Diving Dipper

Bob Sharples and I returned to Kennell Vale pm yesterday hoping for a bright afternoon and a pair of Dipper,  On arrival we had both,  The pair of Dipper were present but both left before we had quietly assembled our cameras well back from the river bank,

We waited around an hour before one Dipper returned but by then the skies over the woods had turned cloudy so light levels were a bit of a challenge, Having said that the solo Dipper treated us to an hour or so of behaviour action displaying its diving skill in the river which was running faster and higher than on recent visits,

When the Dipper finished feeding it spent another thirty minutes preening and scratching its head in between regular high energy plunges into shallow water while sending up impressive sprays of water with its fast beating wings,

I do not remember the last time that I took over a thousand images of one bird but all of this action in the water demanded lots of continuous bursts of shutter action at eleven frames a second while trying to capture some of the detail and I ended up taking a total of 1104 which have taken until noon today to cull down to 1%  with eleven images used in the 'Dipper Diving'  shots posted below.

Due to the time required to cull down my preening and bathing and scenic shots, the balance of yesterdays shot will appear on this blog later today or tomorrow as ' Dipper taking a Dip'

Cornish Kestrel part 17

Male Kestrel with prey

The bright sunshine continued on through yesterday so having returned home for breakfast after my early morning trip to the kestrels and a chat about the ongoing day with my wife Heather we both decided to return during the afternoon.   It was only around ten minutes after are arrival that the male kestrel flew in with a writhing common lizard in one of its talons which he duly passed over to the female on the nest

I was pleased to capture this flight image below as he immediately departed the nest

He flew onto a nearby ledge perhaps checking me out and I could see that he had sustained a little wing feather damage probably while catching the lizard but in general all is looking good for a nice brood of fledglings again this year,

Mating Cornish kestrels part 15

Mating Cornish Kestrel

Well it has been six weeks since the 23rd of February when I first saw and photographed our Cornish Kestrels mating this year and even that was a very average record image,  They have certainly given me the run around ever since but today I was finally in the right place at the right time to capture one of their brief unions,  The image below shows our male kestrel responding to the females call and arriving near the nest site.

The female calls again from just four metres away and the birds begin mating immediately

I was delighted with the image below showing eye contact between the mating pair and for once my camera and the sunlight were both from more favoured angles

Their brief union is over within a few seconds but I was also pleased to capture the parting images shown below as they separated.  These moments are rare and I just have to make the most of documenting these behaviour shots when they do eventually come along !

Looking back at last years records the first egg laid at our nest site was on the 3rd April so I am hoping that this years egg laying sequence should start shortly after which our pair should prove to be more photographically productive around the nest site during their egg protection period with frequent prey hand overs etc..

Cornish Mizzle

Having checked out the CBWPS sightings page last night I decided to visit Marazion Marsh this morning to try for a few shots of yesterdays reported Male Marsh Harrier, but on arrival around  9am  I could not even see the marsh, never mind the Harrier,  The mist was that thick that even the rabbits on the warren were bumping into each other,

So off I went to Drift Reservoir perhaps for a Great Crested Grebe 'Display' or a lucky glimpse of yesterdays sighting of an Otter.  I felt my way down to the shoreline and trekked off towards the Hide thinking the mist would clear shortly, Did it Hell !  I disturbed a Cormorant at the hide grabbing a few flight shots as I did so,  then sat there for a hour wishing I was somewhere else,

My wife rang from Cornwall College at Camborne to arrange a lift home later, throwing in a comment about what a lovely sunny morning it had been there,  So what the hell was I doing sat at Drift in the gloom,  Off I went to Stithians reservoir to try my luck in the southern cut-off hide where resident birds such as the Male Chaffinch and Reed Bunting pictured below were immediately sighted,

The pair of  Great Spotted Woodpecker both put in an appearance and Jack Hicks who was already in the hide before my arrival spoke of his surprise when the Male had 'Drummed ' on the hide roof earlier,  Little Grebe and the previously seen two female Pintail also put in an appearance, but no sign of the Water Rail or Sparrowhawk,  A Moorhen put in several quite bold visits below the far feeder to provide me with my final image of the day illustrated below.

Kennell vale Dipper

I was shown around the Kennell Vale Reserve today 'Thanks to Bob Sharples'  What an amazing Cornish valley with countless ruins of old gunpowder mills and the rocky tumbling river that used to power them'  The scenery would keep a landscape photographer busy all day.

The fast moving rocky river is also home to an incredible bird  'The Dipper' that has always avoided my attention since I moved to Cornwall. But not today !  Having walked around the reserve we ended up on the quaint old granite bridge that crosses the river and there amid rounded boulders and crashing water were a pair of Dipper that accepted our presence for around fifteen minutes while they collected moss and other nesting materials from the river, They also provided me with around fifty images on my memory card three of which are posted below.

Five more early Adders

With good levels of sunshine forecast I spent much of my day in the good company of Peter Tonkin and Bob Sharples at Trewavas Head,  Our aim was to look for more sun basking adders at the same location as my adder report on the 18/02/17.  To say we were successful would perhaps be a bit of an understatement as the warm sunshine brought out no less than five individuals,  Three of these we worked with for several hours,  Even a few showers didn't stop them returning as soon as the sun came back out and they were still there when we departed.  The first three images below are all of the same adder and image four and five are separate individuals as their skin colouring will clarify,

Happy Days!

Cornish Kestrel part 7

It has been a cold and blustery morning and set to stay that way for the rest of the day,  Light levels were poor early AM but it was not raining as was forecast for later so I braved the south coast to see how the Kestrels were doing,  No sign of Kevin the male kestrel but Kate returned with prey within ten minutes of my arrival and took it to a stash on the far side of the cove,  She then made what looked like a purposeful flight directly towards me across the cove and settled into the closest cliff ledge above me as if to say  'I'm watching you watching me '

And she sat there for nearly two hours allowing me plenty of time to study her behaviour and pick off many varied portrait images such as the one below during one of her 'bird watching' sessions

I think she was keeping an eye open for her mate as she looks pristine and ready to get on with the job of starting a new brood,  In between preening and stretching she spent quite a lot of time scratching in particular around her head and neck giving me plenty of different angles to chose from to photograph,  I have selected the one below because it showed total commitment to scratching with no eye contact in any direction which is rare for a bird of prey,   I think the sooner her dust bowl is back in action again the better!

Cornish Kestrel part 6

Everything is looking on target with the kestrel's breeding season, I saw Kevin leave as I arrived at their cove this morning and Kate returned with prey which she immediately consumed,

Within ten minutes she flew to her favoured dust bowl location only to find that last nights rain and this mornings sunshine had turned it into a mud cake,

She tried to raise some dust to help clear parasites and fleas but soon gave up, Better luck tomorrow maybe!

Returning to base for a good old fashioned preening of all feathers right down to her tail tips

Time for a little stretching and limbering up before:

Flying off for a little more hunting,

She soon returned with another vole which she made no attempt to eat but took straight to one of her favoured stash points, This is a positive sign that their territory is productive and should help stimulate a will to produce another brood

Kevin should very soon take over the role of supplying Kate with prey to prove his capability as provider when a brood arrives,  Prey hand-over makes an excellent interaction image and I look forward to this years experience,

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,