Wheal Prosper Star Trail

This image of Wheal Prosper near Rinsey car park was taken between 11pm and 0.40 am on what was a clear dark night without any moonlight. The only artificial light used came from my mobil phone torch within the picture composition and was captured on a single time exposure of thirty seconds.  The star trail is formed by 188 registered thirty second images which have been stacked and merged along with the first image using Startrail 2.3 software The total exposure time was one hour forty minutes,  I love the challenge of producing an interesting image in such dark conditions and in this particular image the aim was to seek out the northern pole star so as to place the axis point over the top of Wheal Prosper chimney stack. There is a crank in the star trail registration as I had to wipe away early morning due collecting on my 14-24mm wide angle lens optics part way through the exercise but I can live with that  rather than a fogged image  It is now 3.45am and way past time I was in bed   Good Night!

Early Adder at Trewavas Head

I went to Trewavas Head again pm today looking for adders and peregrine but no show on the way towards Porthleven,  But had a good show from a hunting male kestrel then spent some time with the pair of nesting raven looking for mating images,  No joy with that but recorded plenty of interaction images,  The sun was still shining when I started my return walk so I went via my known adder hot spot for one more recky,

On my arrival I could see immediately that my luck had changed,  An adder was out basking in an area that I had cleared for them over a month ago when looking for a January record sighting,  I set to work at a minimum focal distance of 3.5m trying to get the most from what proved to be a tricky adder portrait but at least its head was in the foreground,

With plenty of shots in the can I decided to try to do a little 'gardening' to clear away some annoying undergrowth but when I did so the feisty adder went straight into strike mode so I backed- off and took a few more images instead,  'Thank you Feisty Adder!'

Birds of Prey today

Birds of prey seemed to be the order of the day at Rinsey on the south coast,  Shortly after leaving the car park heading east towards Porthleven my first photo opportunity came by way of a Buzzard using a low level gate post as a vantage point to hunt vole, As I took a few shots it was harassed by a crow that seemed determined to move it on but the buzzard was having none of it and within a minute or so it dropped onto its prey in the field leaving the crow with the post.

Moving on along the coast path I watched a familiar Kestrel hunting over fields for ten minutes, Having no luck it swooped back out over Trewavas cliffs to land at one of its clifftop vantage points about twenty yards in front of me and my second bird of prey was in the bag.

I sat watching the Kestrel for a while waiting for a Take-off shot when the familiar sight of a peregrine flew low over the sea around the cliff face and seemed to rise effortlessly up to a predictable perch point producing a graceful and well controlled landing and my third bird of prey for the day.

The south coast was a joy today being well protected from the Northerly winds,  Add to that wonderful bird life on show and I went home counting my blessings!

Boxing day Peregrine

Fresh air and exercise was the order of the day for Heather and I on boxing day to work off all those Xmas day excesses,  A walk along the south coast from Rinsey towards Porthleven was just the job, I stopped off at Trewavas farm to clear a favoured stone wall lie of this years bramble growth in anticipation of early Adder during January,  Moving on the local Kestrel were successful hovering and hunting for Vole and we finally caught up with a quite familiar pair of Peregrine,  The male was a little anti-social and departed post hast but the female is always more laid back and retained her Granite perch for around a hour before eventually flying off to join the male.

Ever tried staring out a Peregrine ?

Foot down and tail raised,  it must be time to go

Limbering up she then just drops off the back of the rock and away

So I guess its time to return home for cold meats and Bubble & Squeak !

Pair of Peregrine

During Coastal walks over the last few months I have sighted individual Peregrine at many locations including Porthguarra, Lands End, Bottallack, Hayle Estuary and Hells mouth But the only location where I have seen evidence of a mating Pair that remain in close contact on a regular basis through the winter months is the pair near Rinsey which I see quite often on a favoured rocky outcrop,  The images below were taken over three days during the second week in October this year,

Here the larger female is calling prior to taking off from a favoured rocky outcrop where the pair have spent the previous two hours

The female Peregrine protests to the Male as it lands after seeing off a female Kestrel that swooped on them,  The Kestrel certainly held her own in aerial combat with the peregrine lacking the element of surprise,  Their amazing tit for tat swooping flight display went on for around five minutes before the Kestrel eventually lost interest and moved on

As sunset approaches both birds begin to limber-up following an afternoon siesta getting ready for evening hunting, both birds departed a few minutes later