The Tehidy Tyrant

This male mute swan which I have named as the ' Tehidy Tyrant ' is part of a territorial pair on Tehidy's main pond,  The pair have a problem that as many as twenty to thirty other swans are attracted to this pond by the daily hand-out of food from park visitors so they keep on returning.

The male demonstrates almost constant daily aggression to the other swans singling them out one at a time to corner and attack and during my visit it chased one out of the pond and along the entire pond walkway into the woods where it stood an top of the other exhausted and shocked bird peaking relentlessly at its head, eyes and neck.

I have seen this sort of attack in other locations before and if not stopped it can result in the more submissive bird being killed or blinded so a little intervention was required to separate these birds.

Other subjects encountered included :

There were five resident Little Grebes present on Tehidy's big pond yesterday and they seemed to never stop fishing successfully for Three Spined Stickleback and its a wonder that the fish stocks manage to reproduce quickly enough to survive.

Moorhen were abundant both in and out of the water and a lone Jay was perched watching to see where the resident squirrels hid their peanuts with a view to raiding them later.

It would be difficult to ignore the cheeky Squirrels or the Xmas Robin at Tehidy both of which will quite happily take nuts directly from visitors and posing for photos comes as standard behaviour.

Tehidy Gold Rush

Rushing from tree to tree at Tehidy wildlife park yesterday this agile lightweight Goldcrest
( Europe's smallest bird ) was busy extracting insects, eggs and grubs from the underside of the few leaves remaining on the birch and willow trees,

This bird appeared to be almost neckless which tends to further compact its tiny form, It was in a race to extract insect life from every tree leaf before they fell and it was certainly living in the fast lane and a tease to extract clear images from.

I was working with a 500mm lens fitted with a 1.7 Tele-converter fitted which helped composition relating to the small size of the bird but its fast movements made my narrow field of view a bitch to track and compose my composition and the poor overcast light levels were difficult for shutter speed and ISO control with my settings ending up on minimum F6.7,  1/1000th sec and ISO 6400.

Such was the level of its commitment that this busy little guy seemed oblivious to me or all else that was going on around it as it worked its way towards me and suddenly at its closest point as fast as it had arrived it was gone again but not before I had extracted:    'A little Gold '

Hayle Estuary and Ryan's field yesterday

This colourful female Kingfisher was showing quite well on Ryans field this morning and it managed to arrive with a little sunshine to bring out its colours.

A Little Egret produced a nice rippled silhouette as it fished between the reeds in the water between Ryan's field hide and the causeway and it caught a nice big shrimp for its breakfast

On the causeway several Lapwing were bathing  at the waters edge and feeding on the mudflats and a few filtered rays of the sun just about managed to highlight their iridescent red and green flight feathers

The very vocal Black headed gulls always create an interest with their surface diving behaviour

This ever present Curlew seemed like a big bird fishing in a very small pond but it came away with a
beak full of muddy worm which it seemed pleased to toss down its throat,  Each to their own !!

Lunch break Over

This Short-eared Owl has been taking a snooze after consuming a large Vole in rough grass fields

Slowly waking it partakes in a little preening, wing stretching and a full body shake-out prior to taking-off.

On its graceful take-off flight it heads towards me casually checking me out before turning and heading off on another hunting mission back across the fields with its talons at the ready to perform another kill.

After Dinner Snooze

I was photographing this fine Short-eared Owl in flight yesterday when it suddenly did a fast U-turn having seen a vole in the rough grass quite close to me.

The Owl dived in with its wings held well back to avoid damage and the fact that it stayed down confirmed that it had captured the Vole in its lethal talons

The Owl worked its talons into the vole until it was dead before transferring it head first into its wide open mouth for a down in one swallow that was assisted by closing its eyes and pressing downwards with its eye socket muscles on the vole to aid forcing it on down the hatch.

With its short ears projecting the Shortie then balled up to take a twenty minute 'After Dinner Snooze' while digesting the luckless Vole

  

I carried on watching this Owl for a further thirty minutes or so and my next blog shows it waking ,preening and wing stretching prior to it taking-off and carrying on with another daytime hunt.

Spike Might

This rather aggressive looking Grey Heron which I have named 'SPIKE' has just flown in and knocked another Grey Heron off of a favoured perch point on south coast cliffs.

The Heron that was so rudely ejected flies round in a circle with the intention of returning to:                                                                                                                                                  'Its Perch'

But Spike is having none of it and turns to face his Aggressor.

The incoming bird stops short on the next rock and tries to intimidate Spike who is like a gun slinger: Poised and ready for action!

The incoming bird decides that it didn't want that rock anyway and Spike notches up another win.

He now stands proud again as he holds his new territory in the 'Wild West' of Cornwall