Well after the epic swell that hit and kept me busy with the surfers over the past few days it was quite nice to wander again for a change.. but that wind just bites into your face so the stop off at Marazion was brief by half and really just to say Hi to Bob who was backon the wall today.. Good to see you home Bob.

I couldn’t stand there today with the ice cream blast in my face (though it was well worth it seeing Bob’s images) so we headed off in search of somewhere out of the wind.
We finally ended up at one of our favourite walks along a bridle path at Godolphin which was glorious to say the least.. no wind and lovely sunshine but cold nontheless..and not a lot about. Still it was nice to walk and talk and have Leanne with me which doesn’t happen too much these days on my walks.

Fields down to the river looking winterry in the afternoon sun

There were lots of Blackbirds buzzing around chasing each other around letting us know that sporing was just around the corner and they were getting ready to pair up to raise their young for another year..

Blue tits Finchs Long tailed tits and redwings were abundant but so quick on the move making it difficult to get any clear shots..

Blue tit among the branches

The usual cry of the Buzzard was in the air and wasn’t long before we saw him fly over the fields and land far away in a distant tree on the other side of the river..

Blackbirds were out female hunting

BUzzard landing on a far away branch.

We walked further along the bridlepath through the gate and came across a bunch of Snowdrops which always signify the birth of spring.. Back in days of yore Henry the eighth declared them as Christs bells but then again he was the one who couldn’t stop the pagan Candle lit processions of imbolc so he invited them into the churches to have their candles blessed and called it the christian festival of candlemass.. just another piece of useless information for you.. its something that Snowdrops tend to remind me of, but moreover they represent the first stirrings of spring and the earth reawakening after the winter sleep.

Snowdrops

Snowdrops

More snowdrops

We cane to a part of the path that was bogged with mud and decided to stop there and head off up to godrevy as Aidan was there and said there might be a nice little high tide wave with a few surfers getting in.. so we wandered back to the van and headed off in that direction.. back into the icy onshore wind and cold.
There were a few surfers out but only a couple who could surf really well and with the onshore wind biting into my face I just shot a few pics for Splashography and headed off round the back to the Gothian Sands nature reserve which was full of mallard  Gadwall Teal Shelduck and Tufted Ducks , so not an awful lot different to Drift at the moment.

Shelduck also pairing up by the looks, tho I'm no Birder by a long shot

and a pair of Gadwall swam by

Aidan decided to go back to the van and I said I’d walk round the perimeter and head back up that way.. Once i started moving the Mallard were the first on the run and took off in 3 groups to fly overhead until I’d past by..

Mallard on a fly by

This trio decided to swim by instead

I walked round the full circuit of the pool, unfortunately I’d forgotten that the sun was getting lower and by the time I reached the sandsifter (which is closed again and up for Let after all the talk of how they were going to do it all so different and so much better) The sun was blinding and I couldn’t shoot anything much.

few Tufted Duck making their getaway

Swans pairing up and a lone Canada Goose

well that about wrapped up my walk around the pool at Gothian and apart from a few redwings on the hill all was fairly quiet by the time I got back to the car park.

We decided to pack up and head home so I’ll leave you with one little chap I’d forgotten about who was tucked in with the pics of the surfers I took earlier so here’s Sandy the Sanderling saying Adieu till tomorrow

Solitary Sanderling sneaking down the beach in the afternoon sun

Bye All, thanks for dropping by

Mel^

Started the afternoon off down at Marazion where it was bitterly Cold in the wind.. I noticed a lot more Snipe action again since the reed cutter left and the burning stopped, in fact I counted 18 just on the front by the wall..

Snipe on the front of the marsh

The herons were busying in the nest again and there was a little Teal activity going on with the pheep pheep mating displays.. This Mallard watched on with disinterest..

Mallard

A brief walk down into the field by the gate produced little really, the water rail was just dissappearing into the brush flicking his white tail at me as he went in, and snipes flew off in their dozens..

Snipe landing in the reedbeds

Thrush by the waters edge

I thought at first I’d spotted myself a Mistle thrush but a closer inspection revealed just another song thrush.. but a nice specimen all the same.. There was a little squabbling going on in the bramble I thought but it turned out to be a little wren with an extreme itch and he was chattering away while trying to have a scratch!!

