In search of Surf… Quite frankly dissappointing to say the least.. it hardly seemed worth a trip up North Cornwall beyond Godrevy for..

This tiny specimen prompted a Drive across country to Godrevy to check out the North Coast pre heading to Perranporth..

I decided to call off the search for surf and head to the marsh for an afternoon in the sun..
We got to marazion and I took a walk off up the back of the marsh to the pool and found Roger sat there with willow so I joined him on the Bench and we had a nice chat..

First visitor to the shrubs was a simple but pretty House sparrow..

Roger was on lookout over the marsh and I watched the trees and bushes around us… there were lots of small bird activity around especially the blue tits and long tailed tits..

Blue tit perched high on the pines

Long tailed tit

Leanne joined us and time just seemed to tick away …so much so Roger almost missed his Rugby and had to make a dash to get home to see it..
Leanne and I stayed around for a while watching the birds flitting around before wandering back down to the front

The usual specimens were about in force such as the Dunnock and stonechats and the water rail were making their screechy calls but refused to show as usual and retained their elusiveness.

Male Stonechat on the shrubs

Rabbit enjoying a scratch in the sunshine

meanwhile out in the pool the moorhens were competing with each other for weed and enjoying their space in the sunshine.

It was surprising how damp the air was beginning to feel and you could see the mist or Sea fret moving in on us from over the road, so we decided to make a move for home before it got too bad..

Walking back to the car we hear the whistle pheeping of  the oystercatchers as they made their way over the marsh and towards the mount..

over in the reeds the Grumpy (I suspect Hen pecked) Heron husband stood lurking… so I’ll leave you with him as our pick of the day for today..

Hope you’ve enjoyed the blog.. remember comments are always welcomed…

TTFN

Mel ^

Hi everyone,

just to keep you up to date with whats going on.. we’re still waiting for decisions from the insurers as to what THEY want to do with the splashbus (I sense a fight coming)  so you’ll see us around in a silvery, too clean, too new and too small VW Touran probably with the Natural Cornwall logo’s on it.. gotta love magnets..

Friday I was at Treliske for a Heart scan, the results of which I won’tknow for a week or so yet so on the way Back we called in at Porthtowan and Photographed a few surfers out there.. No we didn’t bother with the dead smelly whale.. I think everyone’s seen it by now anyhow.
You can see the surf shots on Splashography
Yesterday I was down at marazion from early morning with the windsurfers enjoy some fabulous wind surf and sunshine… not acombination we find too often.. I’m usually getting soakeded or struggling for light when I shoot windsurfers so it was a nice change..
Again the shots are on Splashography

Most of you know by now that I run many sites (There’s no way you can bake a pie in Cornwall Today with only one ingredient) well Our Land Sports Website is Slamshots and through that (and in our ever increasing tradition oif sponsoring Cornish/British Talent) we set up to Sponsor the new Amateur boxing club Penzance ABC and we’ll be putting their site together over the next few weeks if anyone’s interested in Boxing..

Meanwhile we’ll leave you with a few shots to remind you spring is definitely on the way from our trip to the roseland this week on our Idyllic Celtic Church hunt..

And Speaking of Baking Pie’s

Well thats where we’re at for the moment so we’ll keep you informed of any updates and we’ll hopefully be back with the van very soon

Thanks for everyone’s help and concern.. Leanne is recovering slowly day by day..

By for now

Mel^

And here we are, we were never really away, just busy earning a living completing some commission shoots we had to do up country..a bit.
I figured due to the response of us not being around for a couple of days I should at least put a mention of what we’d been up to each day, but above all.. Thank you for missing us.. its really nice to know you think of us.

Well I was working for a writer friend photographing a few places and things for him, and also catching up with another of my websites www.mysticalcornwall.co.uk for anyone who’s interested in the mystical and ancient places buildings and stones of Celtic Cornwall.

Well today we were back on the Marsh, well on the Beach first, then we nipped off up to Gwithian to check out a couple of things and returned through Hayle and back to the marsh at Marazion..

Leanne had to go to the post office to send off by registered mail my letter to manfrotto regarding our ongoing saga of the ‘not made for outdoor use but advertised as perfect for extreme outdoor assignments’ Carbon  tripod.
Meanwhile I had a look down on the beach.. there were a few bar tailed Godwits down there along with a couple of Oystercatchers..

along came an oystercatcher and almost set down on the godwits head..

