Blog 1 Random Short-eared Owls

Blog 1 shows random images of the Owls taken during the first couple of days of their sighting.

We gained a lot of information about the both the Owls behaviour and their tolerance levels over the first few encounters which stood us in good stead and provided better images as the days rolled by.

Birds of Prey Today

The above sequence montage of a female Peregrine take-off was formed from today' portfolio of images of various birds of prey photographed along the North coast of Cornwall,

The Juvenile Peregrine portrait below is of one of the bird above's three fledgling from last year and it was seen here today as it begged for an aerial prey hand-over from its mother which took evasive action and ignored its plea.

Other Birds of Prey seen today included the Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel images posted below.

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

The calm after the storm

Marazion marsh had a very relaxed calm about it this morning following the high seas and gale force winds of yesterday,  A mallard duck  cut through the perfectly still waters looking quite pristine,  Even so it stopped for a few moments to take an early morning bath.

A young Grey Heron glided in on the wing to forage on the waterline at the front of the marsh but it had made a mistake as an adult Heron was already fishing there,  It went straight into a threat posture and the younger bird turned and flew back in the direction it had come from,  The adult bird returned to its fishing where  the still water producing a fine reflection,

A pair of Buzzards circled in gracefully towards the warren fronting the marsh and for sure they had spotted the incredibly relaxed and laid back rabbits basking in the morning sunshine,  The rabbits paid them no heed and the Buzzards eventually moved on but I am sure they will be back when there is no photographer present to put them off so  Rabbits beware !

Out in Mounts Bay the sea was now calm and I spotted this young Grey Seal bottling near the rocky breakwater shoreline of St Michaels Mount, It was catching up on much needed sleep following the storm and it was snoring quite loud with its mouth wide open while probably dreaming of calm warm clear waters full of big shoals of tasty fish.

Devoran Quay

I revisited Devoran Quay again PM today having picked up the CBWPS report of one fishing here the evening before,  As the tide came flooding up the creek the bird life came with it, I worked on Swan, curlew, Black tailed Godwit, Red Shanks and oystercatchers while waiting several hours for the Osprey,  Conditions for fishing were excellent when the Osprey finally arrived flying high along the opposite bank treeline, It went on up the creek and returned back down six minutes later without fishing or stopping in the trees,  I then realised that with fine calm weather came a steady increase in small boat traffic towards the evening  which was effecting the Osprey's comfort zone and the joy of watching it fish was not to be this evening,  It flew back down the creek looking for a quieter stretch of water.

Grey day at Ryan's field,

It was a very grey and mizzily morning when I arrived early at Ryan's field,  There was little going on save for an outgoing of noisy Canada geese heading off to find some lush grass fields, Around twenty minutes later a Female Kingfisher arrived to fish from a couple of prominent posts that were set close to the waterline, Five minutes later a male Kingfisher arrived and chased the female off to another perch and joined her there,

On one of the small islands in the lagoon a Cattle Egret that had been roosting woke up, did a quick circuit of the islands vegetation picking a few insects, dropped down to the waterline for a drink only to realise that the water was brackish at best and then decided to fly off looking for greener pastures for the day,  I headed off as well with my thoughts turning to Duck eggs and bacon for breakfast to be followed by several hours of watching the last Malasian Grand Prix

Kingfisher close ups

If there is anything predictable about Kingfisher behaviour it must be that they are unpredictable !  I had sight of this female below on eight occasions during the day but waiting for her to perch on her predicted favourite perch to pose for a few remote fired portraits was a tad frustrating as she perched and fished from anywhere but.  Seven and a half hours after starting I finally grabbed the images below as she downed her last fish of the day.