WHEAL PEEVOR MINE

So here they are the first shots with the new Camera, and not very exciting due to an overcast morning.

Well the new beastie is a CANON G10 with all the latest bells and whistles, 14.7 million pixels and capable of shooting raw. Still to early to give it a true evaluation, but am impressed with the initial results.

Both shots of Wheal Peevor Mine at Radnor near Redruth were shot in JPEG mode, also a couple of portrait shots of my grandson indoors were cracking. Sorry you won't see those as its my policy to respect my families privacy. I also try to respect any ones wishes, as I always ask permission before taking any one's Photograph.

CHYBUCCA SUNRISE & PENDEEN WATCH

Well in the words of the Rock & Roll classic by Eddie Cochran " Its Friday Night And Everything's Right For The Weekend". So lets have a look forward to warmer days and loads of good Photographic oppertunites.

For the Post tonight a couple of different scenes showing that under the right conditions the new can look as beautiful as the old.

The Wind Turbines are at Chybucca Cross on the A30 and I just happened to be in the area when this beautiful sunrise took place.

The second picture is of Pendeen Watch on the north coast near Lands End, it really stood out on a wonderful sunny morning as we were coming back from seawatching.

Anyway the new camera arrived today so watch this space.

Finally to my very old friend Eddie in Heusden Belgium. Good to hear from e again boy,and greetings to all the family.Proper job and see e dreckly.

CREEPY CRAWLIES

Another post coming up tonight(trying to make up for lost time). So for a change here's something different, a couple of small insects. First up is an aphid called greenfly and anyone who grows Roses will know all about this little critter, the image was taken about 20 years ago on Fuji slide film.So for the anoraks here go's. Camera Canon A1 semi pro, Canon bellows unit on monorail, up front Sigma 90mm Macro lens. Two small synchronized flash units on flexible arms.Tripod Benbo, this setup enabled me to Photograph up to ten times life size, lens was stopped down to f16, flash sync 1/60th sec for maximum depth of field. time to set up and photograph about 30mins.

Picture Two is of a Shield Bug species and my book states it to be a Squash Bug, taken last summer Camera Fuji Finepix 6900z, macro mode, time to set up and take shot 10 seconds, thank god for technology.

On a lighter note I have ordered my replacement for the Fuji, its another compact, so for a bit of fun what do you think I am getting, and what would you buy as a walkabout Camera. So go on have a guess and post a comment.

Mark Pascoe you are exempt as you already know.

GLAUCOUS GULL ROUND TWO.

Well thought it was time I got back and added another post to the Blog.

Not to good last week with a rotten cold and some family commitments at the weekend. On Saturday my birding pal Mark rang to see what was up for Sunday, said I did not mind so he said about going to Newlyn for the Glaucous Gull as he still needed to get some photo's of it.

We got there early on Sunday morning and looked around for 45 minutes before it turned up, what followed was 2 hours of great fun. At first the bird was landing on boats and we were able to get to within 1 1/2 metres of it. Then it obliged with some flight shots, at this point a fishing boat came into port and started to unload it's catch, so whit bits of food falling into the harbour a free for all took place, and as you can see it certainly held its own against the rest of the gulls.

Thing's happened fast and furious and some of the shots are not the sharpest due to the fast movements, but they do give a feel for what happened.

Finally Hi to Sam and Lisa had a look at your Blog and must say some great pics on there.

BLACK THURSDAY

Today has been a very sad day for me, as I had to do a job that was not at all pleasant. At approx 11.30am this morning I had to give my trusty old Fuji Finepix 6900z the last rites,as it crackled off to that great camera home in the sky. It has been a faithful servant for the past 7 or 8 years, through many adventures both at home and abroad and I will miss it greatly. Buuuut life go's on and plans are already afoot for a worthy replacement (Will reveal all when it comes to fruition). Changing the subject I made a bloomer on my butterflies post, the Small Blue is not it's a Silver Studded Blue, so Many thanks to John Chapple for pointing this out to me. I must confess I am not an Expert on anything so I am always glad to learn.

JACKDAW & ROOK

Just a quick post tonight as I have been busy with other things,

These are the boss birds around the house, when they turn up all the small stuff disappears. The Jackdaw's are always raiding my peanut feeder, whilst any other food is picked up by the garden hoover The Rook

Still a couple of fine well fed birds.

GO ON I DARE YOU

Thought I would keep the bird topic on the menu again tonight, as there is one image I have wanted to post for a while. Caught this House Sparrow and Blue Tit on the seed feeder last year, and I think the title of the post says it all.

The female Mallard was taken at St Gothian Sands on Saturday, all I have done is cut out the unwanted blank sky, apart from that the image has not been enlarged the bird came that close overhead.

On the subject of resizing images for web pages ( forgive me if I am preaching to the converted) there is a very nice piece of FREE software that can be downloaded, Called IRFANVIEW .

LINK ON THE LEFT IN SITES OF INTEREST.

Once you have installed the software open an image, then open VIEW tab down to resize/resample I usually set size to 800 X 600 pixels. don't forget to save image as a copy or you will resize the original.

I keep copies of everything I want to use in a folder called Web Pics.

I have used this for a few years now and prefer it for it's ease and quickness.

Finally I would like to say greetings to new followers JR & SUE thanks for the comment and have been looking at your Blog for a while and some great pics on there.

PORTREATH

So another cloudy dull Saturday morning, but at least it was dry and the temperature was about +4c.