One itchy Wren

Robin by the pool

a couple of robins bobbed out also and sat on the branches of the bramble before diving on a couple of unsuspecting worms..
All in all it was fairly quiet… one of the Bitterns made its usual brief appearance flying from the right hand side of the reed beds to just beyond the cut out.. I watched him as I walked back to the van and decided to set off up to Drift and get out of the wind…

or so I thought…

I wandered to the boathouse and sat with the swans for a while, I tried a bit of underwater video but they weren’t going anywhere near the pole that had the video on.. even with a handful of barley thrown in over it..
So I settled for a couple of stills of the whooper who was still there and coming in so close you could shoot his portrait with a 50mm lens..

Whooper Swan still being very photogenic at Drift

I wandered round the far side.. over the dam wall and along the path to where the geese were all milling around in the field.. I stopped and set up the tripod and found the barnacle geese.. still just the three of them mixed in with the canada’s and Greylags..

The Barnacle geese at Drift

I realised I wasn’t any more out of the wind here than I’d been at marazion… then the light dropped dramatically and we got a hail shower.. I figured that was my cue to make a move for home.. or at least the van for a brew and then home..

I’ll leave you with a shot of a preening Mute swanwhich I particularly liked… and hope for a warmer day tomorrow

MUte swan rearing

Thanks for dropping by

Mel^

Becoming such a common site now at Marazion, the bitterns are almost as visible as the herons, which is great for those who’ve traveled quite a way to see one.. The photo’s aren’t as challenging these days and every one of us who visit regularly with camera’s must by now have the perfect shot of at least one of the bitterns..

With a strong onshore wind behind us today standing at the wall was  bracing to say the least.. I’d only been there a few minutes when the first Bittern set off out of the reeds to fly onto the front. He wasn’t ready for the gust of wind which caught him and threw him completely off balance back into the reeds.. as you can probably see in these shots..

Caught by the wind

Overcompensated for the gust

Regaining composure

Legs out and in to land

Safely down on the ground and back into the reeds and the last we’ll see of him for a while ..

The Herons were busy building away at their nest again, with Mr Heron flying off every so often and returning with a nice fresh piece of reed for her to weave into the nest in true Heron skill..  There’ seems to be a rogue male who every so often keeps hovering above the nest as if attempting to get in, especially when Mr Herons out searching or fishing..

Making a bid for the female in the nest..

She usually makes a good effort to keep him at bay until Mr heron finally returns..

Safely back with a new piece for the nest

A couple of Egrets came in onto the front but didn’t really stay around too long in the wind but I shot a few before I decided to take a break at the van and have some Lunch and warm up.. Rachel arrived at that moment so I pointed out to her where the bittern had landed and left her to get a few good shots while I went for lunch..

Blowing in the wind

After a nice freshly made cheshire cheese sandwich and fresh tea I was warmed sufficiently to have another go before the windsurfers arrived and I had to get on with the day job so to speak and photograph them   I went off down into the field by the gate see if it was any less windy… it wasn’t

Not sure if this is the water pipit again or if it was just a meadow pipit

I suspect a Meadow pipit

Hadn’t been down there more than 5 or 6 minutes when Mr Bittern number 2 upped and flew across the top of the reeds towards the railway.. at the same time as a Mallard came in to land in front.. Where to point the camera lol…

Bitter off across the marsh

Mallard in for a skid landing

I’d noticed a couple of kites had gone up behind me on the beach so figured it was time for me to make a move and shoot some surf.. Grabbed these nice shots of the oystercatchers first in the sun..

Oystercatcher in the afternoon sun

Like a pair of Bookends

I set off back across the field towards the gate and was overtaken by a pair of Stonechats who were busily chasing each other around.. I guess its getting to that time again when everything starts to wake up..

She came in quite close to check me out

Grabbed a few more shots of them before heading up to the van and changing hats and coats for an afternoon on the beach shooting surf…

Looks like a big swell is hitting from tomorrow so it should make for some nice photography as well as lots of surf for me to photograph.. I’ll try to get some stuff to at least post the blog but if not you can always check out my other sites to see where I’ve been
Don’t forget to check out the Galleries from the main site.. for those who’ve come direct to the Blog its here www.naturalcornwall.co.uk

Bye for Now

Mel^

I’m sure you can all decipher the title to know what the day was like so after a belated Christmas due to illness with my son and his Family we decided to pack up and head over to the hide at hayle just to get out of the rain and in the hope of getting a few shots of something..

