Newtown Lane Longrock

Misty weather again today and I was stuck on the computer until 3pm checking out a few ongoing projects,  When I did escape the computer I was not prepared to go far as the mist was still rolling through so I just went west down the A394 from Rosudgeon and parked just round the corner from Longrock roundabout in Newtown Lane,

As I walked towards Longrock Pool my first subject posted above and below were a pair of rough coated doe Roe deer which I recognised as a mother with last years kid, They may be looking rough at the moment but I am always pleased to see them and they blend into the hedgerow so well that they go unnoticed by most passers-bye,

An hour or so later I moved on up towards Longrock pool in brighter weather when a pair of Grey Heron on a nest on the Marazion marsh side of the road caught my eye through a viewing gap in the hedgerow, I watched these birds performing several graceful courtship displays until one of the birds finally departed but not before leaving me with several interesting images two of which are posted below

Moving on up to longrock pool I could hear the unmistakable sound of a couple of Cetti's Warblers  chasing around within a group of budding Pussy Willow trees and I spent the next testing hour trying to achieve a few portrait shots the best of which is a possible Siberian Chiffchaff  posted below.

Three hours after arriving in Newtown lane I walked back to my car a happy chappy but it was now time to get back to that dreaded Computer to download and record today's images.

Cornish Mizzle

Having checked out the CBWPS sightings page last night I decided to visit Marazion Marsh this morning to try for a few shots of yesterdays reported Male Marsh Harrier, but on arrival around  9am  I could not even see the marsh, never mind the Harrier,  The mist was that thick that even the rabbits on the warren were bumping into each other,

So off I went to Drift Reservoir perhaps for a Great Crested Grebe 'Display' or a lucky glimpse of yesterdays sighting of an Otter.  I felt my way down to the shoreline and trekked off towards the Hide thinking the mist would clear shortly, Did it Hell !  I disturbed a Cormorant at the hide grabbing a few flight shots as I did so,  then sat there for a hour wishing I was somewhere else,

My wife rang from Cornwall College at Camborne to arrange a lift home later, throwing in a comment about what a lovely sunny morning it had been there,  So what the hell was I doing sat at Drift in the gloom,  Off I went to Stithians reservoir to try my luck in the southern cut-off hide where resident birds such as the Male Chaffinch and Reed Bunting pictured below were immediately sighted,

The pair of  Great Spotted Woodpecker both put in an appearance and Jack Hicks who was already in the hide before my arrival spoke of his surprise when the Male had 'Drummed ' on the hide roof earlier,  Little Grebe and the previously seen two female Pintail also put in an appearance, but no sign of the Water Rail or Sparrowhawk,  A Moorhen put in several quite bold visits below the far feeder to provide me with my final image of the day illustrated below.

Little grebe predating on Newt

It was a dismal misty morning an Stithians southern cut-off today,  light levels were very low and it was certainly not the morning to take on the challenge of trying for good contrasting images of a dark Little Grebe fishing but I was tempted when one resurfaced reasonably close to the hide with a good sized Three Spin Stickleback in its beak,

There was nothing unusual about this but when it dived again a little later I watched for it to resurface and was surprised to see that this time it had caught quiet a large Newt,

When the bird turned during its struggle to control the Newt it looked like a possible Palmate Newt with mating colours and spots to its belly

It took the grebe far longer to dispatch the Newt by comparison to the fish it had eaten earlier but I have to assume it to fairly common at this location as the busy Little Grebe repeated this exercise again later,  This time it passed the Newt over to its mate that was fishing close bye,

It was nice to watch  the Grebes behaviour and its predation on a subject that was previously unknown to me,  I'll be back on a better day looking to improve on the pictures !

Cornish Kestrel part 9

Our Pair of Kestrel put on a superb flight display during the high winds yesterday which they seem to relish, In the shot below Kate takes a swoop passed Kevin who was hunting by just hanging on the wind at the cliff top,

Since my first recorded mating shot on 25 February I have put in a lot of time trying to capture a better composition but it has proved difficult,  Katy is spending far more time in close proximity to the nest site as in the image below but Kevin seems to be quite elusive at least while I have been around.

In the images below Kate while's away some time preening from top to bottom but no time actually spent in the nest so far

late afternoon sunlight at Stithians

We called in at Stithians southern  cut-off hide on the way back from Kennell Vale yesterday afternoon and it was good to see the Water Rail show briefly but we were not sure if it ended up 'going to dinner' with the local Sparrowhawk that took something off the waters edge soon afterwards,  A new kid on the block came by way of a couple of feeding female Pintail ducks on which their colourful plumage looked immaculate,

As the afternoon progressed from what had been a dull day blossomed into lovely late afternoon sunlight which was complimented by several shows from both resident Great Spotted Woodpecker which ignored the feeders in the main to forage among moss covered tree limbs for grubs,  Excellent !  Three images below.

