GB2E on Line

GB2E or locally named  ' Billy no Mates '  was a Wet and lonely looking White Stork on power lines over Ryan's Field this morning,

It has ended up being separated from a group of twenty two that have found there way into Cornwall following their release by a coalition of UK wildlife groups as part of an annual reintroduction scheme.

I took a few images from the hide shown below but was not best pleased with the power cable and isolator clutter and eventually found an alternative angle for a more pleasing portrait from the banks of the River Hayle.

Good luck to GB2E,   All of the other released birds and the wildlife groups working on this project as it is just great to see them gracing the UK landscape !

Little Common Lizard.

I went to Windmill farm reserve on the Lizard peninsula today hoping for a show from a reported Hobby feeding on Dragonflies but it was not to be so being on the Lizard I turned my attention towards them,

Things were a bit slow to start with and then I saw three on one of the board walks,  None were longer than a couple of inches and all could fit comfortable inside one of the Hexagon shaped holes in the chicken wire covering over the walkway.

I added a 1.7 converter to my Nikon 500mm lens and used a Nikon D500 cropped sensor body to produce a 1275mm reach and snapped away in the limited time that any one of them showed above the boardwalk while I was struggling at a 3.5 m distance to produce the images posted below.

I included the above image of one of the Lizard's with a fly alongside it to add to the size and scale.

The Common Lizard's blended in well with the boardwalk decking and if undisturbed they would wait motionless for flies and insects to come within their reach at which time they moved in with incredible fast reactions

Osprey 'Down Time'

Following a bout of fishing an Osprey retires to a broken branch of a pine tree that allows for good all round viewing during her rest period.

She is also often seen resting up closer to the waterline when she feels that the area is undisturbed.

Just look at the size and span of those talons as she lands on an old tree trunk.

A close encounter from a cheeky Magpie gives a good scale size to this large bird.

Rest period over and its time to get back to fishing for those ever alert and fast moving reservoir trout!

Osprey Fishing

An adult Osprey arrives at the reservoir to do a little fishing,  She has a hungry offspring in tow and decides to teach it more about the art of   ' Diving for Dinner '

The juvenile is parked in a bank side tree to watch and the adult gains some height for the dive.

The first sign that she has spotted a fish comes when she stalls her flight while quickly deciding if she will dive for it

She flips over and goes into a steep swoop with her talons at the ready.

She crashes into the water talons first and if she has caught a fish she will wait a moment to muster the extra strength required to lift it clear of the water.

This time she has missed and she immediately works her wet wings to break clear of the water.

Her Main goal now is to regain some height to go through the whole procedure again to hopefully make a successful catch while she is still wet.

The trout in this reservoir can be quite big and just one would probably feed the two of them so I wish them better luck soon,

The trout are also very agile to the extent that in the sixteen hours that I have spent watching the Osprey complete at least a dozen dives over the last three days no fish have been taken but what a splendid experience of Osprey behaviour it has been.

More images of Osprey  'Down Time'  to follow in my next Blog and thanks to Jacko !

Osprey Flight Portraits

Its that time of the year when we are treated to Drop-In's from migrating adult Osprey and there off-spring and I have spent the last three pleasant days photographing a close bonded pair of birds that were fishing and roosting together in one of our local reservoirs.

This first Osprey blog has been dedicated to showing several of the classic wide spread wing flight shots that Osprey are recognised for and will be followed by one or two more showing the Osprey's fishing behaviour and perched images.

My next blog will concentrate on photographing the Osprey's fishing behaviour in detail !

Sparrowhawk & Friends ? in Flight

A Female Sparrowhawk rises on the gentle updraughts along the cliffs of the south Cornish coast

As it circles upwards it is on the lookout for likely prey but as is usually the case all of its 'friends ' will do all that they can to see it off which is one of the down sides of being a  ' Bird of Prey '

The first to confront the Sparrowhawk is a local Raven but the lighter and more agile Sparrowhawk very quickly turns the hunter into the hunted and almost treats the encounter as sport

Next up is a very vocal Magpie which quickly changes its mind when the sparrowhawk beak and talons are turned in its direction.

Jackdaw and crows also try their luck at driving off the Sparrowhawk but it is not until the local male peregrine ( A  very professional ' Bird of Prey ' )  arrives to see what all the shouting is about that the Sparrowhawk gives way to a single Peregrine swoop and moves on to pastures new.

Cornish Wild Carp

Where you find Buddleia you usually find Butterflies and the Millpool was no exception on this bright sunny morning.

I was fasinated by the behaviour  of the Wild Carp in the pool,  Eight of these fine 75cm long torpedo shaped fish were interacting and possibly late spawning in shallow waters under overhanging trees and I worked hard at trying to capture one of the three impressive 15 to 20lb body breaches that I saw occur but they were to quick for me.

And this bold Red Darter decided to take up residence on my knee several times as I was intently watching the Carp

Juvenile Female Sparrowhawk Portraits

I had put in a lot of hours waiting to capture images of this juvenile female Sparrowhawk and when it finally showed I was gob-smacked by how big it was and thought for a while that it might be a Goshawk.

When the bird first arrived I had a 1.7 Tele-converter fitted to my Nikon 500mm F4 lens but immediately found its magnification to much for this large bird so after taking the close ups posted below I hurriedly removed it to gain some full bird images.

Below I have merged a scaled image of a mature male Sparrowhawk taken on the same perch point last year while using the perch for size correction to show the much larger juvenile female's proportions.

Sparrowhawk ID data seems to confirm that the female can be up to 10cm longer,  15cm wider in wingspan and up to three times the weight of the male.