It was nice to catch up with Sue ( the perran Lady) who had called in the hide on her way back from Marks and sparks but very little in the way of activity over Ryans field in low light..

A flock of lapwings rested on the far island, disturbed every so often they’s fly up circle round and re-land on the island..

Lapwings on the island

The only other things that were about besides the black head gulls were a single Curlew wading about down the bottom and a redshank who came in close to afford us a couple of nice shots (if nice shots can be had in the miserable low light of yet another grey cornish day..

Still in their winter plumage the black heads do make a nice sea bird photograph so here’s the most persistent of the bunch just out front of the hide..

Noisy Black headed gulls dominated the top of the pool

A few widgeon came over and landed again by the far island making a good shot of them impossible but here’s a record shot to say they were there..

Widgeon by the far island

lapwings re-land on the islnd after being startled yet again by the landing widgeons..

The redshank came in fairly close to the hide and started wading around by the little island and splashing away making at last a couple of clear interesting shots..

Redshank near the Hide

More redshank wading

and the weather persisted on contnuing so after struggling to get a couple of decent shots of the curlew I shot a few minutes of video and decided to call it a day and head off home and see what tomorrow brings..
so I’ll leave you with our Curlew..

Curlew wading up the inside

Curlew out on the island after a lunch on a small crab which I missed

and finally just to add some spice to the curry.. there’s a little vid which I’ll put up later when I’ve finished encoding it

later

Mel^

Another day at Marazion but a little less wind today so I stood at the cut out for a while..
No Bob today after his sad News, which we were so srry to hear Bob.. we hope you’re okay and we’re thinking of you in your sad Loss. Strange the Marsh looks empty without Bob’s Huge Lens poking out to the reeds

Interesting to see the Herons starting their Des Res Nest again this year so early.. probably taking advantage of all the fresh cut reeds laid around to save a lot of time and effort and her grace seems set on having her very own luxury palace this year overlooking the lookout where she can watch the Humings all day..

returning to the Nest Building

Posing in the New nest as Mr & Mrs Jedward

While all the activity is going onin heronland the Swans are busily fighting for their females and the Pheep Pheep of the Teals can be heard across the marsh as they do their circular bobbing and ducking to impress the females.. so all is getting fruity on the marsh… lets hope the Bitterns get smitten too ( though I hardly think there’s enough room for them)

Checking out the des res from above..

The wind was (although mellow today) still very biting so I decided a walk down into the field was in order so I collected my Tea from the van (as most know thats the most important thing .. a nice cup of fresh rosy lee) and wandered off to the gate in the field to see what was about.

A nice female Stonechat was the first to greet me as I climbed through the gap in the wall and she flitted about catching flies and landing just in fromt of me all the way down to the gatepost.

On the Bramble

and onto the fence by the gate

I stood by the gate watching the redwings in the field, the moorhens and rabbits with the odd thrush popping in.. and as I stood there quietly I was aware of something rustling in the bramble to my left over the fence.. I watched and could see movement but couldn’t make out what it was then all of a sudden up popped a head.. A weasel… how cool was that !!

Weasely peeking through the reeds and bramble

He checked all around him and ducked in and out a few more times before making a dash across the gap to reach the safety of  more bramble by the fence.. thankfully I was on him and managed to grab my shot of the day…

weasel fully out in the sunshine, Pick of the day

I decided to take a walk up the back of the marsh out of the cold wind for a while and set off up the path.. there was no one about so it was nice and quiet and the sun was out on the bench so I sat there for a while and lowered the tripod down to sitting level.
There was a swan sitting on the island curled up in the sunshine, probably thinking about nesting there by the looks.. and I could tell she was a bit perturbed by something and kept straining her neck to look at something..
I followed her gaze and eventually spotted a movement in the reeds and within a few minutes  a Bittern walked into view right out in front of me..today was turning out to be a lucky day..

Bittern stalking throughh the reeds

He walked along the edge of the reedbed occasionally weaving back in and out of the reeds and eventually walked out completely up onto the pile of reed cuttings that were piled at the edge..

