WEEKS ROUNDUP FROM 25/04/2014

Its been quite an eventful few days to say the least, as some of you may know , one of my other hobbies is Amateur Radio and once a year we operate a special event station from a small Marconi Museum at Bass Point next to The Lizard Point the most Southerly point of the UK.
We do this on the Saturday nearest to April 27th which was Marconi's Birthday to celebrate his wireless Achievements.
There are around 50+ Stations world wide operating from places where Marconi conducted his experiments, they operate for a 24hr period.  This gives Ham Operators all over the world a chance to talk to Marconi sites, and if an operator can contact 15 stations they qualify for an award certificate, each site will also exchange a QSL card (confirmation of contact ) with them.
So down to the nitty gritty of the event, Friday is setup day which involves setting up the Antennas and radios, it was a really glorious morning (as can be seen from the first two images below ) and we had the two masts and antennas plus radios setup by midday,which was great as I had to be back early to pick up one of the Grandchildren from school, so everything was ready to operate on the Saturday.
On the Saturday morning left home at 06.30 to drive the 25 miles down to Bass Point for 07.00. the weather was not good heavy showers and a strengthening South Westerly wind, on arrival it was blowing a real gale, of the two masts put up one had been taken down on Friday as it is very  easly damaged in any wind. The other was a 30ft mast with a large wire antenna,and this was bending to an angle of 45 degrees in the wind.
The decision was made right away that it was far to dangerous to try and operate in these conditions, as if this mast came down it could cause serious damage.
So two of us pulling hard on the Guy ropes to get the mast vertical ant the third member slowly releasing the mast sections to lower it down.
It was then a case of packing everything up and abandoning the event which was a real disappointment, but safety had to come first.
You can see the difference in the sea conditions in shots 3 and 4 and I can tell you as I was taking the photo's I was being blown backwards by the wind.
Images 5 & 6 are examples of QSL cards from 2013 and 2014 which I design for each years event, sadly non will be issued for this year.
 the rest of the images are from a few trips to various places over the last week, the best one although its only a record shot is the Montague's Harrier taken on Monday this week and the first time I have managed to photograph this species.  

HOUSEL BAY & THE LIZARD LIGHT.

MARCONI MUSEUM BASS POINT.

                                      

                                                     HOUSEL BAY & and; THE LIZARD LIGHT.

GROUND SWELL (BASS POINT).

2013 QSL CARD (CONFIRMATION OF CONTACT ).

2014 QSL CARD (CONFIRMATION OF CONTACT).

BROWN-LIPPED SNAIL (ST GOTHIAN SANDS ).

FLESH FLY (ST GOTHIAN SANDS ).

MEADOW PIPIT ( KYNANCE COVE).

WHITETHROAT (ST GOTHISN SANDS ).

WREN ( ST GOTHIAN SANDS ).

MONTAGUE'S HARRIER (CROFT PASCOE ).

MACRO DAYS EASTER 2014.

Well things have been hotting up over the weekend, had two very nice days on Friday and Saturday so spent the afternoons pottering around in the garden.
I did keep the Macro setup close at hand as a few insects were starting to move around, managed to get the first two shots below.
The second two images were from the Moth trap on Saturday night, only managed six moths, 5 Hebrew Characters and 1 Common Quaker, so at least things hopefully can only get better. 

TRUE FLY (DEXIA RUSTICA 10-12mm ).

TWO SPOT LADYBIRD.

COMMON QUAKER.

HEBREW CHARACTER.

LINNET & SEDGE WARBLER 15/04/2013

Had a couple of hours down west yesterday morning, started off at Hayle Estuary not much about a small number of Gulls, about 10 Little Egrets, and one Sandwich Tern which was a first for the year.
I then drove to Marazion where I walked around the marsh,it was good to pick up three Sedge Warblers again first's for the year, also had three Cetti's Warblers and a few more common species.
The wind was strong from the South East and very cool which kept a lot of birds under cover, still Spring is well and truly on its way. 

LINNET ( MARAZION MARSH ).

SEDGE WARBLER ( MARAZION MARSH ).

SEDGE WARBLER ( MARAZION MARSH ).

WHOOPER SWAN, PEACOCK BUTTERFLY, SEA KING 14/04/2013

Sadly just another quick post, as I have not done much Photography over the last week or so, having been busy replacing garden fencing that was destroyed during the winter storms.
Still did manage to get down to Helston boating lake last Friday,as the Grand children wanted to visit the play area there. I was very surprised to find that the overwintering Whooper Swan was still in residence, and very confiding for the camera.
The Peacock butterfly was a first for the year in the garden yesterday. The Sea King was taken on Friday flying over Helston.

WHOOPER SWAN (HELSTON BOATING LAKE ).

WHOOPER SWAN ( HELSTON BOATING LAKE ).

WHOOPER SWAN ( HELSTON BOATING LAKE ).

PEACOCK BUTTERFLY ( LANNER).

WESTLAND SEA KING ( HELSTON )

SPARROWHAWK, SHELDUCK & GREEN SANDPIPER 03/04/2013.

Managed to get out for a few hours yesterday morning, started off at Marazion hoping for a few Swallows and Terns, but things were very quiet.
So then went to Hayle Estuary, here there were good numbers of Gulls, Greenshank,and Redshank along with a few other species, But all to distant for images.
Final port of call was St Gothian Sands NR at Godrevy, although things were quiet here also did manage to get the images below, I was very pleased when the Sparrowhawk perched briefly on a nearby  post.

SPARROWHAWK (St Gothian Sands NR )

SHELDUCK (St Gothian Sands NR ).

GREEN SANDPIPER (St Gothian Sands NR ).

THREE WEEK ROUNDUP 01/04/2013

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past three weeks I have been out birding a few times but the weather has certainly been against photography. Most of the things I have seen have been to distant anyway.\I have also had a couple of computer problems over the last week, which I have now got sorted.
So this post's images are a roundup of the past three weeks from various spots around the county, and hope the weather improves so I can really get going.

MEADOW PIPIT ( ST GOTHIAN SANDS NR GODREVY ).

CANADA GOOSE (MARAZION MARSH ).

ST MICHEALS MOUNT.

MARAZION BEACH.

CAPE CORNWALL (ST JUST ).