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.

Orange browed Starlings

When I arrived home from a photo trip Pm yesterday my wife Heather hurriedly informed me that we had a new species of orange browed Starling fledglings feeding around our patio area before my return and she thought that they would probably be back,  I set up my camera in the lounge as it was now raining again outside so any shots achieved would be taken through wet glass but it was worth trying,  Sure enough the flock of orange browed fledglings returned guided by a parent bird to feed around our feeders creating the opportunity for a few ID portrait images,  It all seemed very interesting,  I had heard and seen Rose coloured starlings before But Orange Browed !!

Around ten minutes later all was to be revealed when first the adult and then all of the fledglings flew up onto a newly opened Cordyline flower head which had formed for the first time in our garden in eight years,  All immediately pushed their heads into the new flowers while brushing their wet heads over the prominent orange flower stamens,   Mystery solved !!