Dipper takes a Break !!

I made a PM visit to Kennell Vale today,  I had spent the morning on equipment repairs but the midday sunny spells got the better of me so I was out to try my luck with the Dipper again,

When I arrived the Dipper was also out working its way through the waterfalls and white water shallows.  I settled down about ten metres back from the opposite bank keeping my tripod and camera low to the ground,

I clicked away for five minutes or so when things got even more interesting when the Dipper came off the water to perch on a granite boulder on the bank that I was working from,  It was now at the closest distance that I had ever worked on it.

It relaxed on this boulder for fifteen minutes preening, scratching and stretching,  A real joy to watch and I was surprised just how small it wings were but I guess that like diving seabirds they use these short wings to 'fly' under water.

Break over and the Dipper was back on the waterline on the case as it searched for insects and larvae
and I had been treated to some good behaviour images which I headed off home to process.

North coast Peregrine

The weather was dark and dismal again today with the prevailing winds being East to South east but I wanted my share of fresh air and freedom so I headed up on to the north coast to try my luck with the Peregrine,

Everything was very quiet at first but I eventually snapped a few shots of a bird that was four to five hundred metres away on a cliff edge, It was a stretch for 500mm lens, so I added a 1.7 teleconverter to my assembly and sat and waited to see if it might move in my direction,  No such luck !!  in fact the peregrine moved nothing accept it head to keep an eye all around for over thirty minutes.

Taking note of the Peregrines position I decided to move on around the coast path keeping my head down where necessary until I was approximately fifty metres away,  I reassembled my kit ready to shoot and inched my head and lens above the gorse line to get a sneaky close look at the bird,

It had not moved an inch other than its head and eyes which were already staring straight at me, So that was my cover blown !!  From that moment I never moved an inch other than my shutter finger  as it went through a series of typical Peregrine body moves all of which tend to signal a forthcoming take-off as can be seen in images one to five below...........

Tail raised to poop

Individual wing stretches supported by the relevant foot for balance

Double wings raised ready to go

Wings starting to spread just before Take-off

And finally a drop-off rather than a take -off

This fine Peregrine was never going to take off into the wind in front of it because of my presence in front and above it, By just dropping off the cliff behind it was out of sight and moving safely away in seconds,  So no take -off sequence this time !!

Hovering to Hunt

There is a lead-up behaviour story relating to this kestrel that might be of interest to readers in the previous Blog, It relates to a series of events preceding the start of its hunting sequence posted below,

I have been working with this female Kestrel on and off for the last seven years and watched her raise twenty four fledglings,  Yesterday was my first sighting of her since last July last year and she treated me to some really close hovers as she hunted an entire rough grass field for voles over a thirty minute period, Light levels were still low but from behind me and the bird was quite close through much of its hunting period,

She stopped briefly after twenty minutes resting on a favoured boundary wall post then returned to the hunt until she found her prey a few minutes later in a tangled mass of hedgerow,  She then immediately took flight heading towards her roost with the vole classically hanging from one set of talons in what always looks like a casual manner,

I intend to follow this incredible bird throughout its breeding season again this year but any blogs relating to it will with the reasons why be published at a later date.

Peregrine v Chough & Kestrel

 On a sunday My wife Heather and I often take a walk along our local stretch of coast line,  We walk from Rosudgeon down through Chiverton farm and Trevean hamlet and come out onto the coast at Trevean Cove which has a memorable and ever changing view of St Micheil's Mount.

Heather takes a carrier bag for collection flotsam and jetsam from the shore,  She is working her way through a three year BA [HONS] Textile Design degree studying  Weave, Mixed Media & Print at Falmouth University and uses all sorts of weird finds in her current Mood board project on a theme titled  'The Sea', 

I take my camera and usually head for the clifftops backing the cove which is an excellent location for picking off images of larger birds hanging off of the up-draughts when the winds range from southeasterly through to westerly. 

The Sky's were very overcast today which tends to turn lots of skyward images into silhouettes but I ended up with some rather surprising shots anyway,  First up was a pair of Noisy Chough which could be heard before coming into view around an easterly headland.  The nearest known pair usually operate around Trewavas Head which is not that much farther around the coast to the east,

Fifteen minutes later I thought they were coming back in the opposite direction only to realise  [ Just in time to grab one chase shot that was in focus ]  that it was in fact a Peregrine in pursuit of one chough which escaped by the skin of its teeth,

I have never seen a Peregrine at this location before and I tracked it as it gained height to hang on the wind waiting for another opportune moment to attack another unsuspecting bird but the tables were turned when a female Kestrel well known to me as Kate came swooping in to side swipe the Peregrine at close quarters catching it off guard,  She came around again but the Peregrine and I were both ready and the kestrel pulled out at the last second which I think was a good call.

The Peregrine departed shortly afterwards in the direction of Perranuthnoe and was not seen again but Kate moved in low over the fields behind me moving up and down the field for thirty minutes until she finally caught a vole,  She providing me with a better set of images with the light coming from behind me which I will use to illustrate another Blog on the Kestrel some time tomorrow

                          She was a smart bird to see off the Peregrine before starting any hovering !!

Fulmar on the nest

Fulmar spend much of their lives way out in the challenging wild windswept seas of the north Atlantic for long periods where they are capable of drinking salt water to survive by expelling excess salt from their 'tubed'  nostrils,  so it is always good to see them when they make it back to the coast to breed,

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time watching them displaying at earthy cliff nest sites on the south coast, Two pairs of birds were in a reasonably close but shadowed position creating rather difficult exposure conditions but it was a pleasure to get the opportunity to work with them,

The birds were all quite active and displaying their 'Albatross' like retuning long lost mate displays on a regular basis every time that one or the other came back to their chosen nest site, These displays included neck stretching and waving and open beck fencing in unison,

In the last image below a third bird has arrived at one pairs nest site and started to display,  The female looked a little interested but her partner was having none of it,   Strange that !!

Body Boarder Barrelling

This afternoon I was walking back from Trewavas head on a lovely sunny afternoon and I noticed three body boarders working off the beach at Rinsey,  They looked as though they knew what they were doing and there was enough swell to form good breakers onto the beach so I stopped and set my tripod hoping to capture a few water sports images,  These guys were on the case when it came to picking a wave and within ten minutes one of them skilfully provided me with a fine sequence of a barrel roll where they were still visible inside the wave thanks to the back lighting from the sun,  It might have only been a couple of seconds but I was impressed!!

Grey Wagtail Behaviour

I returned to Kennell Vale yesterday looking to capture more Dipper behaviour which was quite successful with around forty images captured,

But what I was really pleased with was the performance of the Grey Wagtail which followed in its wake.   This lively little bird arrived at the same favoured perch point that the Dipper had just used and when its behaviour was studied it followed on in this vain by flying to and using all of the same points in the shallows that the Dipper had foraged before it and was successfully catching the same Caddis and Mayfly larvae prey but stopping short of actually diving under the water,

Is there some sort of copy-cat competing going on here ??,   If that is the case the Dipper does not seem to be aware of it as on the occasions that both are present the Dipper just tends to ignore the Wagtail where as an infiltrating Dipper would be very quickly dealt with,

The sequence of images below shows the busy Grey Wagtail foraging until the last image by which time it was very full and contented,

                                        A very clever and contented little bird !!