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 !!

A recent visit to Stithians Reservoir

Peter Tonkin and I revisited Stithians Stuart Hutchings and  Southern cut-off hide last week to check if the Great Spotted Woodpecker fledglings were still working the area,  We only saw one bird but it looked to be doing very well and it was interesting to note that its juvenile red cap was beginning to fade out.

Water levels were expectantly low and all vegetation around the hide high but we enjoyed our visit while snapping away at the images posted below.

This juvenile Grey Heron appeared to be displaying but we could not see any other Heron in the area.

We were seasonally surprised to note several Lapwing working the margins

There were around a dozen mature Cormorants occupying all of the large rocks around the water margins of the main reservoir.

And five or six juvenile Grey Heron resting up between bouts of fishing the margins

Back on the cut-off the displaying Grey Heron eventually took to fishing the margins amid masses of flowering water plants before flying off to join the heron on the main reservoir

Stithians today

The Kingfisher put in a good show at Stithians southern cut-off today but at around 150 metres to the trees that it fishes from is a big ask for any camera and telephoto lens especially in the prevailing low light levels but we watched it fish several times so I had a go at putting a water exit  sequence montage together, No fish caught here but it is always good to see the Kingfisher in action

Snipe are one of natures masters of disguise and without a telephoto lens and a fair bit of Photoshop control you would not know that these lovely birds were in residence.

The Lapwing were the star performers today coming closer to the hide than I have seen them before,  It is perhaps a shame that we had no sunshine to bring out their iridescent wing colours but there was plenty of movement and reflections .

A distant shot {200 to 300m}  of a male Manderin duck that seemed to have paled up with a male Mallard was my parting shot of the day, It will probably prove worthy of a bit more attention when and if it comes closer to the hide

Great White Egret at Stithians today

When I arrived at Stithian reservoir this morning I was in formed by Bob Sharples that a rare Great White Egret was showing on the opposite bank from the Stuart Hutching hide so I popped in there first and did the best I could over the several hundred metre distance that the egret was showing,  It did a nice pass of a mature Grey heron on the waterline which was useful for scale and a few minutes later took off and headed north along the reservoir affording me a few flight images,  I took a few shots of around a couple of dozen Lapwing roosting along the near shoreline and moved off to the Cut-off hide.

I re-joined Bob and Peter Tonkin in the cut-off hide and within a few minutes we had a very low flying male Sparrow hawk come in from the water straight through the feeders,  He missed the birds and we all missed the shots and things returned to normal until the Sparrow hawk returned again to perch in the dense but leafless canopy of a waterside tree, It worked its way behind a mass of thin branches and we all complained  but it was still watching the movement of every bird that approached the feeders, The thin stems broke up its form to blend with its horizontally barred chest but those piercing yellow eyes were ever watching for the right opportunity to take prey.

The feeders were busy with pairs of Greater spotted Woodpecker, Bullfinch and my first pair of Firecrest showing within a couple of hours along with a family of Long tailed Tits and four Greenfinch that were constantly calling each other,   An interesting if cold day with two 'firsts' for this year from the Great White Egret and the pair of Firecrest

Sunday morning at Ryan's field

I called in at Ryan's field again this morning looking to catch the Spoonbill fishing but I guess I was a bit early as the Spoonbill though present spent most of the time that I was there sleeping with its head and bill resting on its back,  Golden Plover stole the show flying in in large numbers to be followed by around a hundred Lapwing,  A small flock of five or six rarer Greenfinch were next to show perching briefly on one of the bank trees.  Daily residents such as a Lone Curlew, several Black -headed Gulls were as always busy fishing for shrimps, and an amorous male Redshank made several attempts to mate with a couple of un-cooperative female The Spoonbill finally decided that it didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot  and made a small effort to catch a few shrimps before flying off over the estuary,   All in all, A pleasant pre-Sunday breakfast visit !!

Spoonbill at Ryan's field this morning

A maturing Spoonbill flew in to one of the Islands in Ryan's field as I walked along the Hayle causeway just after sunrise this AM and it was nicely backlit by the rising sun,  It entered the shallow water of the lagoon as I watched its skilful use of its Spoon bill which looks quite clumsy and cumbersome when viewed front on but becomes a finely tuned instrument for fishing when studied from the side to create some interesting angles for portrait images,  Its perhaps interesting to watch the fishing action which is conducted side to side  which would tend to imply that any potential prey would see very little of the bill heading in its direction !!  A very clever natural design .   Other subject on the water line included many Lapwing,  A Grey wagtails and three or four Black tailed Godwits all of which are posted below.