Beautiful Female Peregrine Falcon

After some time of watching her sitting there, we carried on down to Hells Mouth to check out the Shags and cormorants nesting with their chicks on the island…
The wind was bitter and really bit in after standing there for a few minutes you had to turn your back to shelter and let the blood get back to your face.
Still it was nice to see the chicks being quite active in the nests.

Shags Nest with Chicks

Another brood of Shags

You didn’t need to stand there long before you’d had enough and were ready to move off, Leanne tried to hide behind me and peek over to see the chicks but even that was too much so we decided to head for somewhere a bit more sheltered.
All the car parks for Tehidy were full so we decided to give that a wide berth even though the woods were full of blossoming Bluebells.

A much More tranquil scene at Godolphin by the river

We headed back towards home and dropped off from Rosudgeon to Godolphin and walked along the  Bridle path which was right out of the wind and made it more like a summers afternoon in the bright sun…
Actually out of the wind the sun had quite a lot of heat in it and it made for a very pleasant rest of the afternoon and early evening.. in fact it was gone 8pm when we got back to the van..
It wasn’t teeming with wildlife but we had a couple of confrontations with Foxes watched Buzzards being attacked by Crows.. saw a Hen Harrier being chased off by a crow and watched a kestrel be very persistent until he got his prey..

Hovering Kestrel in the woods over the river

Chiff Chaff

All in all it was a great afternoon made all the better for finding the Peregrine and a comfy resting spot out of the wind.. (Must take the machette for the gorse bush next time though )

Barn Owl FlyBy

FRiday 5th March

Great Crested Grebe at Drift

Saturday 6th March

Male Wheatear at Gothian sands Godrevy

Sunday 7th March

Long tailed Tits at marazion

Bitterns daily Flyby at marazion

pick of the day 7th March

Finally caught up with the water Rail at marazion

Monday 8th March

OysterCatcher at marazion

Tuesday 9th March

Meadow Pipit at Godrevy	Pipit Reflections
1st Night of the Starling Roost at Marazion;
Starlings over the Marsh	Spectacular Displays from the starlings

What a thrill to see the starlings back after so many years

Wednesday 10th march

Water Rail at Marazion	Long Tailed Tit
Day 2 of the Starling Roost	Starlings over Cheshire Homes

Thursday 11th march

Buzzard low over the Marsh

Wood Pigeon watching

Friday 12th march

Jenny Wren on the Marsh

Saturday 13th March

Egret on the Helford River

Sunday 14th March

Quiet Day at the reservoir:

After the long Haul yesterday on the River we decided for a quiet restful day, I spent a couple of hours in the woods behind the reservoir watching the birds and trying desperately to find the ruddy Woodpecker who was hammering around me all day…to no avail, he was always where I was not Still it was a beautiful day and a quiet stillness in the woods was very tranquil and peaceful..

Long Tailed Tits played freely on the trees in the sun

Long tailed Tit

I’d been reminded by a friend Rebecca of the old Lomo style of the 60′s as she’d been using a modern day variant using the same setup.. For those who are unaware of the lomo Diana, it was a camera that created amazing luminous colours in its unique process of using slide film for prints.. It became quite a cult camera and I’d honestly forgotten all about it until Becky did some experimenting with the modern version..
It inspired me to use the technique again and today was a perfect day to try it… this first shot was a robin sat on a fencepost..

Unmistakeably a Robin shot using the Lomo Diana effects

Woodpecker Holes bored in a dead tree - Lomo

I’d forgotten how much fun using different techniques can be…

Back to normal now and the lovely song of the robin ringing through the woods as he sat high in the branches basking in the sunshine

Robin singing away in the sunshine

He was silenced for a brief moment by the cry of the buzzard overhead and then the woodpeckers hammering resumed again  over the opposite side of the wood from me..

Buzzard in search of prey

coming into bud in the afternoon sun it really did feel like spring

I eventually made my way back round to the open side of the reservoir and topped off the day with the flash of blue and orange as it sped away from me and perched on a tree a long way off but close enough to see it was definitely a female Kingfisher…

Kingfisher sitting in a tree on the reservoir

Well that at least brings us back up to date so we’ll try to keep you updated through the week and hopefully all things will slowly settle back to normal now with the Splashbus back in action..

Mel ^

One good thing is there are still 2 bitterns in residence at marazion, now I’m no expert but they could well be a pair and they seem to be hanging out together a lot.. t’would be a joy indeed to hear the boo-oom of the Bittern once again.

Two took off together today but one dropped back into the reeds in a fsaction of a second, not having moved more than a couple of feet..
Here’s the one that flew..

Bittern once more in flight over the Marsh at Marazion

Well it seems I’m writing the blog backwards today as before the bittern and our visit to the marsh we took a ride over to Nansquid’ and picked Aidan up on the way so we could eventually drop him off for his van which was being repaired..