So I drove down to Godrevy and had a walk around the nature reserve(see next post) . On the way back I drove along the coast road, and stopped at Reskejeage Downs on the North cliffs where I took a few pics although it was very dull and overcast, as you can see in the last pic.

It was then on to Portreath, which is the nearest point on the Atlantic coast to my home.

This small harbour on the north coast has a long and varied history, Originally built to take the tin that was mined in the Redruth/Camborne area to the various processing area's in the UK.

The narrow entrance was only accessible at high tide and it took great skill to navigate into the harbour.

It was also used by the Pilchard fishermen who had a lookout in the white tower on lighthouse hill, when shoals of Pilchard were spotted offshore they would alert the fishing crews ,who put to sea to reap the harvest.

The port was last used about 25-30 years ago to bring coal to the West Cornwall area, today its a few small fishing boats and leisure craft.

Although the beach is deserted today, during the summer its very popular with locals and visitors

BIRD OF THE DAY PINTAIL

Took a walk around St Gothian Sands Nature Reserve this morning, which is located at Godrevy and came across this nice Drake Pintail which was on the main pool.

Its just a pity the weather was so dull, some day's at this time of year do not favour Photography. Anyway it was nice to see this visitor.

SMALL BLUE & SPECKLED WOOD.

Thought I would put something different on the blog tonight, so here are two images from last summer. The butterfly on the left is a Small Blue, it has a wing span of only 30mm,which is very small when compared to the Speckled Wood on the right which has a wing span of 45cm.

Both shot's were taken with the Fuji 6900Z set to macro mode.

So we have had a good day weather wise again today, and it was very good light on the way home from work tonight. So maybe in two or three weeks it will be light enough to get out for an hour or so in the evenings to get some fresh camera fodder.

RAINY DAY'S AND MONDAY'S

So Here we are back at Monday and the beginning of another week's toil, the weekends seem to fly by.

After a reasonable day on Saturday, Sunday was back to normal grey skies and rain. Still did manage a couple of hours wet birding, with half a dozen year ticks for the log.

The log is an annual record of how many different species I have seen, I also keep a lifetime first log, and a garden log.

Tonight it's two bird images from Saturday which I was very pleased with, both were taken at Newlyn.

The first photo is of a Great Northern Diver also called Northern Loon which is a winter visitor around our coast. I like to think of it as the bird with the smiley face.

The second photo is a common juvenile Herring Gull, what appealed to me was the beautiful feather pattern's, they really stand out on this bird.

For the connoisseurs of photography sorry I could not get all the legs' in, but it was just behind a pile of old nets and ironwork on the quayside.

Well we have a big storm predicted for tonight so I guess it's batten down the hatches until the next time.

NEWLYN-MOUSEHOLE & THE WHITE WINGED GULLS

The weather's much better this morning, with a few heavy hail showers passing through.

So it was off down to the fishing port of Newlyn to find two visiting Gulls that have been there for the past week.

The first two shot's show the harbour and some of the fishing fleet, this is the largest fishing port in Cornwall.

Image's three and four show two of the white winged gulls,these are normally bird,s of the Arctic regions, but some do find there way south during the winter months.

On the left is the Glaucous Gull and on the right is the Iceland Gull and as stated there is no black on the primaries.

Images five and six show the picturesque fishing village of Mousehole just along the coast from Newlyn.

It was here on a winter's night in the 1980's that the Lifeboat Solomon Brown who's crew came from the village put to sea in a ferocious storm to go to the aid of the cargo ship Union Star that had lost power and was drifting onto rocks along the coast, during the rescue both ships capsized from which there were no survivor's.

During the Christmas period the whole village, Harbour and the surrounding hills are festooned with a lighting display which attracts thousands of visitors.

ELEPHANT & PRIVET HAWKMOTH'S

Well the snow's all disappeared and we had a solid day's rain yesterday, but today it's dry and getting back to normal.

The forecast for the weekend is a bit better so I hope to get out and about this weekend.

Couple of Hawk moth's for tonight's subject's,these did not get into the trap, but attracted by the light landed on the wood fencing.

The Hawk moth's are the largest Moth's in the UK, on the left is the Elephant Hawk moth, and on the right is the Privet Hawk moth again a pair of colourful character's.

WINTERS MORNING

Woke up this morning at 5.45am looked out of the window to see heavy snow falling.

So after breakfast it was the decision to try and get to work, so you may ask why. Well Lanner is located in a valley with hills about 200m high from North through West to South. Also to the east is rising ground, I call it the biggest hole in Cornwall. I have to drive to the west along the A393 to Redruth about 4km and up over Lanner Hill which is always the first place in the area to get blocked with stranded vehicles because of the steep incline.

Anyway made it after a bit of a struggle and arrived at work about 30mins late.

Ok on to the pics, I always have my trusty Fuji 6900Z with me and I took these two shot's From the Office window, On the Left is a shot of Carn Brea which is a local landmark. The shot on the right is looking out to the Atlantic Coast towards Portreath and the North Cliffs.

THE SUNDAY POST

So it's another cloudy overcast day with a cold easterly wind with a chill factor of -3 to -4 deg c.

This has given me a chance to stay indoors and do a few things I needed to catch up on.

Going through some of my files I came across these two images and thought they would make a pleasant change from the normal stuff.

On the left is a common Lizard which I found when walking a cliff path down in the Land's End area, on a much warmer day!!

The photo on the right is of a Bush Cricket which I found on the outside wall of the house.

I have to say this is the first time I have seen one of these insects, and had to look it up to find out what it was.