PREDATOR.

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Spent a few days last week cleaning up the garden before winter creeps up, around the Dahlia's I spotted this insect which I did not recognize but guessed it was one of the wasp species.
So grabbed the macro setup and took a few shots though it was very mobile, after getting them onto the PC I identfied it as a Digger Wasp (Ectemnius Continuus) which is a real predator around the garden.
It is 8 - 15mm in length and preys on flies and other insects which during the Autumn stores in a burrow inderground.
As you can see from the first image it has I believe caught a Hover Fly and on three occasions it always had a victim. So really pleased to catch up with a new species in the garden.




 

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WILLY WONKA AND A COUPLE OF SHANKS.

WILLY WONKA OR WHAT.

Mmm here is the roundup of last weekend

1 Saturday lunchtime report of White-Rumped Sandpiper 10 mins away at Devoran on a creek of the river Fal. (WOW LIFER)
Spent 3 hrs looking with a number of others no sign, came home it was reported again 1 1/2 hours later.

2 Sunday turned down the chance of a great sea watch, I wanted to get this lifer so arrived at first light and spent 4 1/2hours searching but no sign,so went home at lunchtime.
Mid afternoon it was reported again, so arranged to meet a friend Brian at 17.50 to give it another go. we spent about an hour searching when Brian received a call to say it was on the other side of the estuary. So a quick drive over and after a bit of searching it was located in a channel on the mudflats.(AT LAST IT WAS IN THE BAG), Managed to get a couple of poor record shots not good enough to post.

3 I can say I was delighted with finally getting this bird and on arriving home loaded the computer and entered it onto my life list only for it to tell me I had seen one in October 2000 on Hayle Estuary.

SO WILLY WONKA OR WHAT.

So after all this I did on Saturday get some decent shots of a Greenshank  as I did not have any in my library, so as least this was a bonus.

GREENSHANK.

REDSHANK.

Moral of the weekend  Senior moments and birding do they go together?



"PORTREATH" A POST FOR IAN

This post is a little different from the norm as it is dedicated to a special person, My nephew Ian who lives in Bracknell Berkshire has just spent a week in Cornwall with his carer Mike.

Ian who has Downs Syndrome loves to spend time at Portreath on the Atlantic coast where he spent many happy holidays with his Mum and Dad and his three brothers.

So I would like to send this message to him

Hi Ian

          It was lovely to see you again this year and many thanks to Mike for bringing you down so you could spend some time at Portreath, and as I promised you I have put some photo's of Portreath on my computer for you to look at. I went to Portreath on Saturday morning and took some new ones of places that mean a lot to you, and hopefully Donna will show them to you on the laptop and read you this message.

I was really impressed with that new England football cap you have and think I will have to get one to wear next year  when you come down again.

So take care and remember our little secret that no one must know " We love Dr Who and Shakin Stevens".

See you next year .

                             Monty.

So for other news I have been doing a lot of birding as we have had a big influx of American waders due to the recent storms, but not many photo opportunities.

I do have a couple of more common species one of which I have been trying to get a good photo of for ages, so will put these in the next post.



WEEKEND 3/4/SEPT/2011

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Just a few from a visit to Stithians Res on Saturday and Nanquidno valley near St Just on Sunday. Birding Highlight was a Wryneck at Nanquidno, but no chance of photo's.

CHIFFCHAFF. (Stithians)

CHIFFCHAFF. (Stithians)

SPECKLED WOOD. (Nanquidno)

SWALLOW. (Nanquidno)

SWALLOW. (Nanquidno)

No I'm not flying all the way to Africa !

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WADER FEST ON HAYLE ESTUARY.

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Well here we are again, and firstly apologies to everyone for the lack of posts and comments but I just felt I needed a blogging break and very few photo opportunities have occurred.

So what better to get the juices running again when a nice American visitor namely a Baird's Sandpiper was reported on the Hayle Estuary, along with Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint So yesterday morning met up with Ashley and set off to locate the bird. Already a couple of local birders said they had seen it on the Estuary at the back of Carnsew Basin, arriving at the spot it was not to be seen but then managed to scope it further along the shore with a group of Sanderling.We went over and got set up for some pics and off they went towards the mouth of the Hayle River, we then spent around half an hour searching for it with no sign , so decided to walk back to the car.

After about ten minutes walking a wader dropped onto the shoreline and looking through the bins we saw it was the Baird's, so we spent the next fifteen minutes taking photo's down to about 20ft until it flew off down the Estuary.

When we got back onto the road and just past the Tempest Factory we looked over the causeway wall and a whole group of waders including Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper were feeding down to distances of 10ft.

So we spent quite a long time taking loads of images of this bonus, and it made a great end to a superb morning.

BAIRD'S SANDPIPER.



BAIRD'S SANDPIPER.



DUNLIN.



CURLEW SANDPIPER.

RINGED PLOVER.

SANDERLING.

LITTLE STINT.

LITTLE STINT.

TURNSTONE.

WHEATEAR.

You certainly know Autunm has arrived when you start seeing the iconic Wheatear

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