Tehidy Jay Landing and Take-off

Tehidy Jay are a pleasure to work with.  In most woods all you usually see is tail ends but here the Jay have learnt that when people walk the woods they often feed the growing Squirrel population.

They have also learnt that when the squirrel are full they still take the peoples nuts and bury them in the woodland leaf litter to eat later.

 The Jay hang around and watch this procedure then help themselves as the Squirrel move out of sight and this particularly clever Jay has rumbled where our Squirrel is hiding its nuts and is taking them out as quickly as the Squirrel can hide them.

                                                              

Grey Squirrel Portraits

I went to Tehidy Country Park looking to capture some action shots of the Jay which are more accepting of people walking around than in your average woods but its very difficult to walk through Tehidy with its large population of Grey Squirrels without taking a few shots so this has become a Grey Squirrel blog and hopefully some Jay action to follow in the next one.

This particular Squirrel that I watched was constantly bringing peoples nut offerings up a sawn off tree trunk close to the footpath and burying them in a central hollow to eat later.

                                            

Back on the footpath the clever Squirrel has found yet another nut to hide !

Tehidy Country Park

Tehidy Country Park is well known in Cornwall for its friendly Grey Squirrels and birdlife,  The Squirrels will meet you at the entrance to accept a hand fed payment of peanuts,  { If you don't pay they will probably just take the bag out of your pocket anyway !! }

But I didn't go there for the Squirrels and nuthatches etc today,  I was there to capture images of the Kingfisher catching fish which she does quite often in the small car park pond outside of the entrance so I didn't really have to 'Pay' to get in but the squirrels came out and collected  'Their'  nuts anyway,

Capturing images of a Kingfisher fishing is a bit of a waiting game so I decided to snap away at everything that visited the pond including the Squirrel posted above,  There were eleven adult swan in this small pond which looked uncomfortable busy for its size and I wondered if the Kingfisher would put up with this volume of large birds while trying to catch fish,

My first subject was a very busy Goldcrest which flitted about in the birch trees overhanging the pond,  The pair showed four times during the three hours that I was there,

Next up was a fairly cautious Song Thrush which stayed up in the trees and Ivy looking for berries

The two resident Robins at this pond will like the Squirrels eat out of your hand,  They constantly closely remind you that they are there with their calls and you have to watch out when you move as they tend to get under your tripod or feet,

This young Pied Wagtail was foraging around the car park puddles and seemed to be doing quite well perhaps from people emptying pockets and bags as they came and went from their cars,

A semi-loucistic Raven was one of a pair that seemed to have adopted a mother and child as they exited the park on a side walkway,  They all walked over to the small pond and the mother fed the Swan's that were both in and out of the water and the Raven joined in taking their share of the handout presumably just as they had been doing inside the park,

Several Goldfinch stayed up in the Birch tree canopy preferring what was on offer naturally rather than the hand-outs that were so readily available.

A pair of Mallard ducks and a Black Headed Gull flew in from the park a little to late to take advantage of this new food source and soon departed again.

One of the resident Moorhen made a brief appearance but looked a bit teasy with the volume of Swan on the water

A busy little Wren took no notice of the other birds or hand-outs and carried on foraging the waterline for fresh water shrimps and insects producing for me a nice feeding reflection

There was no show from the Kingfisher today but I will be back to try my luck again when all of the Swan have departed,  They all appear to have been driven off of the main park ponds by a particularly dominant Male,

Today just flew bye

As with all wildlife photography your chosen subject rarely performs as predicted or expected and today was a good example,  The Purple Heron at Sett bridge, Ruan Lanihorne has been foraging in an area of marsh grasses just above the bridge for the last two weeks,  I took Peter Tonkin along this morning feeling reasonable confident that he would have a good photo opportunity,  After about an hour and a half the heron flew down the Fal river from the north over the bridge and kept on heading south down the Widening estuary, Charming !!  but at least I got a flight shot out of our visit.

We decided to move on to Tehidy Country Park and try our luck with the Kingfisher which showed twice,  It flew straight through the car park pond and straight on to the golf coarse pond the first time  and stopped just long enough for peter to grab a couple of shots on the second and then flew off leaving me with just another flight shot

Later a Swan flew over looking to land on the main pond,   It banked around to do so and then as I was ready for a nice water landing it decided against it and flew back in the direction it had come from leaving me with.............!

A male chaffinch flew in looking for hand outs, It didn't like what was on offer and flew off  once again leaving me with just ..................!

One of the mature Moorhen was perched in a tree high above the waterline enjoying the warmth of the sun,  I moved in a little to improve composition but was still a good distance from it and you guessed it   The bird was away in a frenzied flurry of flapping wings never to be seen again,

I framed up on a couple of happy young mums walking their toddlers around the pond,  Decided against it and went home !!

The Ducking Wren

Spent Five hours at Tehidy Country Park yesterday morning looking to complete my 'Kingfisher with fish ' project but no show,  The story goes that it has not been seen since last Monday, Perhaps this female has moved off to a nesting territory earlier than expected,  All I got for my efforts was this ducking Wren feeding on fresh water shrimps which is behaviour that I quite often witness in my Garden Pond.   ( I heard on Sunday 22nd that the Kingfisher was seen several times on Thursday I9th)

What an amazing little bird the wren can be,  On this occasion I watched it duck for three shrimps in quick succession before flitting off around the pond looking for more,

Tehidy Kingfisher

The winter resident female Kingfisher was the 'Star of Tehidy' yesterday. Knowing locals drove into the car park to select free drive-in parking just two metres from the waters edge to wait for the days performance,  Perhaps the star of the show was a little late arriving on this occasion but it was well worth the wait,  The stage is set by way of a tranquil clear circular pond with overhanging and fallen birch trees from which the Kingfisher selects its 'Catch of the day',

Entering stag left,  This colourful female shapes up and is ready to dive

First fish of the day may be a small one but its only a 'starter'

She moves to an alternative branch showing her true colours

The next fish is lively as she skilfully controls its turning

What a performer,  She takes a last Bow

Taking a break on a favoured Pampus  before the next performance.