There was still quite a breeze whooshing through the valley but I walked off down the path and up to the field where the yellow hammers hang..
Nothing much about but it was nice to see spring is definately arriving with trees bursting into buds and spring flowers showing through…

Spring flowers (Narcissus)growing on the edge of the stream

Further along the path I saw the first flutterings and tracked it with the camera into a tree.. Just a chaffinch I thought.. A chaffinch adorned with some lovely fresh colours.. a much underrated bird in my opinion, I suppose because they are plentiful they’re not on the list.. well this one certainly warranted a photograph and he sat so well for me.. I thanked him and moved on..

Male Chaffinch posing well for the camera

Apart from wrens flitting about robins and the usual array of tits there wasn’t much else around at all.. there was even a distinct lack of sea birds.

Still the streams looked nice producing a few flowing water shots..

I do love the water shots and especially I enjoy the long exposure stuff… however being so far down in the valley and realising I’d left my ND filters in the car I had to make do with 1/6th of a second as the slowest shutter speed I could get..

Slow exposure but not quite slow enough without ND filters

Ah well.. we wandered back up the valley so we could drop A for his van and head off  down to marazion for the last hour.. the wind was picking up over the North coast and yet it seemed almost non existent on the south, so my thoughts of Kites or windsurfers went out the window and I took a walk up to the bench where leanne joined me and we watched the bitterns.

I definately heard frogs in the pool just infront of the bench but couldn’t see them.. hopefully they won’t get crushed by diggers removing hides this year like thousands did last year along with a full colony of white faced miner bees that was desecrated through total inconsideration for anyone or anything but themselves.. BUT DON’T GET ME STARTED ABOUT THE RSPB!!! cos that really annoyed me last year.. enough to recreate their logo with Really Stupid at the beginning.

(calm)(breathe)

Ah well we sat and had a nice cuppa on the bench and then decided to head off home.. so I’ll leave you with a shot of a buzzard in fading light …

light a little too low by now..Buzzard on a tree in the distance.

thanks for dropping by

Mel^

There was a tiny wave so I managed to shoot a few surf shots for Splashography though nothing much to shout home about but while we sat outside the Watering hole (Pub on the beach at Perranporth) there were a few Pipits hanging around obviously used to a few morsels of food being left by the bar food eaters (which they no doubt thought we were as we sat on the benches there) so I siezed the opportunity to grab a couple of shots for the blog..

I took a wander up the beach but unfortunately the tide was already too high to get to the caves so I had to settle for a shot from the beach.. I do love the way a setting sun brings out the dramatic colours in the rocks here..

the caves at perranporth

and of course turning round gives a perfect vision of Perranporths famous Chapel Rock..

Well it was around this time that Leanne made a trip up the beach with some tea (now there’s a surprise) and we sat together and watched the sun setting behind the clouds (unfortunately) sipping tea shooting the surfers and watching the pipits..

Made such a welcome change to just sit and watch the world go by together, with all thats been going on for us so far this year seems to have been one long race from one point to another without actually taking time to just BE!.

We wandered back to the car park as the sun went down too low for photographs and Leanne made some more tea and we had a sausage and some chips (Pomme’s Frites)  sat in the car park before meandering home down the A30..

Thanks for dropping by

Mel^

First stop Perranuthnoe.. Knee High and not a grasshopper in sight.

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

Can it be less than knee high?

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..

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

Dunnock

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.

Moorhen crossing the pool

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..

Oystercatcher flying over to 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..

A resting heron in the reeds

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

TTFN

Mel ^

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..

Snowdrops in St Just Churchyard

And Speaking of Baking Pie’s

Cock Pheasants by the gate

Pheasant Hen on the run

Grouse... I've often been called worse

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^

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..

3 BT Godwits scanning the beach as the wave rolls out..

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

Oystercatcher and Godwits

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 ..

Quick getaway and a dive from 2 of the 4 grebes

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..

Chaffinch

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..

Mute swan taking off over the marsh

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.

Terence Toadfellow

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..

Water pipit on the island

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^

The Oystercatcher shake

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.

Swan attack - The Joining

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

No escape - The Union

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..

The daily Bittern fix

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..

Leanne's excellent shot of a swan coming in to land

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

Mallard Flyby

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 ^

Cattle Egret flying over brew farm

Andsettled to sit by the gate

Cattle Egret by the Gate at Brew farm

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.

Sanderlings on the beach

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.

Long tailed tit

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..

Wren on a branch over the river

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..

Long tailed tit

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.

Fox in the field

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..

Snipe up by 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…

Mr Heron taking a brief rest

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…

The elusive Water rail

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