Bittern out in the open on the cut reed pile

as he stood on the pile looking around a chap with his camera and binoculars came walking up the path towards me… I called to ask him if he wanted to see the bittern and he came up slowly and I pointed him out and he managed to get some nice pictures of him standing there in the Full sun before flying off over the back of the marsh..

We had a brief chat and I do apologize because I’ve forgotten his name, I have a terrible short term memory.

I wandered back to the front and left him sat on the bench and as my final treatof the day the water pipit came right in and sat by the edge of the water in front of me.. so I was able to call it a successful day and head off home as I was still suffering the nausea and sickness side effects of the chemotherapy..

Water pipit in the edge of the marsh

Well that wraps up my post for the day, I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing the pics and words with me and will leave comments and call back to see what tomorrow brings in NaturalCornwall™

Bye for now

Mel^

Well I gave myself so much to do today that I’m way behind now with writing my Blogs so I’m going to come back to this one which is an interesting one as I got back in the water today for the first time and spent a little time with Hermit crabs and the Underwater Camera.
Here’s a taster with video to come..

Hermit on the prowl

Have shell will travel

Another bitter cold Northerly wind today so we decided to stay close to home and wandered over to Drift to see if the Whooper swan and Barnacle Geese were still around.
On the way through the village we noticed hundreds of Curlew were in the farm fields so I stopped and set up to shoot a couple of shots with them..

Curlew in the field on our way to Drift

We Pulled into Drift Reservoir and parked at the top by the sign and could already see the Whooper was by the boathouse.

It was definitely a wrap up warm day as the wind was ripping through the valley, but I knew once we got down on the side and around the bottom it would be more sheltered than up here on top by the rocking van ..
I donned my Jacket Hat and scarf and covered with a camo waterproof just in case.. and my nice new neoprene lined Jack Pyke wellies which keep yer toes toasty and away I went… Leanne stayed to make some Tea &  lunch and would wander down when it was ready
First stop was a sit down visit with the Whooper and a host of Mute swans, Tufted Ducks Scaup Mallards and Coots at the boathouse.. I was going to drop the video under the water to catch the whooper feeding from the bottom but unfortunately today my legs wouldn’t let me get down low enough to do it so maybe next time
The whooper was very curious as to why I was sat on the steps and almost licked the lens at 50mm lol

A rather Curious, to say the least, Whooper Swan

Scaup and Tufted Ducks with a few Coots thrown in for good measure all started to come back in after a few minutes of me sitting there.. they were obviously feeling less threatened by the fact I was more on their level..

Female Scaup

Tufted Duck looking extremely tufty from the wind

The nice thing about a situation like this is the proximity of the birds.. almost in touching distance, its probably the closest I’ve been to a coot who was busily trying to sort his place in the pecking order just incase I was going to be throwing some barley in.. which I wasn’t btw..

Coot

One mute by this time had climbed on the ramp beside me and was now looking down on me so we had a little chat and he agreed not to pull my hair and I’d give him a little barley when I stood up.. so he left me alone to photograph the whooper and the ducks..

F Tufted Duck

Curious Whooper swan

A Buzzard was circling above and was difficult for me to shoot from the position I was in so I stood back up and put the camera back on the tripod, whacked it up to 500mm and got some nice shots of the buzzard as he soared higher and higher..

Nicely Side Lit Buzzard

Lofty hadn’t forgotten I’d promised him some barley in return for him not sucking my hair and was now making his way closer and nudging my wellies..  I took a small handful of Barley and scattered it  and moved off before I got mobbed..

Back out onto the side of the reservoir the wind was cutting, so I hurried my way down to the bottom corner where it was much more sheltered and hoped I may be able to see the Barnacle Geese again… those and the Brents are my favourite Geese..
My luck was in as I crept up on the field I could see all three up near the top of the field, for all my creeping they were fully aware of my presence as this shot shows..

A watchful barnacle Goose, aware of my presence..

All three Barnacle Geese among the Canada's

Something spooked the canada’s and within seconds they were in flight and heading across the reservoir and of course the Barnacles went with them so that was the last I’d see of them for a while..