We shot off up to Gwithian literally in this VW Touran they’re making us use while they decide the fate (which we already know) of our Splashbus, and on the way back crossed over the iron bridge in hayle and checked out the river walkway.. Not much about but a lot of wigeon.. Here’s a nice pair:

Male Wigeon

Female Wigeon

Back over via St Erth to Marazion.. stopping off first to check out Carnsew Pool.. just four Little Grebes visible who all made a frantic getaway when they spotted me ..

and again to watch a sparrow hawk hedgerun along the road and down into the valley.. too fast for me to get a camera out, but nice to see all the same.

WE arrived back at the marsh.. Leanne put the kettle on our portable stove (No van no cooker.. no way .. portable stove Ok Tea on!!) I took a look over for the water rails as they were being their usual screechy selves, but nothing but a Chaffinch visible..

Personally I enjoy the tits and finches and other small birds who flit around on the marsh and in the nearby trees.. maybe we should put something together in the way of a feeding station to encourage them out into the open more where we can photograph them.
Roger caught up with us there and let us know how you were all worried about us and we really do sincerely thank you for thinking of us, he also was asking about Camera’s which reminds me I nbeed to just pop orft and check some prices for him..

Back to the Marsh and we (Leanne and I) walked off up the back path to the benches and watched a few long tailed tits and others and a pair of swans looked as though they were checking out the island there opposite the benches for a possible nesting spot..
I’d just sat down on the bench when that wonderfull musical sound of the Mute swans wings rang out and they took off and soared into the sky..

WE had a nice quiet sit in the sunshine there and drank our Tea.. of course those of you who know us well know that an empty  Tea cup means time to put the kettle on.. so we wandered off down the path.. I wandered on oblivious but Leanne spotted our toady fellow, which she first thought was dog poop! and she calls me blind lol.. and called me back to see..
Its always nice to see the amphibians, and he was a strikingly handsome warty old bugger with a hundred shades to his silky skin in the sunlight there.

He brought to mind (from where he was sitting more than association) it was almost the time when we saw the first Adder last year coiled up not 2 yards from where TT was enjoying the sun.
It will be nice to see the first again this year, preferably not hanging off my leg

Well on round the front and leanne off to the car to put the kettle on I spotted Dennis and Roger and wandered across the front to have a word, I was distracted on the way by the water pipit who was busy on the island there wandering up and down.. so I stopped there to grab a couple of shots..

We had a chat there and Leanne brought the Tea and we put the world to rights,  before setting off back to the car where Keith caught up with us..

IT was nice to catch up and see everyone again, and thankfully the day turned out much better than expected..

Thanks for dropping by..

Mel^

I didn’t think it would be much of a day seeing the grey skies and wintery showers this morning, and I know Bob felt the same as he’d rung to say he was going into Hide-ing starting off at Stithians and probably heading off to Hayle hide later…
As per usual I caught up with some work in the morning while the weather was bad and then set off out around 12-30 just after a lovely BLT which Leanne surprised me with I needed petrol so we headed down to Tesco’s and more by way of habit headed off to Marazion.. amazingly the sun came out and I thought I’d spend an hour at the cut out overlooking the Marsh.
All the usual suspects were there, Mr & Mrs heron, the rabbits moorhens oystercatchers magpies etc.. and there was quite a lot of swan activity so I thought I’d watch them for a while and maybe get a few shots of them warning each other off..
One of the Oysterctachers was taking a bath straight down in front of me and causing a spray,but by the time I set the camera on him he was just airing his feathers….

Well I didn’t have long to wait before the action started between the swans, Aidan had just arrived and was getting tea from the van when two swans locked on and started wrestling.. I thought at first it was two males but it later turned out to be a male female union taking place, though she was definitely feeling reluctant.

After quite a Tussle she broke free and made a dash for safety, however He being the bigger stronger and more powerful swan was soon on her again, literally and quickly joined by two other males in some kind of High five activity

And so it would seem her fate was sealed and I don’t suppose it will be long before she’s finding her mound to build the nest on..
A cormorant came by on a fleeting visit and landed in behind the reeds did a little diving and then took off again to fly overhead..
As usual now the cutting and burning has ceased on the marsh, there’s much snipe activity and everywhere you walk or stand there’s snipes flying off and landing all around.. so it seems fitting to catch one coming into land for the blog

Cormorant

Snipe landing

Well it was around this point that Keith hargreaves arrived taking a few minutes out of his busy schedule to say hello and grab his daily bittern fix.. We had a nice chat and he’d already said he’d have to go a couple of times when the Bittern finally put in an appearance just in time for him to grab a few shots before going back to work..
I was that busy telling everyone where he was I almost missed him myself but just grabbed him through the reeds..

Well Keith was happy and headed off to work and I decided to call it a day and go up to Drift.. A) to get out of the bit of wind that had crept up over the marsh and B) I’m trying to take leanne through that journey home as much as possible to make it less of a trauma each time..
She decided to have a walk down to the boathouse and see the whooper while I walked on around the marsh, so I gave her my D200 and 150mm lens to get some shots while I wandered off. I have to say I really liked the swan coming in to land she grabbed..

