Bartinney Bits

Bartinney Down has been looking lovely in the early sunshine over the last few days with uncut rough grasses waving in back lit sunlight and the Cotton grass bog is just splendid.

I came across a rather large colourful frog doing his morning press-ups on a flat stone at the edge of the bog but he looked a little indignant at my intrusion and was ready to take me on,   

                                      I'm glad he wasn't any bigger but he is working on it !!

Cuckoo and Kestrel are still showing quite well but covering a large area which makes for sporadic sightings.

Several skylark were seen and heard singing their hearts out both in the air and in the long grasses.

Various dragonfly including this golden ringed species and Four Spot Chasers can be seen in the rough grass areas around the large pond.

The colours in the uncut rough grasses waving in the breeze makes Bartinney a real joy at this time of the year.

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.

Chapel Carn Brea

It was a fine sunny afternoon with little to no wind yesterday,  I took a trip up to Chapel Carn Brea in the company of Peter Tonkin looking for Birds of Prey,  It is very close to Lands End Airport and the first big bird we saw was the colourful twin engine Skybus featured below,

We soon had sight of a female Merlin that seemed to be going somewhere in a hurry, It was shortly followed by a more leisurely female Kestrel that hovered gracefully above us until it was rudely interrupted by a feisty Skylark that was determined to evict it,

I tracked the skylark back on to a hedgerow where it posed quite nicely showing off its identifiable crest and extended rear toes, Bored with posing it dropped into a very muddy and flooded tractor tyre track intent on taking a bath but Peter Tonkin surprisingly beat him to it throwing himself horizontally into the mud with great gusto,  By the time I managed to pull him out excluding his boots he resembled and smelt like an old duck pond!!  I Hadn't realised that he had a fetish for mud but I guess it is each to their own,  I kept upwind of him after that,

As the sun headed for the distant horizon over the sea I picked a grassy route along Cornish stone walls back to the car park trying to avoid any more mud slicks incidents with Peter and was presented with this nice Buzzard take-off sequence and a cheeky male Stonechat on the way,

The setting sun had turned the calm sea to a shimmering gold creating a lovely backdrop for a silhouetted image of the Longships Lighthouse which was around six kilometres away and looking far more peaceful than it did a week ago during Storm Brian.

Skylark portraits

Skylarks were showing well up on the north coast yesterday so following a visit to Monkey Puzzle fine art printers near Porthtowen I set off along the coast path heading south and soon found one that was quite accommodating once I settled down on the heath and waited for a few close encounters, I had around fifty close shots within an hour on a favoured viewing point a few of which are posted below,