Tuesday 30 March 2010

ST ANTHONY LIGHT.

After two days of heavy rain the weather finally broke mid morning and as I had to go to Falmouth I popped the SLR into the car. So when I finished  I took a drive out to Castle Point, from here I could look across the estuary to St Anthony and the Lighthouse. This light warns shipping if they are to close to the submerged rocks called The Manacles off Lizard Point on the far side of Falmouth Bay as many ships have floundered here over the centuries. Anyway it was pretty cold and blustery out there so took a few quick pics and then headed back to the car, and I leave you with this one tonight.


ST ANTHONY AND LIGHTHOUSE FROM CASTLE POINT.


Saturday 27 March 2010

MARAZION, ST GOTHIAN SANDS, & HELLS MOUTH.

Made three trips down to Marazion this week as the Alpine Swift has still been around and it was a lifer for me, anyway caught up with it on Thursday 25th March but to far away for any pics. So the forcast was good for this morning so arrived again at 7am until 09.15 but no sign of it, still I did manage to get a couple of shots of the Water Pipit which is not a common bird. Next it was off to St Gothian Sands at Gwithian for a walk around the reserve, nothing very exciting except for a very obliging Skylark, also there were three Lapwing on the island. Finally I stopped off at Hells Mouth to see if the Fulmars were doing their fantastic flying and gliding display and I was not disapointed.
So all in all it was a very pleasent morning, bumped into a few friends and had a natter which has to be a bonus.



WATER PIPTI



GREY HERON WITH CHICK
( IN THE RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE NEST)



LITTLE EGRET.



SKYLARK.



SKYLARK.

 
And the last four pic's are of my favourite Summer seabirds.


FULMARS.
















Wednesday 24 March 2010

EMMA



EMMA
JUNE  1995 - 24th MARCH 2010.

Thank you for many years of love and joy.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

PHOTOGRAPHY IS A FRAME OF MIND.

This is my first post for almost two weeks, and the reason is entirely down to the way I've felt. I have been out on occasions and taking photographs, but at times I get unhappy with everything I do, and nothing is good enough so I end up deleting everything and this is what has happened over the last to weeks. I feel that just to keep posting the same old things all the time is very boring, anyway I am now in a better frame of mind so hope things will get back on course. This morning I went down to Marazion as yesterday My friend Mark left a message to say that an Alpine Swift was around, pity it did not show up this morning as it would have been a lifer for me. If you would like to see some nice images of this bird visit his Blog at http://markswildthymebirding.blogspot.com/  where he has some great flight shots.  Anyway the morning was not wasted as there was a beautiful Black Tailed Godwit in Summer plumage, and a very nice couple of Rock Pipits, and these are featured in tonights post.



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT


BLACK- TAILED GODWIT.


ROCK PIPIT.


ROCK PIPIT.


Wednesday 10 March 2010

BULLER DOWNS & WHEAL FRANCES.

Really great weather today so thoughts turned to birding this afternoon having just spent a day and a half giving the car a post winter clean. I took a stroll across Buller Downs and very little about, managed one solitary Buzzard and a couple of Dunnock. I then decided to go towards the Great Flat Lode to the old Wheal Frances Mine complex which is situated South of Carnkie village. Again very little about except Robins, Dunnock, Buzzard and a small flock of Linnets, unfortunatly no photo's but did take a couple of Engine House pics.


BUZZARD.


DUNNOCK.


WHEAL FRANCES.


JACKDAWS ATOP THEIR LOFTY PERCH.




WHEAL FRANCES.



Monday 8 March 2010

I TAUGHT I SAW A PUDDY CAT.

   Just received this from a friend via E: Mail and thought all you lady readers would like to see it . Aaaah .



SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW.

Its still been pretty cold over the weekend with strong East-North East winds, but at least it was dry and sunny. So on Saturday Morning I went to St Gothian Sands to see if any Spring arrivals had turned up, I was rewarded with 5 Northern Wheatears and 1 Skylark also about 20 Tufted Ducks, 1 Redshank, 2 Canada Geese, a few Mallards and Shelduck. Leaving here I drove back along the north coast road , and as I was passing Hells Mouth I caught a glimpse of a bird soaring along the cliffs. So parking the car I walked to the cliff edge and was rewarded with 5 Fulmars, I did take some flight shots but they are not worth showing so will try for some more a bit later. Well that ended the morning with three year ticks for the log. On Sunday it was a stay at home day as we had our 5 yr old Grandson for a sleepover on Sat night.


NORTHERN WHEATER.


HERRING GULL.

Mon 08/03/10.

 This morning I went early to Tehidy Woods and on arrival found the car park was empty so had the whole place to myself for about 1 1/2 Hours. Sadly the cold wind kept many of the birds under cover so not very many photo opportunities. Still I managed a year tick with a Firecrest at Otter Bridge tho it was very mobile and no chance for pictures. Also seen were Nutchatch, Gt Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and a couple of late Redwings and plenty of common species.



REDWING




 FEMALE CHAFFINCH.



Tuesday 2 March 2010

IF YOU GO DOWN IN THE WOODS TODAY...................

Which I did when I paid a second visit to Tehidy Woods this morning, can say though I did not come across anyone having a picnic (To darn cold ). So nice and early and not very many people around and it was just like having the whole woods to myself. Tehidy is the largest woodland in West Cornwall with quite a few miles of walks with several circular ones so you can cover specific areas. So this mornings agenda was to add a couple of woodland birds to my year list, being Nuthatch and Treecreeper, well at least I managed one when I found a Nuthatch high up in a tree and managed to get my first shots of this little beauty this year. So the post tonight is scenes from Tehidy with some of the local residents, the shot of the day I missed was when I was looking through my viewfinder and a Robin landed on the camera hotshoe about 1in from my eyes and when I tried to get the compact out of my pocket it flew onto a branch above my head. Another real suprise was when I came across a pair of Otters at the far end of my walk, now that was really a stroke of luck as you can see from my last shot.


TEHIDY WOODS.


BLACKBIRD.




BLUE TIT.





DUNNOCK.





NUTHATCH.



FEMALE CHAFFINCH.





GREAT TIT.





JAY.


MALLARDS.


OTTERS (Well you cant blame me for Dreaming ).

So thats my visit to Tehidy today, and sorry the posts are few and far between at the moment, but I have had quite a few other things to do over the last week,and still have all my garden to tidy up and pot and container plants to sort out ready for the Spring and Summer. So I hope to catch up on all your Blogs during this week.