched its skilful use of its Spoon bill which looks quite clumsy and cumbersome when viewed front on but becomes a finely tuned instrument for fishing when studied from the side to create some interesting angles for portrait images,  Its perhaps interesting to watch the fishing action which is conducted side to side  which would tend to imply that any potential prey would see very little of the bill heading in its direction !!  A very clever natural design .   Other subject on the water line included many Lapwing,  A Grey wagtails and three or four Black tailed Godwits all of which are posted below.

Mute Swan terretorial behaviour Part 2

A  Mute swan territorial attack shown above that happened PM on the 20th September and reported on my blog of the same day was a bit of an unfinished story,  When I left Marazion marsh already very late for an important appointment due to staying on to look out for the battered victim of this assault,  I luckily met Rod Farnes , a prominent local wildlife Photographer as I walked back to my car at 4.30 PM,  I was feeling uneasy that it seemed like the resident Swans were hanging around waiting for me to leave to continue their assault on what was now an immobile defenceless swan that was unmoving in the posture show in the second image below,

I related my concerns to Rod and pointed out the swans location and while doing so we could both see the resident male moving back across the warren towards the battered bird,  Rod told me he would head along to the location to look out for it and I went on my way still feeling uneasy.

Well I caught up with Rod farnes yesterday and asked him the outcome of this event and he informed me that by the time he had walked along to the location the aggressive male swan was already back on top of his victim jabbing at its eyes and head in the same manner that I had witnessed and that he also had to climb over the wall in his efforts to separate them,  The resident male would not leave the scene obviously intent on destroying this trespasser within his territory so Rob called the RSPB located locally in Penzance and Jenny Parker and colleagues came along and rescued the badly beaten bird and took it off to the local bird hospital in Mousehole for treatment and recovery.

Whilst I realise that this territorial behaviour is all part of the natural world and in a different circumstance the victim might well have been the aggressor but it is difficult to stand by and watch a large bird taking such a pasting just because of its bad luck in trespassing in this territory,  Many thanks to Rod Farnes and Jenny Parker for completing this rescue and I hope that anyone else witnessing a similar situation will take a similar course of action.

Stithians southern cut-off today

I went to Stithians Southern cut-off again this morning intending to spend just a couple of hours which became a pleasant day,  It started very mild with rain and even hail storms,  Check out the last posted image of a storm drenched female Bullfinch which ignored the weather and carried on feeding, The weather improved to good sunny periods with no wind giving the Cut-off  a tranquil and relaxed feel with plenty of bird species visiting the feeding station so with improving light levels I just continued snapping the day away and if this is a sign of a miss-spent retirement all I can say is  BRING IT ON !!