Peanut Hunt

We had just one hungry Badger checking out all of our garden's peanut stash locations last night and nowhere avoided inspection until the nuts were found and this time they were half way up a tree trunk

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Come in number Five

Catching sight of the number of chicks in obscure dark kestrel nest sights can be a tricky business and in this case two weeks after hatching we believed there to be four at this sight but as the female was returning with prey yesterday we finally caught sight of a much smaller fifth chick in front of the other four.

With her prey delivered the female is straight back to the hunt and this time she is hovering low right over our heads.

She takes another Vole which is immediately delivered to the chicks before returning to the hunt once again

The female who is a more prolific hunter than the male repeats this exercise five times before the male in the last image posted returned with his second catch of the day

The male is known to us as  'Broken Tail ' on account of the fact that he has lost a high percentage of his tail flight feather which might have some bearing on his 'catch rate' performance 

Last nights Portraits

We had a nice show from two of our local fox cubs again last night.  Both arrived together and had a good forage around interacting to find our latest peanut stash which never takes them very long.

When the first of two badgers arrived on the scene both cubs decided to abort their visit but they were leaving happily with the treats that they had come for.

The two badgers had a good root around but failed to produce the   ' Pole Dancing '   shots that I had been looking for but           ' Watch this space '

With the Badgers gone our ex-ferrel male cat Mr Purdhu had to check out the scene just in case any treats had been missed !

Fourteen strong flock of Cornish Chough

While waiting for Kestrel prey hand-overs pm yesterday Peter Tonkin and I had a surprise and very welcome fly-bye from fourteen Cornish Chough which appeared to be a union of three families

They split into family groups to forage the coastal rough grass fields with the un-rung orange billed juveniles still begging from the red billed and rung adults,

This particular family all tried to land on the same small granite pier which created a bit of a challenge for the noisy bunch and a very nice prop for photography.

The whole group eventually headed off back in the direction that they had come from proclaiming a success story for Cornish Chough and all those local people that helped with their recovery

Kestrel feeding Frenzy

I watched this fine pair of Kestrel struggling to feed their four chicks in overcast conditions for four hours yesterday.

They were out constantly hunting over rough grass fields and coastline looking for Voles, Lizards and Slow worm but none were moving in the cold windy conditions.

At two thirty pm the clouds rolled away to expose warm sunshine and a feeding frenzy of all the above prey items began in Ernest.

When I eventually left three hours later all the chicks were well fed and settled down and watching with fascinated as flies flew into their nest attracted by prey remains and now the adult birds could finally  ' Enjoy a little down Time too'

Life in the Lilies

A moorhen and her chick are seen here relaxing in the lilies,  The mother is preening as she watches her chick sinking individual lily pads to form a pool to bath in.

With bathing complete the chick uses her well over-sized feet to spread its weigh as it walks around the pads conducting its first foraging exercise.

Rest period over the mother steps in to organise the foraging.

Dragonflies, Painted ladies & More

It was a lovely warm summer day on the south coast of Cornwall yesterday and dragonflies were out and about breeding on local ponds.

Female Emperor Dragonfly ovipositing her eggs

Male Broad Bodied Chaser.

Black-tailed Skimmer

We had a strong migration of Painted Lady butterflies and would you believe that these 75mm beauties all have flown in on mass from North Africa and they will now migrate on up to and including the north of Scotland and they are the only butterfly that has been recorded as far north as Iceland.

Small Tortoiseshell

And finally a female Peregrine hot from the chase tucks into a luckless Pigeon that has just ended its days

North Coast Fledglings

On the North coast a pair of Black-back Gull chicks are coming along well considering the exposed rock that the parent birds have chosen to nest on.

In the same area Heron Gulls are also raising a fine looking pair of chicks.

A near fledged lone Peregrine tests its wings while calling out to one of the parent birds who responds by bringing some prey which the juvenile is keen to claim.