                           

Kennell vale Dipper

I was shown around the Kennell Vale Reserve today 'Thanks to Bob Sharples'  What an amazing Cornish valley with countless ruins of old gunpowder mills and the rocky tumbling river that used to power them'  The scenery would keep a landscape photographer busy all day.

The fast moving rocky river is also home to an incredible bird  'The Dipper' that has always avoided my attention since I moved to Cornwall. But not today !  Having walked around the reserve we ended up on the quaint old granite bridge that crosses the river and there amid rounded boulders and crashing water were a pair of Dipper that accepted our presence for around fifteen minutes while they collected moss and other nesting materials from the river, They also provided me with around fifty images on my memory card three of which are posted below.

Five more early Adders

With good levels of sunshine forecast I spent much of my day in the good company of Peter Tonkin and Bob Sharples at Trewavas Head,  Our aim was to look for more sun basking adders at the same location as my adder report on the 18/02/17.  To say we were successful would perhaps be a bit of an understatement as the warm sunshine brought out no less than five individuals,  Three of these we worked with for several hours,  Even a few showers didn't stop them returning as soon as the sun came back out and they were still there when we departed.  The first three images below are all of the same adder and image four and five are separate individuals as their skin colouring will clarify,

Happy Days!

Woodpecker 'Drumming' the Hide

It might sound pretty unlikely but while I was enjoying the peaceful ambiance of the hid at Stithians southern cut-off hide early AM yesterday morning,  The peace was shattered by the surprisingly loud hollow piercing sound of an unseen  male Great Spotted woodpecker 'Drumming' on the top outer front corner section of the hide on the right hand side just two meters from my head,  The bird was obviously not aware of my presence as it returned to repeat this performance twice more within the following hour,  No 'drumming' images I'm afraid but I did get a nice portrait shot when it turned its attention to the feeders. 

The 'drumming' had not been in vain as the female turned up shortly afterwards to see what all the noise was about, She also provided a good portrait from the far nicer feeder restructured position.

A male Bullfinch also put in an appearance

demonstrating it acrobatic capabilities to reach difficult blackberry seeds

One of the local Magpie which normally avoid the hide when viewers are present also came in to gain a little attention, 

What was intended as a quick visit became a five hour epic but Hey 'Its a lovely way to spend your Day!'

Cornish Kestrel part 8

Yesterday was a disaster with the Kestrels, The winds, rough seas and a tide times mix-up literally pushed me from my tidal rocky viewpoint in less than an hour,  'The best laid plans of mice and men'  So I came away without a picture taken, the forecast for today looked grim but proved to be drier than expected, so I went off to do battle with nature once again, light levels were good and the strong westerly winds helped to produce some lovely aerial displays from our pair of Kestrel.  Kate in particular showed off her skills at using the up-draughts from the cliffs to put on an amazing show.  In the first image below she is just about to take off after stashing prey,

Due to the up-draughts her graceful take-off required no more than just opening her wings after which she just hung motionless without any wing movement to hover above the stash.

She eventually moved forward still hovering and stopped motionless on the wind above her nest site with a back-drop of Tamerisk for around 30 seconds before making a sharp and graceful turn to streak off along the coastline in just a few seconds. " No effort required !"

Cornish Kestrel part 7

It has been a cold and blustery morning and set to stay that way for the rest of the day,  Light levels were poor early AM but it was not raining as was forecast for later so I braved the south coast to see how the Kestrels were doing,  No sign of Kevin the male kestrel but Kate returned with prey within ten minutes of my arrival and took it to a stash on the far side of the cove,  She then made what looked like a purposeful flight directly towards me across the cove and settled into the closest cliff ledge above me as if to say  'I'm watching you watching me '

And she sat there for nearly two hours allowing me plenty of time to study her behaviour and pick off many varied portrait images such as the one below during one of her 'bird watching' sessions

I think she was keeping an eye open for her mate as she looks pristine and ready to get on with the job of starting a new brood,  In between preening and stretching she spent quite a lot of time scratching in particular around her head and neck giving me plenty of different angles to chose from to photograph,  I have selected the one below because it showed total commitment to scratching with no eye contact in any direction which is rare for a bird of prey,   I think the sooner her dust bowl is back in action again the better!