Stithians today

It was a wet and windy start to the day but as I was dropping my wife off in Camborne early AM I decided to spend some time at Stithians southern cut-off,  My first sighting was a noisy pair of Little Grebes,  These birds are incredible efficient predators and once again I watched as they dispatched four Palemate Newt and two Three Spin Sticklebacks in a short space of time

Next to show was a female Pintail that foraged close to the margins

Followed by the pair of resident Magpie that were busy cleaning up around the feeders

Last but not least to show was a rather wet male Great Spotted Woodpecker that decided to play a classic game  of  'Hide and Seek'  as it worked its way up on of the feeder frame supports,

Cornish Kestrels part 13

The day started off just fine,  A calm morning with a colourful dawn and sunrise so I started early with the intention of revising my approach to capturing images of our currently camera shy Male Kestrel on the south coast, The female Kestrel 'Kate' was in residence preening and posing as usual, but the illusive Male 'Kevin' was not on the scene but I carried on setting up for a remote shutter firing exercise and retreated farther back to test it,  Did it fire, Did it hell! I checked all the connections, Checked the settings and changed the batteries all round but could not get any response, So the best laid plans etc all went to the wall and I reverted back to my standard methods and took some more images of a very obliging Kate before retreating home for a little repair work on my remote assembly.

Cornish Kestrels part 12

It was a nice calm day on the south coast cliffs today and this afternoon pictures of Kate around the nest site were abundant and posted below.  Kevin the male seems far more difficult than in previous years to the extent that I believe that my presence and distance though acceptable to Kate seems to be causing him some concern and I missed at least one prey hand-over this afternoon due to him abandoning the exercise.  It seems that it is time for a change in field skills by increasing my working distance and using remote shutter control on a single pre-focused favourable prey hand -over location which can be tricky and frustrating when the action happens perhaps as little as a foot out of frame,

So I will give it a try tomorrow and  lets hope we can post more images of Kevin in the Next blog or two !

Cornish Kestrel part 11

All fairly quiet with the Kestrels this afternoon, Our female Kate spent most of her time looking well fed and relaxed while preening herself around the nesting area,  No further prey was delivered by Kevin during several fly-bye's so I would assume that they were both well supplied during the morning.

I looked for an opportunity to capture a take off or landing sequence as Kate occasional took short flights from one cliff ledge to another and eventually caught this sequence of three take off images below that worked quite nicely in a montage

I have probably taken more pictures of Kevin and Kate than any other individual birds and with this being our seventh year of them tolerating my presence since I moved to Cornwall I still get an aweful lot of joy from watching and working with them.

Cornish Kestrel part 10

It had been eight days since I checked out our Kestrels and I'm pleased to report that the Male Kevin was seen supplying the female Kate with a good sized Vole, So their partnership seems to be working well again and very positive for another season of raising any forthcoming fledglings.

Kevin  above holds up his prey offering in a classic hand-over pose

I missed the actual prey hand-over being obscured by an over hanging Tamerisk tree but Kate accepted it and flew back into view on one of her favoured eating ledges,

I watched her tearing into the vole in the normal Kestrel fashion through my viewfinder When I noticed that both her upper and particularly her lower beak appeared incomplete,

When I arrived home I cropped a couple of images to check her beak out, the first above looked sort of OK but her tongue was in the way and everything looked a bit gory,  The one below taken when she had finished eating told a different tale with large sections missing.

This is presumable caused by ware and tear and also probably a sign that Kate is getting on in years but other than that she is looking just fine.

She only dispatched the front half of the vole and flew to one of her stash points to hid the rest which is quite common practice and suggests that she had already eaten this morning and also a good indication of abundant prey in the area,

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.