Bank Vole images

The Bank Vole is a mainly nocturnal feeder and therefore rarely seen during the daylight hours but at noon today one was feisty of hungry enough to run the daylight gauntlet among birds foraging on the ground under the feeder fallout zone at Stithians southern cut-off hide, It was the first one that I have spotted here over several years and I first thought it to be a young Brown Rat but the blunt nose and hairy tail ruled that out,  It was interesting to watch how it used large clumps of marsh grasses for cover while waiting for quieter moments to dash out  [ These little guys can move ]  for food particles that were immediately taken back under cover,  It seemed very aware that larger local birds such as Magpie, Jay and Jackdaw would very quickly add it to their menu during these daylight hours,

Other subjects worked on today included several Snipe,  Two Squadrons of Long -tailed Tits and a female Great Spotted Woodpecker,

Peregrine Falcon Portraits

The pair of Peregrine at Trewavas Head have a host of favoured perch points along this lovely rugged section of the Cornish coastline.  Trekking along the coast path from Rinsey or Porthleven with weighty camera kit suitable to record their behaviour can be a bit of a gamble,  Well today I got lucky on two counts,  First off,  The ringed female was showing a lot closer than normal on one ridge close to the footpaths which were seasonally quiet, and secondly I was boldly walking down to this location while looking farther out for birds and had not seen her so close, On doing so I literally went into reverse and backed away with the bird watching me until I was in the cover of a granite outcrop at a distance of around 30m.

 I settled down, assembled my kit and started to record the bird's behaviour, She sat staring directly at me for the first few minutes eventually deciding I was not a threat and she had seen me on the cliffs many times before,  She was now preening, interchanging which leg she stood on while lifting the other and withdrawing it inside her plumage for warmth,  This went on for thirty minutes or so during which time I took sixty plus selective single images,  She started to look a bit restless, raised her tail and pooped and I quickly set for rapid multi-shots just in time to catch her take-off recording just four flight shots before she was gone.

I was pleased with the images posted below and decided to produce another sequence montage of the Take-off images which I felt came together quite well,  Happy Days !!

Carn Gloose today

Early AM today I was in the company of Peter Tonkin and Bob Sharples near Ballawall Barrow on Carn Gloose Heath,  We were there before sunrise along with several other birders and photographers looking for the illusive Snowy Owl seen at this location the previous afternoon,  The dawn and sunrise were superb and could not be ignored so out came the mobile phone camera to record the dawn behind Carn Gloose mine stack,  Patiently waiting Photographers at sunrise And the only big bird we were to see flying this morning,  A 'Merlin' Helicopter fresh out from Coldrose,  A passing dog walker pointed out the location that the Snowy Owl  had been occupying yesterday which confirmed that we were in the right location,

As the sun rose above the hills and the light levels improved it soon became obvious that the Snowy Owl had moved on to greener pastures but as a consolation prise a fine looking female Pheasant came out from her roost point just a few feet from where the Snowy had been showing,  Following a shake-out and wing stretch it started to move up over one of the mounds allowing us better viewing while also catching the early morning sunlight,  She looked back over her shoulder at the sound of shutters firing before disappearing off down the other side to start her new day,   Perhaps not a Snowy Owl but she  'made my day ' anyway !!

New Subjects & Old

Todays blog is a mix of new and old subjects that I have worked on at Stithians southern cut-off hide,  New to me at this location today were :
                                                    A Meadow Pipit taking a bath.

                                               A Reed Bunting feeding on grass seeds.

                                         A lonesome Coot that looked a little lost

                               Plus old favourites that crop up on a regular basis starting with a foraging Wren

A Redwing in from the fields for a drink

At 400m a Grey Heron predating on a large frog that it had pierced right through its middle and had quite a bit of trouble getting it off his bill and at its end the frog made quite a lump in the Heron's throat   but he didn't look very sorry,

Male Mandarin Duck

It has been several weeks since my first distant sighting of the Male Mandarin Duck at Stithians reservoir southern cut-off but today he put in a good long show coming close in to the waters edge at the cut-off hide. he was amid a group of mainly male Mallard that started to feed on water weed along the margins and it quickly became obvious that he was heading the pack when it came to down to who fed where as he saw off all of the larger mallard that got in his way as he selected his feeding grounds with purpose,  As he worked his way along the margins it was also interesting to note how well his dramatic Picasso style plumage was broken by the reeds and margin vegetation when he stopped to feed,  This amazing looking bird was well capable of looking after itself among strangers and its body language oozed with a sense of well being that made it a pleasure to watch and photograph.

Long-tailed Tit

Long-tailed Tits must be among the most popular of small birds, They are group raiders that do not seem to have time to hang around complying with pecking orders around feeders or trees and bushes, they just dive straight in and grab what they want and move on before other birds turn against them, They do the rounds in family groups of up to a dozen or so covering quite large territories only to re-appear at any given location several times each day and at Stithians feeding station they add an interesting spectacle to a location that is already busy with birds but do they wait their turn, No chance, they just pile in for some welcome hand outs and are off on their way again,

.

Six of today's Great Spotted Woodpecker images

There is nothing that I love more than being able to spend many hours working with the same bird on any given day to study its behaviour and today proved to be one of them,  For some reason the female Great spotted Woodpecker at Stithians reservoir southern cut-off hide which normally makes a beeline for the nut or fatball feeders had changed tack today and spent several hours drilling and searching for bugs and grubs on the lichen and moss covered tree trunks and branches along the waterline, It was fascinating to watch this bird searching every nook and cranny along branches often hanging upside down by those large and powerful claws to cover the total area of any chosen tree limb and stopping from time to time to drill holes in the tree bark presumably to access hidden grubs who's presence it seemed to sense,  The lichen and moss coating that is a trademark of the Cornish landscape adds vibrant colour, interest and impact to these images and helped to create a very pleasant experience working with and indeed just watching this amazing bird's behaviour today.

Spoonbill at Ryan's field

Wildlife took a bit of a back seat today as I spent some time at Specsavers checking out sight issues effecting my vision with the onslaught of Cataract in both eyes, Predictable the NHS do not consider them bad enough to replace the lenses at this stag, so it seems  Things have to get worse before they will get better!!  I'm not to impressed with this result and have ordered my white stick and what happened to that fine old proverb: 'Prevention is better than cure'  but I did come away with a new pair of vari-focal glasses to try to help with my photography in the mean time,  So, off of my Soap Box and onwards and upwards.

I dropped into Ryan's field hide on my way home at the same time as a semi resident Spoonbill so I sat and watched its interesting behaviour in somewhat blustery and stormy conditions which pulled the light levels all over the place,  The gusting winds were unbalancing this large bird but it set off round the shallow lagoon demonstrating its side ways but very effective fishing technique and it was soon throwing back a few shrimps and worms

Following the fishing the sun came out briefly as the Spoonbill went into preening mode which it carries out very skilfully considering what looks like a very clumsy bill

The Spoonbill looked about as impressed with the blustery weather today as I was with the NHS so it decided to get its head settled down over its back to ride out the storm and I went home to write about it while I could still see what I was doing !!