Meanwhile I was sat down the bottom corner with the Barnacle Geese and Black necked grebe again, no doubt getting the same shots I’d already got a dozen times

Barnacle Geese

Black Necked Grebe

I’d been sat on one of the bench’s filming the Grebe diving for a bit longer than I realised and  the sun was dropping now behind the hillside and it was definitely getting colder again so I figured it was time to head back to the van.
Most things were doing the same and were flying up the reservoir towards the boathouse obviously it was getting near feeding time

Sure enough as I got to the top of the hill,  the food was being put out at the house for the mallards, dave called out to me and asked me to help get the sacks of feed from his car into the garage.. thankfully they weren’t that heavy and I lifted them in for him and he kindly gave me an A3 Print of the Long tailed Tits from his garden for Leanne that his daughter had taken, which I thought was really nice of him.

I thanked him and made my way to the van and we headed off ome without too much trauma for Leanne.. its definitely getting easier for her, mind you there were no other cars on the road and that can make all the difference.. still time’s a healer, speaking of which I’ve a physio appointment to get to so I’ll bid adieu for now and catch up with you later after the days events..

Mel ^

That was kind of Leanne’s feelings this morning so while i was having my weekly blood tests done at cape cornwall surgery we got her in to see the doc as she’s still not feeling much better since the accident. Sickness Nausea and teary as well as a lot of back pain..
We decided to have a ride over to brew farm and see if the cattle Egrets were about, and sure enough one was right by the gate and simple to photograph which makes a nice change, here he is flying over the field.

Andsettled to sit by the gate

We headed off through the lane and called in at Porthgwarra to have a look over the top.. there were fields full of what looked like golden plover but too far away for a good look or positive ID.. There seemed to be little about and we’d had a call to say take the van to penzance crash repair centre so we set off and headed down there..
Well they say they come in 3’s and I’ve lost count where we are but halfway up the hair pin bend on the road from Porthcurno to Lamorna, the Bus jumped out of first gear and I couldn’t get it back in.. just kept grinding and crunching..I had another T25 behind me who had to drop back around the bend to let us drop back across the road into the farm track to allow him past us..
I had several attempts at setting off but the gear kept jumping out and if I held the gearstick there it simply grated and obviously she’d sheared the gear wheel.
So a slow start off in second and she eventually chugged away up the hill and down to the Crash repair centre.
Deed done and estimate sorted we headed over to marazion struggling with second gear set offs but we managed it..
I had an hour on the wall and nothing much happening, the wind seemed to have increased again and was now blowing South westerly but a tad warmer than over the weekend..
The swans were parading around the channels in the afternoon sun displaying themselves to each other.. Meanwhile a raven crowed just by the wall

Swans on Patrol

Ravens Crowing

I decided to tqake a walk down the beach and then go into the field at the bottom of the marsh.  There was a bunch of sanderling on the beach, probably around 25 of them running backwards and forwards with the tide gathering as much food as they could.

I walked over the road and back onto the marsh down the bottom by the gate and stood a while there enjoying the late afternoon sun, although there was very little heat in it..
A snipe decided to land just in front and pranced about on the reeds there and was soon joined by a female blackbird who began rummaging for food….

Snipe on the reeds

Blackbird female

well the day had been quite draining on both of us and I could see when leanne brought tea down that she was really feeling the strain so I said we’d head off and get the van home.. We finished our tea at the bench up the footpath where I shot this little chap who was hopping around with his friends.

And that kinda wraps it up for today for me.. we headed off home through Mousehole to ease the load on the van..
Lets hope for a better day tomorrow..
Mel ^

Well what a past few days we’ve had so I’ll probably make this a long post to cover the events that some of you probably already know about but others don’t.. One things for sure, you can’t fit a Vauxhall cavalier down the side of the Splashbus on the road from Chyenal to Drift.. even if you do turn it on its side and go up on the hedgerow!!!

Well the impact is still ringing in Leanne’s ears who’s been badly shocked by it all and is suffering with her back since the accident so we’ve been taking it a bit easy over the past couple of days.. in fairness to the young fisherman who hadn’t expected us being there when he rounded the corner at the top of the lane, he did all that he could do to try to stop or get out of the way.. we stopped on the road and just waited for the impact as we knew there was no way for him to stop.. he mounted the wall and Leanne was sure he was going to fly straight up and onto the van.. instead he wedged himself between the van and the wall with his car on its side, and probably saved us all from a lot more damage. a head on impact at the speed he hit us would have probably been disastrous for him.. the Bus doesn’t look it but believe me its built like a tank..

