Pheasant Display

While on route to Goonhilly Satalite Earth Station on the Lizard peninsula we stopped off at Windmill Farm looking for Birds of Prey an hour before sunset,  Before we exited Bob Sharples transporter he saw this very large male Pheasant posted above crossing a field behind a five bar gate,

I took the above shot through the bars of the gate before leaving the Van as I expected  to get the usual tail end noisy exit shot when we moved a little closer but this time with the usual careful approach towards the bird it held its ground very well.

Apart from strutting about and feeding this rather plump male started to periodically display to one or more females that we could not see and we settled down to take a hundred or so images of its behaviour in the evening sunlight over the following fifteen minutes.

                              This prime male Pheasant certainly proved to be a star performer !!

Buzzard on the Warren

I met up with Bob Sharples this morning at Marazion Marsh,  We were both on the lookout for a trio of Otter reported a few days ago.

No show today but as we started to walk along the front of the marsh 'Hawkeye Bob'  Spotted a young Buzzard that blended in well among piles of old cut reeds that were stacked for burning.

The buzzard had his eye on several young Bunnies that were chasing each other on the warren and it was interesting to watch as the bird tried to make up its mind when to commit to an attack.

Well when he did his low level flight was well executed but this time the young bunnies saw him coming and were well down the nearest burrow before his arrival and the buzzard moved off along the warren looking for more unsuspecting prey.

"Tongue in Beak " Heron Portraits

It was a wet and windy day here in Cornwall,  I spent the morning catching up with a few jobs around the house but come 2 pm  I was climbing the walls to get out,  I decided to pop over to the hide at Ryan's field to try my luck.

On my arrival I found it was standing room only as a lively bunch of photographers from Truro camera club had called in to escape the rain,

As they left a fine Grey Heron flew in closer to land at the waters edge near the hide

The bird entered the water and started to forage around a closer small island so I moved my tripod further back away from the large hide windows so as not to disturb it

At this point the heron changed its mind and flew even closer into the area directly in front of the hide and it was now full frame in my viewfinder.

On landing the heron once again started foraging along the waterline stopping just once to reset its tongue in its beak and I was delighted to capture three shots of this behaviour,

The fishing brought the heron no reward in front of the hide and it opted to leave for greener pastures leaving me with a nice Take-off image to finish the shoot.

Mating Peregrine Sequence

Having missed out on a Good Peregrine mating sequence yesterday I decided to return to the same location today to try my luck once again.

This time I "Got lucky"following a three hour period of very little activity,  So I was pleased when first a female appeared to perch on the cliffs facing me and shortly afterwards a male flew in to repeat his mating performance of yesterday.

I was pleased that this time the birds mated facing towards me but they were much further away than yesterday at probably in excess of a hundred metres and their grey plumage tended to merge with the colours of the vegetation and rock face behind them.

But I guess we have to count are blessings as they come and it was certainly a joy to watch the Peregrines active mating behaviour which should hopefully help in producing a good clutch of fledgling in the oncoming months.

It was interesting to see how the male Peregrine turns and balls up his lethal talons when mounting the females back which must impair his ability to balance,  but even so the female is beginning to show signs of wear and tear from their active behaviour.

Peregrine Performance

It was a lovely sunny day on the north coast of Cornwall with a favourable off-shore light breeze.  I worked my way along the coast picking off a few Peregrine shots at various known locations that have worked for me in the past.

As the morning passed the bright conditions afforded me several nice Peregrine portraits with good lighting angles and I was a happy bunny.

But I missed out on what might have been a classic mating shot of the day when :

A female that had flown in close and was facing towards me suddenly turned away to accommodate the line of flight from an unseen incoming male Peregrine that landed deftly on her back and the pair mated immediately facing away from my camera.

When I look at this last image above it makes me smile when I think and know what this picture might have been had the female maintained her original position,  The image taken was   'So near yet so far from being a cracking image'  but that's the way it goes when you are working with so many of our amazing but often unpredictable wildlife subjects.

Buck Roe Deer

I came across the same Buck Roe Deer this morning that I saw a few mornings ago when he was chasing around after a couple of females in Longrock woods,

Weather conditions were overcast and quite dark and the buck still held ninety percent of his grey winter coat which blended him into the hedgerow colouration but didn't help me very much when trying to find good contrast to compensate for the low light,

In the image directly below he had pick up on the scent and moved off again constantly tasting the air as he tried to find the females,

He checked out all of the long grass areas where the females retreat too lay down but no joy so on he went again.

He eventually stopped to recharge his batteries with a little foraging along a hedgerow browse line and it was at this point that I left the Buck as I was now already running late for a prearranged pick -up

Late lunch with a Wood Mouse

I arrived home just in time to have a late lunch with my wife Heather, She topped up a bird feeder with oats and we sat overlooking our patio waiting for an influx of garden birds,

The first arrival was a bit of a surprise and came in the form of a cute little wood mouse that we do not normally see in the daytime but heather had spilt a few oats below the feeder and this cute little chap was keen to join us for lunch.

With its large ears, Bulbous beady eyes, long whiskers and little white feet this chap was really photogenic and its perhaps no wonder that Walt Disney used this species to model 'Mickey Mouse'.

Taking his oat back to his hole that not by accident was located near the feeder,  he sat and finished it while keeping an eye on us and when he was finished he just popped off back to his cosy little moss lined bed,

The garden birds started to come back into the feeder and everything returned to normal with all parties including me being very well fed  But I passed on the oats !!