Barn Owl hunting

Perhaps a bit of a bonus while working with the Short-eared Owl yesterday was this fine Barn Owl which put in a bit of an appearance to hunt around two field hedgerow walls just twice before being seen off by an aggressive Shortie.

Sandwich Tern Fishing

Peter Tonkin and I revisited Devoran Quay today looking for perhaps one last encounter with its annual migratory Osprey which have been showing well over the last Month.

We had the incoming tide, The fish in the estuary were rising well and good weather with very light winds but it seems we were a day or two too late to catch the last of the migration Osprey.

Our consolation prize came by way of a couple of Sandwich Terns that put on several bouts of fishing for small mullet between rest periods on a mid river sand bank.

These graceful birds were very skillful hunters taking small fish on around 75% of their dives and on the last one that I followed it emerged with two fish for the price of one dive.

They provided us with an interesting subject to work with for the duration of our visit and we will of course be back again a bit earlier next autumn for the Osprey migration.

The Runt of the Litter

Since moving to Cornwall around ten years ago we have always looked out for the five or six generations of fox cubs that have evolved along the way and during most summers and autumns there has usually been a runt of the litter to which nature has not dealt a very kind hand and the rest of the litter dominate both it and the pecking order for any food that comes their way.

This year has been no exception and the rather sad condition that you can see of this years runt in the image above tells its own story,   This particular cub which we believe to be female has like several others over the years taken to visiting our garden during mid to late afternoon feeding on fall-out from our bird feeders and any scrap food that might be on offer early before the rest of her sleeping family arrive later to dominate the supply.

This cub arrived early yesterday evening as I was setting up for a badger shoot so I set out a handful of peanuts and retreated to the house to watch her progress.  Her timidness was as such that it took several aborted attempts and six minutes for her to take her first nut after which she settled down to eating the rest,  Had their been another fox around it would have cleared them long before she got a look in.

In the shot above our little cub timidly takes its first nut and gradually settles to eat the rest,  It will need all the help it can get and a lot of luck if it is going to survive the winter months ahead.