Birds of Prey Today

I started my day photographing a dramatic sunrise as it rose above the clearing night clouds to produce a very fine sunny day with light easterly winds which was just perfect to work with local birds of prey as they hunted over rough grass fields on the high grounds of west Cornwall.

First up above was a buzzard which had just caught a vole that it took up onto a fence pole to dispatch.

My second subject was a Short Eared Owl perched on the ground where it had just taken a vole, It looked like butter would not melt in its mouth but down below its talons are squeezing the life out of a large vole and it was now keeping the prey  hidden under its body in the rough grass field.

The reason that the vole was kept out of sight by the Short Eared owl was that a local Kestrel had picked up on the Owl's action and being ever an opportunist it was hovering and looking for any chance to mug the Owl to steal an easy meal !

When the coast has cleared the wise old Owl picks up the large lifeless vole and flies it to a safer stash points for later consumption so that in the meantime it can continue hunting for more voles while the fine weather continues..

Before heading for home from this nine hour Shoot I took a few atmospheric telephoto shots of the sun setting close to the LongShips Lighthouse which was six and a half miles away.  It was a fitting end to a memorable day spent with a few of Cornwall's  photogenic ' Birds of Prey '


More Shorties from today's  prolific shoot will be posted in tomorrows blog ! 

Osprey look-alike ?

When that distant expected Osprey flying towards you turns out to be the local Buzzard it can be a little disappointing but on another day I would be pleased to photograph it so I carried on with the shoot as it passed directly over heading into the sun.

During post production I was pleased with the portraits of this fine looking Buzzard a few of which are posted below.

The next bird passing will hopefully be an Osprey !!

Mixed bag

A mixed bag of subjects taken between Relubus and the Mill pond

Common Hawker

Small White

Painted Lady

Speckled Wood

Gold ringed Dragonfly

Male Demoiselle

Female Demoiselle

Peacock Butterfly

And last but not least a low fling buzzard over the Mill Pool !

Other North Coast sightings today

While waiting for prey hand-over and mating activities from the local Kestrel up on the north coast this morning  I spent my in-between time recording other passing local bird life.

These included pairs of White throats and Wren, several early morning Curlew,  A female Peregrine and a Buzzard that both passed by several times and four Cornish Chough two of which landed quite close.

With the above subjects and both mating and prey exchange shots of the local Kestrel in the can !       I finally dragged myself away from some very pleasant encounters

Raven Mad

It looks like this pair of nesting Raven have gone ' Raven Mad ! '  I watched as they took on all comers that happened to fly to close to their nest containing four chicks.

Birds taken on in just one morning included a male Peregrine and Sparrowhawk and the buzzard featured in the aerial dispute images posted above and below.

The Raven worked together ganging up on the birds of prey but had to be very careful as all were expert hunters and capable of turning the hunter into prey.

Note the way that the buzzard is flying towards one raven but it is watching the rear birds position before reacting.

In the two shots below the buzzard demonstrates how quickly such a large bird is capable of turning the above ambush into a vertical assault putting the Raven on the defencive

 

All birds called off the dispute at this stag and the Buzzard returned to its own tree top nest site to reconsider its next flight direction before setting out to forage again,

Buzzard in flight

Watch any Buzzard in flight for a while and it will not be long before some other bird from another buzzard down to a skylark will do all it can to repel it from their patch.

Perhaps not the most popular bird within its own population but this impressive bird which can weigh up to 40 oz and is 60 cm long with a powerful wingspan of around I.3 metres that allows this long living bird  ( Up to twenty five years ) to travel gracefully for miles without a wing beat.

The images of this local bird have all been taken on recent sunny days as it leisurely glides by without me even having to leave my own rural area garden to do it.

Grebes at Drift Reservoir

I went to Drift Reservoir this morning to check out reports of three grebe species being present at this time and i was not to be disappointed.

Three great crested grebes were present  and these two seemed to be paired off.

Two very similar Black-necked Grebes seemed happy to share the same water but all were quite some distance from the reservoir banks

Three delightful Little grebes were by contrast forever foraging right along the shallow margins

A mallard demonstrates the reason for the saying:  ' Like water off a ducks back '

Gadwall and Tufted Ducks were pairing off

And the Canada Goose was just one of a couple of hundred present on the day

A nice fly-bye from a local Buzzard finished off with a nice if distant but graceful landing on slim tree branches on the opposite side of the reservoir