Summer weekend

It has been a super hot weekend here in Cornwall,  Ours was a busy one with Heathers end of college year exhibition opening on Friday evening and lots of visits with family and friends visiting us over the weekend,  But I still managed some very early sunrise images from St Michel's Mount harbour and sunset images around the Botallack coastline and topped them off with two night time star trail composits at the same location,

Cornish Kestrel part 31

Our Cornish kestrel are keeping up their good work supplying their chicks with plenty of prey to sustain their growth rate,  I found that better exposure results could be obtained due to the weather being partially overcast which reducing harsh sunlight,  Playing around with over exposure compensation helped with the lack of contrast within the shadowed nest area,

Crazy or just Cuckoo

Some days just do not seem to go to plan,  Having seen a banded yellow dragonfly on Botallack coastal heath yesterday I decided to do a bit of a tour around various heaths today where dragonflies can often be found around remote ponds etc,  Did I find any , Did I hell, I put it all down to a chilly westerly wind but it is an ill wind that blows no man good and for my persisting efforts I came home with a consolation prise of no less than 90 Cuckoo portraits,  A subject that I had not planned for or ever worked on before so I was an unexpected happy bunny,

Cornish Kestrels part 30

It has been a challenge trying to achieve good images of the kestrel fledglings this year and even trying to get a head count is proving difficult but I did briefly see four in sight today and could also detect that they were being pushed by perhaps one or more fledglings from behind, The images below were taken at the best time with regards to light and sun direction, Even so the central nest area remains in full shade while the outer rocks most of which I have cropped out over expose by the direct sunlight and camera settings used for the shadowed area,   It is still very pleasing to watch the young birds being looked after so well by their hard working mother

Longrock at sunrise

It was a magnificent sunrise on a lovely windless day over the freshly  cut silage fields of Longrock this morning,  I called in looking for Roe deer kids which should be born by now but no show,  I spent some time taking images of young rabbits that were foraging close to the hedgerows with the early sun shining through their ears and sparkling on the dew covered grasses,

A second year doe Roe Deer was next to arrive on the scene which showed some interest in the feeding rabbits before moving along the hedgerow towards me and a bank of Cow parsley that was her favourite feeding station

The following three images are full frame taken using a Nikon 500mm f4 prime lens with a 1.4 converter fitted and my D4s set to DX,

I took around thirty single mirror-up images of this doe before quietly withdrawing  unseen to leave her to feed and arrived back home at 7.30am with that privileged feeling that comes from working with such fine Cornish wildlife,

Cornish Kestrels part 29

As our young kestrel fledglings reach fourteen days old I managed to take my first images of one of them near the front of their obscured nest site as it watched the female kestrel fly off to collect more prey,

Providing nothing untoward happens within the next fourteen days and the adult birds keep up their good work in the supply of prey our young birds will finally fledge to explore the amazing Cornish coastline that will become their home,

Cornish Peregrine fledge

Today was a big day for a couple of Peregrine fledglings that have been limbering up over the last couple of days preparing for their maiden flights,

First one bird and then the other were going through wing stretching and flapping exercises and getting ready for take-off,

Eventually both birds were flapping and shouting while working themselves up for the big moment as they got ever closer to a 100 foot cliff edge

And this is the moment as one of the pair throws itself off of the cliff for its first flight

After completing an impressive half circle out over the sea it heads back towards the cliffs calling to the other birds before making a clumsy crash landing on the other side of the cove,

The second bird followed the first into the air within a few minutes and took a similar flight path during which it managed to gain some height to land on the top of the cliff edge some two hundred metres away from its starting point,

Stithians Reservoir southern cut-off

I called into Stithians yesterday morning looking for the Great white Egret sighted the previous day but no joy,  I spent some time watching a fine looking mature Grey Heron catch three Robin Red Breast in as many minutes before it moved on,

By contrast the next bird on the scene was a rather skinny looking juvenile Grey Heron that was on a steep learning curve,  I watched its attempts at fishing for thirty minutes and it never caught more than a face full of pond weeds, Its skills will need to improve quickly!


I turned my attention to a few birds visiting the out of action feeding station where they moved in close at three to four metres looking for hand-outs creating the opportunity for a couple of portrait images shown below

Cornish Kestrels part 28

Things are still very busy at our Kestrel site with mainly voles and lizards being delivered to the clutch of chicks approximately by the hour,  We do not know how many chicks there are at this stage but all should be revealed in the forthcoming weeks as the chicks start to fledge

Wind swept Cornish coastline

Following forty eight hours of high winds the seas around the Cornish coast were raging today creating an awesome spectacle for those walkers who braved the coastal footpaths

I saw a large mature Grey seal that showed no concern as it negotiated its way skilfully between shallow white water and jagged black rocks

I do not know why the little balls of spotted fluff that are Black back Gull chicks are not just blown off of high exposed rocks where I could not stand due to the strength of the wind

This female Kestrel hangs head motionless on the vertical cliff up-draughts while hunting by courtesy of the wind with little or no effort required for flight

A female Peregrine picks a spot to shelter from the elements where her plumage colours fade into the dramatic rock formation where she will remain unseen by those that did not see her land

No two days are the same around our coastline but nature seems to have a way of coping with all of them !