Several Swans that were also in the field decided to take off too and fly off overhead, this made me think it must have been me that spooked them as one swan looked directly down at me as he flew over

Mute Swan in Flight

Leanne caught up with me and we headed to the Hide for some late Lunch and then I wandered round the bottom in vain as everything was moving away as fast as I approached so as the hail started to bounce off the end of my nose I decided to call it a day and head off back to the hide..

Aidan had joined Leanne at the Hide and we took the opportunity to grasp the break in the clouds to make our way back to the van for tea, especially in light of the fact that almost everything had headed up the water anyhow…

Leanne went on ahead to put the kettle on and we sauntered on behind..

I arrived back at the boathouse and sat once again on the steps and the whooper and about 35 Mute swans crowded in..so I decided to grab a bit of Video footage of the Whooper anyhow before going home.

Thanks for reading

Mel^

Durham Durham, durham durham durham, duruddle durrrrrrm did didl dee dum

Sorry couldn’t help it.. that walk just creased me up this afternoon.. you won’t believe it when I tell you I simply stopped at the wall and nipped over to look through the binoculars and there he was stood standing right on the edge of the reeds in the lovely sun.. but By Jeeze it was Frikkin windy..

I grabbed the video out of my pocket and shouted for Leanne to get my camera on the tripod..   A chap came up and said ‘seen anything of the Bitterns today? I pointed and he nearly fell over and left his scope to get his camera lol..

Bittern standing in the afternoon sun

Obviously by this time Leanne had set up the Camera and joined me.. together we shot the stills and the Video (which is on the website HERE.. ) until Leanne couldn’t stand the cold wind any more and ran back to the van.

He’d started to walk along the edge of the reeds and I tried to hold the video still by resting it on the wall but every time the wind Gusted it shook so much I didn’t think I’d get anything so I was really pleased when I did..

Finally he made his way back into the reeds and they closed behind him like a grand finalé curtain..
I contemplated heading straight off but the water pipit and a water rail were ducking and diving down in the adge of the reeds but unfortunately I couldn’t get on them to shoot.. but this meadow Pipit made up for it by coming right up to the wall to say hello…

Meadow Pipit just over the wall

The wind was so strong and Icy that I decided to head down to the back of the marsh to get out of it for a while so I packed up and moved the van to the charity car park entrance and grabbing some hot tea set off across the bog to walk up the marsh..

It was nice to get out of the wind but the light fell away rapidly making it impossible to get any clear shots.. another bittern showed himself out of the reeds by the bench on the footpath but very briefly and was gone before i could get him.. still, I could’t better the earlier shots.. here’s where they’ve cleared the reeds with the reed cutter last week and where the 2nd bittern came out.

Still from the camcorder of the marsh after cutting

The light was bad where I was so I took these couple of shots with the camcorder which deals quite well with low light..

The Bullrush Pool by the bench reflections of the sky

I finally decided I’d had enough of the strong Icy wind and headed back to the van… the sun came out for a final show as I reached the bottom field and a little egret flew over the marsh so I’ll leave you with a couple of shots of him…

Enjoy the photo’s and check out the vid on the website

Egret over the marsh

Little Egret

Well that wraps up the Blog and the shoot for another day… hope you enjoyed everything.. don’t forget you can leave comments if you like but please keep it clean as Children do visit this site..

Thanks and Bye…..
Mel^

Decided to have a couple of hours on the Marsh at Marazion this morning before shooting the surfers for the day job as it were..

I arrived to find as per usual the crowd of Bittern hunters all around again and noticed most were coming to the flooded field and turning back which prompted me to don my wellies and go off up the back away from the crowd that had gathered at the front of the marsh.. I’m sure they’d get better results in wider spread lesser numbered groups, but hey thats just My opinion and I don’t like crowds so I’m biasséd..:) At least I was able to wander away from them all thanks to the flooding …

I walked up the path and struggled to pass the broken Tree on the path just before the flood.. I can’t help but wonder if this hasn’t been done deliberately to stop people using the footpath because its flooded.. it was certainly the same technique used when the hide was moved to prevent people passing up the permissive path to where the hide was.. Now as a Naturalist who values Plant life equally as much as bird life I strongly object to these tactics.. murdering a tree or even part of it just to save a bit of work on a path…. well to put it politely Pisses me off.