We were just on our way home from Drift when it happened after shooting the Black necked grebe, but instead of getting the images up we spent the evening at west Cornwall hospital having Leanne checked out who was in shock and suffered a bad jolt to her back..
I was reluctant to move the van back after the impact as I was sure the cavalier would roll over onto its roof and the only thing holding it up was the van, however we eventually got back and helped him get his car off the wall with the help of a tractor and 3 police cars.. Amazingly we both drove our vehicles home.. Unfortunately Leanne is still suffering and having flashbacks, it being her first real accident..
Consequently were really late getting the images and the blog up so I’ll combine the posts of the last few days for you to catch up.

Vauxhall Dis-den no room for the Bus
February 12th, 2010

We’ll start on friday 12th when we took a trip to Drift.. we started off at Sancreed side down into the woods and by the river looking for the Kingfisher who made a very brief appearance and turned round mid flight and headed back down the river.. that was the last we saw of him for the day.. but there were lots of other things to see.. Wrens were flitting from shrub to shrub..

There were lots of long tailed tits, blue tits and chaffinch’s Robins and wrens.. but the highlight of the day was a Fox who walked up onto the bank over the stream from us and stood there looking at us.. of course by the time I reached for the camera he was gone.. and the shot was missed.. but the long tailed tits stayed around..

We decided to head off round to the other side by the reservoir dam wall so we wandered back through the woods back to the van and set off through sancreed and round the road to Drift..
Leanne stayed at the van to make some tea and said she’d join me in a little while and i set off down to the boat house to see the whooper who’s still hanging around and seems quite settled with life at the reservoir.
There’s still loads of Tufted ducks in attendance..

Male Tufted Duck

Female Tufted Duck

I set off down towards the hide and just through the gorse came across Rachel who was heading back and waited for me to cross the bridge.. she told me where there was a black necked grebe, and went through to shoot some pics of the whooper swan..
I carried on down past the hide but no sign of the grebe, just a little grebe fishing up by the gorse after the boardwalk.. I passed the hide and went round the bottom corner and there was our old friend the Fox making his rounds of the fields.

Leanne and Aidan came down and joined me and Leanne went into the Hide to check up on what had been seen and of course the grebe was listed so she  had a look at a picture of him.. It was then that we realised that the Black necked grebe was only a small grebe like the little grebe but had bright red eyes andwas more black and white than brown and beige.. so I checked my shots and sure enough that was who I’d passed thinking he was a little grebe..

Black Necked grebe.. Quite obvious now!

Another shot of the Black necked grebe

We headed off back up the path to see if we could find him again and sure enough there he was right where Rachel had said he was so we grabbed a few more pictures and headed of for the boathouse as the sun was setting..
Once there i shots a couple more portraits of the Whooper just for posterity

Whooper

Whooper again

Well it was starting to get cold so we decided to pack up and head for home.. little did we know what was waiting for us on the road home..

Sunny Saturday in the Freezing Wind
February 13th, 2010

We headed down to Marazion for a bit of a Lazy day as Leanne wasn’t feeling too good, still suffering with her back and feeling sickly..
The wind over the marsh was bitter cold to say the least..but that didn’t seem to bother the snipe who were back in their masses and flitting everywhere on the marsh and becoming more and more daring by digging closer and closer to the wall..

Mr and Mrs Heron were busy backwards and forwards nest building still, but over the last couple of days she’s taken to sitting on the nest now so who knows how long before we get more chicks to watch again this year.
For the males, there’s a lot of standing around in between feeding the females and collecting the finishing touches to the nests…

For such a lovely but freezing cold day, there wasn’t a lot about on the Marsh,  three water rails were keeping me happy but frustrating me also as I just couldn’t get a shot of them as they were so quick and running everywhere..
Mr Blackbird put in an appearance and a redshank sat on the edge of the island for a short while before flying off in the direction of Hayle.

Blackbird searching for food

Redshank on the bottom pool

One of the Bitterns,(I counted 3 definite), made his first fleeting flight across the top of the reeds no doubt causing a stir for the visiting birders who haven’t seen them yet.. for us now its becoming all in a days viewing they’re showing so well.

Bittern in flight over the reeds

Another bittern flying back across the marsh

Well apart from robins here and there and the odd bittern flight and the teasing water rails I was thinking its getting a bit too cold for this and at that moment I saw a water rail make his way across the back near the bramble and waited for him to appear and just managed to grab the shot as he passed the gap (almost) so I called that my last shot and headed off home to warm up…

Sunny Busy Valentine Sunday at Marazion & Drift
February 14th, 2010