Carnsew Basin early AM

I called in at Carnsew Basin on the Hayle Estuary early AM today looking for sightings of the current Osprey that is on a fishing stop over for a few days before migrating onwards towards west Africa

Carnsew basin was perfectly calm and showing lovely reflections from shore side properties and its prominent church with a late moon setting behind it,  I thought the weird shot above just showing the moon set over the church reflections was interesting.

First up on the wildlife was a fishing Cormorant with an interesting split reflection caused by its own body movement. A distant Kingfisher was followed by a large flock of noisy Canada geese moving out of the estuary and a large volume of ducks moving in.

I finished off with a very bold Rock Pipit that was foraging in the tidal rock banks in front of me for over thirty minutes and what about the Osprey I hear you say !  Well it did finally show and passed by at a rate of knots with five crows snapping at its tail feathers but I will be back again later today to try my luck once more.

I spent a lot of time while waiting for the Osprey working on Cormorant behavior and reflections which will be shown in my next blog !

Focus on Drift Reservoir

Above is the view from a cover point that I sometimes use at Drift Reservoir and the images below were all taken during a three hour shoot there earlier today.


Nice to see a squirrel freely foraging about on the reservoirs open banks.

It is quite common to see fox out hunting on the shoreline and this one came very close until I fired my shutter after which it took off in a flash.

Many Grey Heron grace the banks of Drift Reservoir and reflections shots and take-off 's are there for the taking.

The resident Moorhen are always busy and they provide good reflection images from the many partially submerged tree stumps.

With plenty of small fish and dozens of tree stumps to work from Kingfishers are a common sight around Drift Reservoir.

Last but not least comes this fairly rare sighting of a nice Black Rabbit !

Ryan's field yesterday

It was a wet and windy morning at Ryan's field yesterday but the local bird life still put on a bit of a show starting with this female Kingfisher patiently waiting for fish to rise.

She was followed by the Black-headed Gull below that was having some trouble getting its prey:  a very lively Ell down the hatch,

A pair of Black-tailed Godwit and Shell Duck were feeding at a more leisurely pace while a lone Red shank and an Oystercatcher seemed to be having trouble finding any

Hayle Estuary and Ryan's field yesterday

This colourful female Kingfisher was showing quite well on Ryans field this morning and it managed to arrive with a little sunshine to bring out its colours.

A Little Egret produced a nice rippled silhouette as it fished between the reeds in the water between Ryan's field hide and the causeway and it caught a nice big shrimp for its breakfast

On the causeway several Lapwing were bathing  at the waters edge and feeding on the mudflats and a few filtered rays of the sun just about managed to highlight their iridescent red and green flight feathers

The very vocal Black headed gulls always create an interest with their surface diving behaviour

This ever present Curlew seemed like a big bird fishing in a very small pond but it came away with a
beak full of muddy worm which it seemed pleased to toss down its throat,  Each to their own !!

Ryan's field early AM

Kingfisher Landing and Take-Off:

Kestrel on the bypass covered handrail:

Black-headed Gulls display before diving for a Crab breakfast: