Rare Otter sighting

It was a wet murky day here in Cornwall yesterday and not very conducive for photography but I had heard via the grapevine that an Otter had been sighted a few times over several days at an undisclosed Cornish location so I went along to try my luck which seemed to be good for on this occasion as I had this fine Otter in my viewfinder within twenty minutes of my arrival

 It was soon quite obvious that the Otter was on a fishing mission as I watched it diving and returning to the surface with Sticklebacks time after time as can be seen in the image below

I watched its behaviour over the course of the next three hours during which it went through three cycles of fishing for around thirty minutes then disappearing for around the same amount of time in between,

This behaviour seemed to suggest the delightful prospects that it might have a family of kits hidden in the area that it was secretly feeding them before returning to fishing once more,

I watched this Otter take over a dozen fish within the timescale of my visit and wondered how long the location might be capable of sustaining this level of predation

This otter certainly put on a fine show for me which could only be bettered by her having two or three kits in tow  learning their own fishing skills,  I wish!

My Cornish garden

Following a lovely sunny sunday morning which I spent watching Merlin, skylark and Peregrine along the north coast with a couple of members of 4C The 'Cornish Camo Camera Corp'  I returned home for a traditional sunday lunch and an afternoon lazing in my Cornish garden, Well that's what I thought !

                    My wife had other ideas,  she is currently studying textile and Ceramic art and design at Camborne college and soon had me taking pictures of some of her artwork for a forthcoming end of year exhibition,

A couple of hours later I finally made it into our garden to relax,  Not a chance !  We have some fine mature Golden Orfe in our garden Pond and they choose this warm sunny afternoon to spawn turning the normally quiet  water into a boiling cauldron that just could not be ignored so out came the camera once again,

The fish went on for hours creating a natural spectacle that was a joy to watch,  Then Heather suggested that she would like an arty image of our Blue tits coming out of their fence line nest box while we had the camera in the garden,

Next thing I know the alarm bells are ringing on our cooker informing me that it was about time that I was dishing up the sunday roast,  Is a mans work never finished !!  I finally sat down to watch the Spanish F1 grand prix and yes you guessed it,  I fell asleep in the chair before the end of a very exciting race,   Thank goodness for the catch up button  Happy Days!

Bold Meadow pipit

I spent some time along our coastline earlier today watching various birds of prey and while sat quietly at one location on Cudden Point I was entertained by a cheeky Meadow Pipit that got bolder when I showed no response and it was eventually picking off flies in a tuft of Thrift just 2m in front of me on the verge of the cliffs.

Local Fox visit our garden

Ever Since we built our home here in Rosudgeon we have had fox's foraging around the garden each evening and too date we have had the pleasure of watching five sets of cubs being introduced to the fall out nuts and scraps from our bird feeders,  Last night heather thought she caught sight of this years cubs as we prepared for bed so I decided to wait with a camera set up inside of out lounge to try to capture a few images,  I only worked with a camera without flash on a tripod so had to rely on outside tungsten patio lights and high ISO and low shutter speed so any results would be grainy  but I figured that if any cubs were seen I would set things up properly outside on another evening using a pair of remote flash guns and remote camera firing to improve on the picture quality,  Our resident pair of fox put in several shows but any cubs were kept well out of sight for the moment  so we will keep an eye out for them and post up any sightings as the days go by,

                           

Skylark portraits

Skylarks were showing well up on the north coast yesterday so following a visit to Monkey Puzzle fine art printers near Porthtowen I set off along the coast path heading south and soon found one that was quite accommodating once I settled down on the heath and waited for a few close encounters, I had around fifty close shots within an hour on a favoured viewing point a few of which are posted below,

Cornish Kestrels part 23

Prey hand-over sequence,
The six images below show a typical prey hand-over sequence starting with the female waiting for prey while showing some ware and tear from lots of time spent incubating her eggs and on through the lizard prey handover and finishing with both birds moving on,

 

Focus on Wheal Edward

I have been out and about with underwater and landscape Photographer Ed Whiting throughout the weekend working on various subjects at random locations which terminated at the perhaps fitting location of Wheal Edward as Sunday drew to a close,  We had gone there with star trail photography in mind as a clear sky was on the cards but as we arrived early were spent some time on local wildlife including the fine Slow Worm portrait posted below,

As time got closer to sunset banks of sea mist started to roll in on the onshore light wind which while creating a dramatic sunset scene it also put a question mark against later star trail work but if you can't beat them work with them so the sunset became our subject for a while

As the sun reached the horizon the sea mist began to lift quiet quickly and clear skies started to emerge from the gloom making things look more promising for a star trail finish to the weekend so I took one final selfie while watching the sun go down and then turned my attention to the stars

Having selected my composition on the engine house I took a few single time exposures as it got darker with the engine house  strongly illuminated by a high full moon and was lucky enough to record an asteroid to the right of the mine in the image below,

So with my composition selected I set my remote timers for 200 images at f2.8 and 20 seconds shutter exposure and ISO 400,  Pressed the button and sat in my folding directors chair for just over an hour and amused myself counting satellite passes as the camera clicked away producing the exposures for my star trail images,  The final composite image below was compiled using a piece of star trail software on arrival back home and finally completed around 3.30 AM this morning.

Cornish Kestrels part 23

All seems to be going well with our Kestrels,  With the female now half way through incubating her eggs, The male as seen below has been busy bringing in prey,  It seems to be a good year for lizards which are accounting for over fifty percent of kills,

In the shot below the male has delivered prey to the female and waits to see her response ?

And this time he is in luck as the female calls him to mate but they are both facing the wrong way for my camera !

Some times the time you put in gets its reward too, and in this case seven hours after I arrived the Kestrels turned around together to give me the shot below that I had been waiting for,

All good things come to an end and the final shot show the dismount and its now time for the female to get back to her eggs and the male might just catch another lizard before sunset.

South coast today

The south coast was the order of the day again today to avoid the cold northerly winds once again,  My day started with a pair of Roe Deer at longrock on the way to check out Marazion Marsh, Their summer coats were beginning to take shape now and they were looking good in the morning sunshine

At the marsh the resident Grey Heron were busy catching fish for their pair of chicks but I fear for the smaller chick which is looking frail and possibly not getting its share of the catch

By contrast the warrens rabbits have been breeding "like rabbits" and the dozens of young bunnies out this morning were a delight to watch,

Farther east along the coast I watched this Little Egret above take four good sized Tompot Blennies and Shanies from a relatively small rock pool in less than thirty minutes,  What an amazing hunter they are and not surprizing that they have become so successful within the UK

 Today we finish with a shot of one of our local Kestrels as she takes a short break from incubating her latest clutch of eggs

Cornish All Sorts

It was a good day for walking the south coast with cold but light northeasterly winds being tempered by plenty of sunshine.  I had not just one but two pods of Bottlenose dolphins pass by heading east towards Porthleven  just one hundred yards from the shore with eight and six animals respectively in the pods, Later in the day the two pods had joined up and passed again heading west towards Perranouthnoe

My next encounter was a pair of Chough where the male was regularly feeding the female and later I watched their behaviour as they fussed and preened each other showing  a very good bond,  Lets hope they produce another fine clutch of fledglings again this year,

At the bottom of the cliffs a pair of Heron Gulls were mating amid the low tide cord weed which produced an good contrast to their bright plumage

This  lovely male Linnet was in fine tune and singing its heart out among the flowering Gorse bushes

This female Kestrel is not one that I am used to working with but as I took a few shots it swooped into a granite outcrop in an awkward position and had to work hard to correct its flight path on leaving but it came away with yet another common lizard prey in its beak