Snipe preparing for Take-off

I had been photographing the above Snipe successfully predating on earth worms for over an hour when it decided to take a nap as shown in my previous blog and this is the moment thirty minutes later when it re awoke seemingly startled at my close and static presence and I expected it to fly immediately.

The Snipe held its ground watching me for a while before relaxing and going into a preening procedure which gradually became more elaborate and was followed by a lovely complete body shake-out.   The finale to this fine display was a skilful one legged full wing stretch.

                                        

 In the last image at the end of the stretch the bird went into a crouched sprung loaded take-off and was away to conclude what had been a magical encounter with lots of Snipe behaviour  recorded.

Ryan's Field early AM

As I arrived at Ryan's field on a grey Xmas eve morning a large flock of several hundred Golden Plover flew in to join a few lapwing that were present on one of the small islands, Several Curlew were busy fishing for worms on the margins and even five Snipe were out from their cover,  A lone Grey Wagtail was foraging in front of the hide and a pair of Little Egrets flew in together, fished for a short while and left together looking for greener pastures,  Several black headed gulls seemed to be paired up and displaying to each other and four Dunlin that had been wading the margins headed off out over the estuary,  It was time for me to be off as well as I had a special family dinner to turn out for this evening and a fine Duck to prepare for Xmas dinner tomorrow,  Merry Xmas !!

Kingfisher with fish

Stithians reservoir male Kingfisher was showing well this morning and treated me to a fishing exercise from the first post out from the southern cut-off Hide, It fished from and returned to this post but didn't seem happy to stun it prey,  a Three Spin Stickleback against it,  so he immediately flew out to trees on the first island to consume its catch before flying over to the far bank of the cut-off no doubt  to repeat the exercise all over again.  It is always good to watch the flashing colours of a kingfisher in action and I always take it as a sign that all is well,  That is providing that you don't happen to be a fish !!

 The Snipe were also showing well during a brief spell of sunshine with six close together under one of the small island trees at a distance of around two hundred metres,  The Pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were quite skitty and camera shy but still made several visits to the feeders, and a juvenile Moorhen from a local family group of four seemed happy to carry on foraging at the waters edge in a sharp downpour of rain,

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

PM at Marazion Marsh Today

It was a nice afternoon so I made my second visit of the day to Marazion Marsh, still looking for my first illusive Bittern image of the winter,  No show!   but I amused myself with a few of the locals while waiting, first off, our pair of resident Mute Swans have a very close bond to the extent that from this camera angle they looked like a two headed monster.

The Snipe spend little time on the marsh margins where they are always in danger from the local Sparrowhawk but this one decided to run the gauntlet for long enough for me to rattle off a few shots.

The resident Stonechat are quite laid back and show little fear of birders and photographers that come and go along the road boundary wall,  This male that was busy feeding on flying insects while giving me the opportunity for a few more take-off images,  It got closer and closer until my camera angle was obscured by the wall so I shinned up onto it and captured this very close sequence which I have montaged and posted below.

I turned to get down only to see a very close rabbit that was alarmed by my stance on the wall and not looking to pleased with my performance,   I just had time to captured his reaction before he was gone.

Grey Heron fishing at sunset

With the weather being so bright and sunny yesterday afternoon I decided to call in at Marazion marsh to see what was about on the way home from Tehidy,  The late afternoon and evening light can be lovely over the reed beds on such evenings,  The usual contenders were all on show which included several young and mature Grey Heron and a couple of Snipe,  I settled down to follow one mature heron that had moved across to the near marsh fringes to fish for Three Spine Sticklebacks,  This bird was a grand master, graceful and stealthful in its approach which created some fine reflections opportunities on the still water, I watched it skilfully take six fish in around and hour which passed amazingly quickly as I studied its progress while taking about a hundred images along the way, The bird finally lifted off looking well pleased with itself and I headed home with another large batch if images to sift through but not without stopping to take a few Starling flock shots over the hill around Marazion on the way.

Good day or bad day ?

Good day or bad day ?  Well yesterday was a bad day with regards to the weather,  Longrock and Marazion marsh were looking cold and abandoned and the Hayle estuary was no better, Tried Tehidy for protection from the wind but the rain was coming down like stair rods so do I go home so early in the day or find somewhere with all weather cover,  Half an hour later I arrived at the southern cut-off hide at Stithians where all the recent rainfall had raised the water levels bringing the margins far closer to the hide,   It proved to be a good day for birdlife with local stars like the Water Rail and a pair of Woodpecker visiting the feeders regularly but for me it was the opportunity to capture close images of the 70+ Lapwing and 40+ Snipe feeding at the water margins that made the day.

A rather wet Woodpecker in the rain

The Water Rail looked immaculate as the rain just rolled off of its tight oiled feather formation

The Snipe were very actively feeding, with no regards to the weather conditions  in fact they seemed to be enjoying the rain

The Lapwing were not so impressed with the weather but resigned to waiting it out while providing me with some close images

So It was not such a bad day after all !