Anyway enough Grumbling.. I sat on the bench and enjoyed the sun while listening to the chaffinches calling to each other on the trees behind me…

One male settled by the side of me and afforded me this shot of him.. Thanking you kindly

I wandered on and across the railway to the boardwalk.. now I’d seen the bittern there a few days earlier and had on several occasions seen him fly across the marsh in that direction, so I wasn’t surprised to see him wading about in the reeds fishing.. He was very difficult to see at times but I got myself into a good position and just sat and watched quietly.. even muffled the shutter so as not to disturb him/her.. and it wasn’t long before whack!! he struck and got himself a nice tasty fish about 8-10 inches long so a decent meal for any bittern..

Bittern caught a fish in the reeds

Now I know he’s really hard to see but I’d been watching him through the lens as he waded around and saw him strike so I knew where he was.. but the fish you can see is in his Beak and was a tasty size.. he had 2 more of these but equally difficult to photograph as he was so far in the reeds..

he was constantly on the move just as the herons do and often appeared in the gaps in the reeds to give me a better shot..

I decided to radio through to Leanne who was in the van and let her know where I was and that I had not one now but two bitterns with me as another one had landed further in behind the first..

She mentioned Sue, most know as Perran lady who writes the ‘ around perranuthnoe blog‘ , had stopped for a chat and that she’d love to see the bittern as she had only caught a glimpse of one on a flyby before.. so leanne lent her some wellies and they came over quietly and joined me..
Sue had difficulty spotting him at first but then he kindly came out and gave a good show for her and she even managed to get herself a nice photo of him on the edge of the water.. hope it turned out well for you sue

He certainly was a splendid creature and we had the pleasure of his company for a good half hour by which time Aidan had also arrived and managed also to see him really well..

A good display of his splendour

having a stretch

Well around this point I was beginning to get a little concerned that I had now swollen from one person  to four people and didn’t want more seeing us and wondering why we were congregating,  so we decided at that point to leave the bitterns in Peace where they’d escaped the crowds at the front of the marsh and head off back to the van and go off to Perranuthnoe to shoot the surfers.. oh and have Tea of Course

Met Bob on the walk back who was perched on the Dyke intent on getting a low flying bittern shot for his collection.. I told him where two were that we’d been with and went off to the van..

All in all I was really pleased to have had the privilege to have watched a Bittern fishing for over an hour and to have walked away and left him undisturbed and happy by the side of the water enjoying the sun…

I’ll leave you with my favourite shot of the day of him..

Bittern by the edge of the water at Marazion Marsh

Thats it for today folks.. we’ll see what tommorrow brings..

Mel^

A Miserable day as days go weather wise but if you’re a positive kind of person like I try to be most of the time then you get out in the rain and shoot the windsurfers and kitesurfers off the beach at marazion, and then when it gets too rainy you go over to hayle and sit in the hide at Ryan’s field have a cuppa and see what comes along and if there’s nothing happening after an hour and its still raining and the lights fading you can always go to Lidl’s as on thursdays rather than rainy days they have new goodies.. Today was photo paper so that was £50 gone.. ah well we sell lots of prints so it was needed..

So what did come along at Ryan’s field you may ask?  well one twitcher who didn’t seem to have the gift of speech came in looked at the board and left again.. maybe we were too well camouflaged that he didn’t see us lol … but out on the water there was a Redshank, a possible 30 Widgeons I spotted 2 Curlew 8 shelduck a robin and 3 blackheaded gulls

Redshank wading at Ryan's field

Black headed gull

The weather and visibility was terrible really, even with my posh new roof prism zoom Binoculars (10×50 – 30×50) I had difficulty making out whether these were whimbrel or Curlew but the lack of the eye stripe tells me curlew in the end..

Curlew in the reeds

More visible now

The widgeons started to move a little closer which made it possible to grab a shot of them albeit a simple record shot, as were most if not all today.. I was really struggling to get anything good.

Widgeons on the Move

almost identifiable

back to the water the redshank was flying across from the other side towards us again and there was almost enough light to catch a flight shot..

Redshank in flight

He stepped out of the water and back onto the island which took us almost full circle back to where we’d started from.. So I grabbed a final shot of Him and the Black head and decided it was time to move and call at Lidl’s on my way home.. better luck tomorrow…

Back on the island

Saying Goodbye

Bye for now

Mel^