Sparrowhawk & Friends ? in Flight

A Female Sparrowhawk rises on the gentle updraughts along the cliffs of the south Cornish coast

As it circles upwards it is on the lookout for likely prey but as is usually the case all of its 'friends ' will do all that they can to see it off which is one of the down sides of being a  ' Bird of Prey '

The first to confront the Sparrowhawk is a local Raven but the lighter and more agile Sparrowhawk very quickly turns the hunter into the hunted and almost treats the encounter as sport

Next up is a very vocal Magpie which quickly changes its mind when the sparrowhawk beak and talons are turned in its direction.

Jackdaw and crows also try their luck at driving off the Sparrowhawk but it is not until the local male peregrine ( A  very professional ' Bird of Prey ' )  arrives to see what all the shouting is about that the Sparrowhawk gives way to a single Peregrine swoop and moves on to pastures new.

Carn Le's Boel Point yesterday

 I spent a bright sunny windless day walking and watching the wildlife on the beautiful rugged south Cornish coast near Pendower Caves and on around Carn Le's Boel headland into Nanjizal bay.

Below is one of my first sightings  a fine if noisy pair of juvenile Raven that were enjoying the freedom of new experiences out of their nest.

Kestrel and Peregrine were not showing well but I did capture one close kestrel hover posted above

Small coastal rocks and islands provided a drying and resting resting area for dozens of Cormorant both young and old.

Off the point at Carn Le's Boel six young Grey Seals were playing tag with each other and a small group of three passing Kayaks which I will cover in my next blog.

As I made my way back to Porthgwarra from the stunning coastline of Nanjizal bay I was treated to a quick drop in to forage among rough grassland by a raucous and happy group of four Cornish Chough which stayed just long enough for a few portraits.

It is nice to see that due to the success of the Cornish Chough breeding programmes that the last couple of generations no longer require the fitting of four colour leg rings which tended to spoil their '  Wild Look  '

Botallack Birds

Posted here are a few of today's bird portraits taken around Botallack

Male Stonechat

Female Heron Gull and chicks

Great Tit predating on Caterpillar

Black back Gull with chicks

Raven with chicks

Female Peregrine

Pair of Cornish Chough

Raven's Rabbit

A male Raven flies back to its nest site territory with a young road kill rabbit and starts to remove its fur.

The Raven is joined immediately by his recently fledged brood of three who all start to display there classic red mouthed gape while begging for a share of his prey.

The male Raven reluctantly feeds all of the fledglings with small pieces of flesh.

But he soon seemed to tire of the exercise, He turns back to the rabbit, Rips off its head and flies off to a nearby cliff ledge to consume it.

Perhaps this behaviour was the males way of getting the fledglings to be self sufficient feeders but in this case they all flew off abandoning the prey which was very soon claimed by a pair of local nesting crows with their own hungry chicks to feed.

So perhaps not the brightest of moves from what some people consider to be one of our most intelligent birds !!

Midday fox on the prowl

A rather thin looking Fox is out on a rare midday prowl looking for a good meal yesterday.

I had been watching its progress for around ten minutes when a large noisy Raven arrived on the scene.

The Raven was intent on repelling the fox from vicinity of its nest site that was close by in the cliff face.

The Raven was pushing the fox a little to hard  and it turned and snapped at the Raven which instantly backed off enough for the fox to move on.

But the Raven went back on the attack when the fox started to move towards its nest again.

This time the fox turned through 90 degrees and walked away from the raven until they both seemed happy with the distance.

The fox settled down for a bit of a rest before hunger sent it off along the track again still looking for that elusive meal that is rarely easy to find.

New encounters with subjects from earlier blogs

I made another early morning visit to Marazion Marsh this morning looking out for a pair of Otter that were spotted again yesterday. 

No show today,  I will keep plugging on as usual until I encounter them but I was delighted to see that the dominant pair of Mute Swan were proudly showing off a fine clutch of seven goslings along the front of the marsh water line.

The rabbits had plenty of evidence of young bunnies chasing about but the adults decided to make a few more just to keep their numbers up.

It was also nice to see a flock of Sanderling with a few Ringed Plover that were busy working the surf line on the beach opposite before the morning beach walkers arrived,

Moving on along the coast I came across a noisy trio of newly fledged Ravens that were still being fed on the nest the last time that I saw them,  They were all now looking grown up and confident in their cliff top environment,

Moving on to to higher heath land I missed the best part of a Red Kite fly-bye but enjoyed working with a couple of skylark and Willow warbler and ended with yet another fine take-off shot by a male Cuckoo.