Roe Deer in the Reeds

I made a visit to check out local Roe Deer activity this afternoon and found four deer including one young buck and all were out foraging solo in the reeds.  Once I had reached my desired viewing point and settled down I was soon boxed in with individual deer on all sides.

I spent two hours moving little more than my shutter finger and eventually had two deer come within 25 metres of my location before they moved off into the treeline giving me a chance to retreat back out of the reeds

The Raven Family

A male Raven catches up with his female mate as they return from local fields to the cliffs above their nest site.

He skillfully lands very close to her and immediately regurgitates some food offerings onto the rocks.

The female does the majority of the feeding of their four red mouthed chicks readily picks up the welcome offerings and flies straight on down to their hungry family below.

As the female arrives at the nest site four hungry mouths shoot skyward looking to be the first to be fed.

Just one hungry mouth is left wanting but the female Raven will return again shortly and it will then be the first one in line !

Shags sharing Incubation and mating

As the early morning sun rises to throw some light onto previously shadowed cliff ledges,
a male Shag returns to its mate that is sitting on a single large blue egg and she starts to lift off the nest to swop incubation periods but the male has other ideas and is looking to mate before she leaves

The female accepts and the male climbs onto her back and mates.

This seems like a comfortable way to mate but I had some concerns about the newly hatched egg lying underneath them throughout this activity but all seems well as the female pops out from under the male and takes her turn to go off and feed while the male takes over the incubation duties.

Mating Peregrine

Above a male Peregrine holds back on using its talons as it struggles to balance when landing on the back of its female mate.

He settles and moves back into position to mate with the female for around ten seconds giving me the opportunity to take 100+ images including his dismount and a selection of these are posted below.

With her head bowed the female rises to the occasion as mating begins in earnest.

As mating continues the male skillfully uses its wings to counter-balance their actions.

By the time that they dismount the pair should have helped to secure the future of another generation of young Peregrine that will fledge some time in the near future on these cliffs adding yet more interest to the abundant wildlife along the south Cornwall coastline.

Fox's and a Badger

It was a cold,wet and windy night in Cornwall last night but we still had one of our regular visits from a pair of local fox's.

The larger redder male arrived first and reluctantly posed for a couple of portraits while seeking out his favourite hidden peanuts.

The lively and alert  smaller female came directly behind the male and quickly picked up on the fact that our recently ' tamed ' ferrel cat Mr Purdhu was mooching around so they went through one of their regular Stand-off's before the vixen moved on along their nightly trail.

We finally got a very welcome visit from one of our local badgers which usually wait until our lights go out most nights before they work their way through our garden.

Roe Deer Retreat,

It was icy cold and wet when I ventured out looking for Roe Deer this morning,  I think someone turned the season back along with the clock !!   I could not find any deer out and about on the moor but eventually caught up with them sheltering in a favoured coppice retreat.

I never enter this area but circle around it under cover looking to pick off sightings amid the trees from a distance as I go.  This retreat tends to be under heavy shadow but relaxed shots through the branches are better than going on in only to gain tail shots of the deer bolting,  loosing their cover and more importantly their safe retreat.

A little sunshine filtered through the trees helping to provide some contrast to take the posted images after which I headed on back to a more welcoming warm study to produce this blog.

Buzzard in flight

Watch any Buzzard in flight for a while and it will not be long before some other bird from another buzzard down to a skylark will do all it can to repel it from their patch.

Perhaps not the most popular bird within its own population but this impressive bird which can weigh up to 40 oz and is 60 cm long with a powerful wingspan of around I.3 metres that allows this long living bird  ( Up to twenty five years ) to travel gracefully for miles without a wing beat.

The images of this local bird have all been taken on recent sunny days as it leisurely glides by without me even having to leave my own rural area garden to do it.

Peregrine prey snatch

A female Peregrine moves in on a male that has just returned to the cliffs with prey,  He plucks it and starts to consume his early kill but the female has other ideas and sinks her talons into the carcass.

She lifts off leaving the frustrated male with the last mouthful that he will get for all his efforts,  He takes off to give chase but this time its the female Peregrine that wins the prey.

Wheal Prosper Sunset and Star Trail

Cornish Mine Engine Houses are an iconic feature of our local landscape and heritage and are much appreciated and photographed by locals and visitors alike.

The image above is typical of most peoples capture of an engine house and its says 'Cornwall' through and through but its worth taking a look at using the same prop after the sun has gone down.

In this single thirty second exposure above I have carefully lined up the towering chimney of Wheal Prosper to critically aline it with the insignificant pole star that looks just like a thousand other so you have to do your home work to get this one right.

In the Star-trail sequence below I have taken a series of 200 thirty second exposures to record the movement of the earths rotation over a continues period of one hour forty minutes and now you can see the effects of the critical tripod positioning in relation to the pole star which is dead centre to the axis point of the earths spin.

It might also be interesting to note that the single Sunday evening aircraft track that was recorded over just two of the exposures passed oh so close to the pole star and the towering chimney focal point.

Another point worth a mention is that what might fortunately look like a sunset afterglow in the lower part of the sky is actually light pollution fro the town of Hayle which lies to the north of Rinsey.  It is unavoidable and in this case perhaps added to the interest of the image.

As an added bonus even if it was out of frame I had a fine view of the International Space Station passing through directly overhead for several minutes.