Barn Owls hunting

I revisited the Barn Owls last evening working on the principle that the previous evening had probably been two wet for them to have had much hunting success,  This seemed to be the case as the owls were busy way before the sun set creating good opportunities to capture active hunting shots,  To complete the portfolio below I have compiled a sequence of Six consecutive images into a Barn Owl hunting montage to try to demonstrate the Owls low flying silent hunting skills,  The two that I watched were successful in taking prey on four occasions during the hour that I was there,

Kingfisher Photography

Kingfisher photography can be a bit of a waiting game whereby known sightings location can remain unvisited for days and weeks at a time,  prey availability, mating behaviour, fatalities and a certain amount of luck can all effect the amount of time that it can take to achieve good portrait images at even well recognised locations such as the RSPB Hide at Ryan's Field Hayle,  I popped into the hide to pick up a few scallops from my friend Peter Tonkin early AM this morning and while throwing a few balls for his trusty dog Woody this  fine female Kingfisher showed on three of her favoured perch points,  Caught two small fish and was away again leaving me with a nice little portfolio and a bag of scallops for my breakfast,  Not a bad start to a Sunday morning !

Gone Fishing!

With wildlife photography subjects being a bit thin on the ground at the moment and the tourists flooding into Cornwall, My photography has taken a bit of a back seat for the school holiday period and the ' Gone Fishing' is up, with the back water of Millpool providing a lovely off the beaten track location for fishing and a bit of Kingfisher and Dragonfly spotting,  The first image below shows yours truly relaxing on the pool side with Trusty friend 'Woody' carrying out float watching duties:

The next shot show me with one of my 'Fish of the Day' poses

The following three portrait pics are of my finest three fish caught yesterday which are Perch, Golden Rudd and Roach respectively,  all very relaxed and a fine way to avoid 'The Madding Crowds'.

There are Carp in this pool that dwarf the fish species that I have caught so far so watch this space for some larger fish during the next few weeks !!

Cornish Kestrels part 29

As our young kestrel fledglings reach fourteen days old I managed to take my first images of one of them near the front of their obscured nest site as it watched the female kestrel fly off to collect more prey,

Providing nothing untoward happens within the next fourteen days and the adult birds keep up their good work in the supply of prey our young birds will finally fledge to explore the amazing Cornish coastline that will become their home,

Wind swept Cornish coastline

Following forty eight hours of high winds the seas around the Cornish coast were raging today creating an awesome spectacle for those walkers who braved the coastal footpaths

I saw a large mature Grey seal that showed no concern as it negotiated its way skilfully between shallow white water and jagged black rocks

I do not know why the little balls of spotted fluff that are Black back Gull chicks are not just blown off of high exposed rocks where I could not stand due to the strength of the wind

This female Kestrel hangs head motionless on the vertical cliff up-draughts while hunting by courtesy of the wind with little or no effort required for flight

A female Peregrine picks a spot to shelter from the elements where her plumage colours fade into the dramatic rock formation where she will remain unseen by those that did not see her land

No two days are the same around our coastline but nature seems to have a way of coping with all of them !

Longrock sibling Roe Deer

I returned to Longrock fields early AM on the look-out for new born Roe Deer kids but if they are around yet they are keeping well under cover in the current wet and windy condition but I did have a sighting of a pair of siblings which I have seen quite regularly since my first memorable views of them as Day old twins just two years ago,  The young buck tends to be a bit skitty but its probably not surprising as he does get a bit of a rough ride from one of the visiting mature bucks arrive on the scene

Longrock Roe Deer

With three Doe Roe Deer showing well for an hour or so at Longrock this morning it was good to see them joined by a fine mature Buck following the lose of a local buck to road kill just last week,  The weather conditions were overcast and quite drab but when the deer present themselves so well you just have to do the best you can and accept a little grain !

Cornish Kestrels part 26

Close focus on the Female,

Yesterday was a good day for the Kestrels with last years young birds interacting with our pair on several occasions, prey exchanges were a bit confusing at times with the younger birds trying to muscle in on the prey but our female retained order making sure that it only went where it was intended,  She was showing well and provided me with plenty of close focus opportunities several of which are posted below,

Cornish Kestrels Part 25

Kestrel Portraits
I was hoping to see some evidence of Chicks perhaps today or some time before the end of the week but  much time spent with the kestrels showed them following the same male to female prey hand-overs and general behaviour as usual,  I used my time trying to find access for an upward angle that also afforded some dark negative space as a backdrop for a few portraits of this amazing pair of birds and was quite pleased with the results posted below,

The first and last images are the relaxed female and the middle two are our flighty male,  The female is far more used to life around her nest site and was always going to present the best portraits,

Cornish Kestrel part 24

Vole prey hand-0ver,

Our kestrels have settled into a routine of incubation on the part of the female and prey supply to the female by the male on a regular basis,  In the image below the male returns skilfully displaying his prey as he lands,

 The female takes the offering and departs immediately to consume it on her own

 The male watches her depart then flies off to find his own dinner

This pattern of behaviour will continue until the chicks hatch any day now freeing up both birds to share in hunting and feeding the new arrivals,

Longrock Roe Deer at sunrise

With a clear early morning sky and sunrise at 5.30am it had to be a good morning to check out our local Roe Deer at Longrock,  I arrived just as the first rays of sunlight spread over the far side of the field and a fine doe jumped out from the woodland cover,

Once the female started moving around to feed on the grasses and hedgerow I could clearly see  from the image below that she was heavily pregnant and should be ready to give birth in the next couple of weeks

I watched her grazing for a while and could see her eyes and ears pick up as she heard something moving farther along the woodland hedgerow and a few minutes later out popped one of her last years kits,

All of our Roe Deer now have fine new summer coats that look lovely in the morning sunshine and my parting shot was taken as the mother moved along the field to rejoin her offspring

I came away leaving them to enjoy their morning and drove home contemplating the delights that I had experienced in previous years when the new kids finally arrive.