Raven behaviour

The south coast was returning to normal today following the recent snow and icy conditions,  Peter Tonkin and I decided to head out to a ravens nest site that was already actively occupied by a fine pair of Raven,   On arrival we were informed that the female was in the nest and we could plainly see the male standing guard on a lamp standard close by,  We settled down waiting for some action but apart from periodic calling the male stood guard for over an hour and a half before eventually taking off to fly out of sight along the coast,  On returning it flew to the nest site with what looked like  'An egg?' in its mouth.

After delivering its egg ?  It flew off again to return a little later and this time it looked like it had two eggs in its mouth as seen in the image below by Peter Tonkin

After the male had left for the third time the female appeared from the nest site and flew onto a grass bank at the location of the males original lamp standard,  She was looking around and calling and periodically adopting a submissive mating stance at the same time but all was in vain as:    

                It looked as though the male had flown off to Tesco's for the rest of his eggs !!

We will keep you posted on progress at this site though the next couple of months

The Beast from the East

The Beast from the East took control of our Cornish weather on the last day of February turning much of Cornwall into a white world and making travelling conditions difficult,  I decided to take a local rural walk through Chiverton Farm to capture a few images of what is for us a rare experience of snowy conditions.

I worked in Black and White as the contrast between the dark tree lines in low light levels and pure white snow looked amazing,  The wind chill factor caught up with me by the time I reached the other end of the farm an hour later and I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retraced my steps back home to edit the images that I had taken.

Winter's 'Wildlife Window Watch'

I must just add that with Falmouth University closed today and my wife working from home,  An abundance of garden birds to photograph and a new computer programme to wrestle with,  I am pleased with the outcome and really enjoyed a perhaps to rare  family day at home,  A Gin and tonic,  A good meal and a log fire is all that is now required to complete a very interesting winters day at home !!

Frozen waterfalls & well fed Peregrine

Today was probably the coldest one on record for this winter and was generated by ' The Beast from the East'  It even managed to freeze one of our south Cornish coast waterfalls within the territory of a pair of our local Peregrine and Peter Tonkin and I were there to record a bit of the action before we were driven off by the bitterly cold easterly winds.

The peregrine appeared unfazed by the freezing conditions and after spending a short time on the frozen cliff ledges both birds departed to hunt for their breakfast.

It was an hour or so before both birds returned empty handed. One moved on along the coast out of sight but the second bird settled down on to a favoured cliff ledge and this was when Peter first noticed that its beak and talons were all blood stained  and I soon picked up on its extended neck area which I had to assume to be a crop that was brimming with consumed prey,

After a while the Peregrine showed obvious signs of flying, launched itself off of the cliff to start flying in a large loop only to change its mind and return to the same ledge to settle down again to digesting its prey,

Today was the first time that I have seen a frozen waterfall in Cornwall or a Peregrine with such an obvious extended crop and to finish our observations the bird added another first by lowering itself into a lying position and remained there almost out of sight perhaps to support the weight of the prey that she must have consumed earlier

Mating Peregrine

I have been watching our coastal Pairs of Peregrine waiting to catch signs of their early mating and following a tip off from a couple of good friend last night,  It all came together close to Lands End this morning,

I found the pair of birds about 20m apart on the granite cliffs at 6.50 am and settled down 100m or so away at a good vantage point to wait for a bit of action and at 8.45am the male bird descended from its higher perch to skillfully land directly on the females back trying not to use its talons while getting properly balanced,

The mating lasted somewhere between ten and twenty seconds during which time I fired off over eighty images of the action,  The birds were facing straight towards me {Count your blessings !! } and it was interesting to note that the male had his lethal talons safely balled-up throughout the mating until lift off,

At lift off the male dropped steeply down the cliffs to disappear along the coastline,   So there was not a lot small talk,  prey handovers,  or aftercare attached to this union !!  and the female was left looking somewhat unimpressed,  But hey! perhaps he had gone off hunting for her right then.

White world

It was a cold and frosty white world for the rabbits on the warren at Marazion Marsh this morning,  I have watched them before and they just hate getting their feet cold and wet and they shake the frost off their paws as soon as they stop moving,  The rabbit above had adopted a policy of having no more than two on the ground and preferably none !!

Spring was in the air for the bird life on the water with a pair of Canada geese that having given last years family of five the brush off were displaying well and eventually mated in the very cold water ??

The Moorhen were also in 'Mating mode' as several of the males got involved in a serious territorial dispute with talons and feathers going in all directions,

Time to go home to a hearty breakfast of Duck eggs on corn bread  but perhaps I shouldn't mention that until after leaving the Marsh,

Early Adder

Back in mid January I went to Trewavas head to clear a couple of small sections of stone wall of a years growth of brambles and gorse etc to encourage heat seeking Adders coming out of hibernation to use the small clearings to bask along this south facing wall.

The Adder s were running late this year by comparison to last year's earlier sighting on the 18th February and the previous years first sighting was a remarkable 23rd January

This January and February have been very wet to date but the last few days have been cold and dry at night with lots of sunshine during the day and out they came this morning to bask in my clearings

The two male adders shown here have both shed their winter skins already and look fit and ready for action as soon as the females make a show and looks to mate within the next few weeks.