Walmsley visit

Peter Tonkin and I took a trip up to Walmsley Sanctuary yesterday morning looking to capitalise on the recent  ' Frog Fest '  event with an influx of dozens of Cattle Egret predating on the local frogs during their breeding season.

Our visit was perhaps a little too late with most of the Cattle egret now feeding in sheep grazing fields at the Chapel Amble end of the reserve but we stayed in the fine 4m high hide for the duration and eventually picked off a few stay birds that did pass our way.

We did get a few distant shots of a Cattle Egret devouring what must have been one of the last luckless frogs to finish our day but we will look to visit at an earlier opportunity in oncoming years should this event be repeated.

                             

So we finally got a bit of a shot of the Cattle Egret predating on frogs but on this occasion I believe that the Cormorant below created our best photo opportunity of the day as it displayed its pristine plumage in a few classic wing drying poses

Perhaps Walmesley was a long way to go for a Cormorant Shot but the we had really enjoyed our visit to this excellent hide and our thanks go to Adrian Langdon for arranging our access and showing us around.

Cattle egret and Little Egrets

My morning started off looking for Roe Deer at Longrock, No show there and it started raining so I moved on to Hayle hide at Ryans field but there was little to view and a northeasterly wind was blowing the rain straight into the hide  so I cut through the back lanes to St Erth and on along Tredrea lane towards home,   A herd of cows and a few frisky bullocks caught my eyes on the far side of a field and then I noticed a group of Egrets dodging between their legs,   They were quite distant but as I set up my tripod the herd noticed me and started to wander towards me probably hoping that I was the farmer coming to feed them,  The egrets followed behind them until they were eventually only twenty metres in front of me enabling me to produce the portfolio posted below.

Cattle Egret and Cormorants spooked at roost

I arrived at the Loe Pool roost around 2.30pm yesterday and was surprised that sixteen Cattle egret and twenty four Cormorants were already present,  I had gone early hoping for Cattle Egret group flight images low to the waterline but that seemed to unlikely now considering their presence so I settled down to work on seven Cormorants on a fallen tree on the west side of the pool and two pairs of camera shy Great Crested Grebe that seemed to be on an endless patrol.

The Roost

Cormorant Display

I hid among several close Pampas grasses for a hour to take just one burst of this camera shy grebe five metres from the water margin

At 3.30pm a fast moving noisy jet fighter flew over to be followed by two low flying helicopters and by 3.40pm  there was not a bird to be seen on Loe Pool.  Charming!

This negative incident did as it happens create a photo opportunity for me with all sixteen Cattle Egret in flight together but this time they were travelling north away from the roost

I waited until 4.30pm hoping to see the egrets return but it was not to be,  What a shame that this rare Cornish gathering of Cattle Egrets should be spooked off of this roost sight along with all other local birds by such aggressive helicopter low flight paths directly over the pool,

Sixteen Cattle Egret to Loe Pool roost

Following last nights CBSPS report posting Fifteen Cattle Egret at Loe Pool Degibna roost  I decided to try my luck for a few group piccies this evening,  Sure the light levels were low and it was quite misty at times but hey we are talking about white birds here,  I allowed some time to find the roost area and select an optimum viewing area and was just about ready when I saw a flock of gulls heading south from the north end but they weren't gulls they were Cattle egret which headed for and settled into the expected roost area,  This exercise was repeated fifteen minutes later when a further six birds flew in from the same direction,  A few minutes later I had multiple images of sixteen Cattle egrets in one tree.     Thanks to T&M Hasdell for the CBSPS sighting and excellent viewing suggestion

The image below is of a group of twelve Cattle Egret taken around 3.40pm the following evening, They were joined by a further four birds at 4.20 pm