XMAS GREETINGS

Hi Folks
              Did not know what to do for a Christmas message this year, until a friend sent me the link below,just shows what some companies will do to say thanks to their customers.
So please take a look and enjoy.

SO MAY I WISH YOU ALL SEASONS GREETINGS FOR A VERY HAPPY XMAS AND WONDERFUL NEW YEAR 2014.

http://www.faithit.com/airline-secret-santa-surprise-passengers-westjet/

HELSTON BOATING LAKE 09/12/2013

Had to make a trip over to Helston yesterday morning,so whilst I was in the area I made a quick visit to the Boating Lake to see what was about.
Only thing of real note was the Whooper Swan which has stayed around for a few months, plus all the usual species normally there.
So below are a few images of the short visit. 

WHOOPER SWAN.

WHOOPER SWAN.

BLACK-HEADED GULL.

COMMON BUZZARD.

MOORHEN

A GULLIBLE MORNING AT STITHIANS RES

Took a drive up to a very chilly Stithians Res this morning, hoping the cold turn might have driven a few more over wintering species South.
There was good numbers of Lapwing 300-400, Black headed gulls c100, good numbers of Teal and Wigeon among the trees. Also a male Goldeneye and a juvenile  female Scaup, five Pochard, although to far away for any images.
So a few images below of things that were close enough to Photograph.

BLACK HEADED GULL.

COMMON GULL.

HERRING GULL JUV.

LAPWING.

CIRL BUNTING & GOLDFINCH

On Friday woke up to a beautiful though frosty morning, and as I had already made
 plans with Brian to take a trip over to the Roseland Peninsula to look for the Pacific Diver which has been in Gerrans Bay for the last couple of weeks.
Although there were a good number of divers in the bay mainly Black Throated divers, ID was very difficult as everything was in silhouette due to the harsh sunlight off the water. Though there was one candidate for the Pacific but could not get enough detail to be really sure.  Still it was a real pleasure to be out in such conditions.
So next we went off in search of the Cirl Buntings which have been re- introduced to the area and were lucky enough to encounter half a dozen, and though they were very active I did manage to catch one sunning itself on a branch and managed to get close enough for a few shots.
So I have posted three images of it, also added a Goldfinch of which I now have good numbers coming to the feeders, this image was taken with the 70-300mm lens which I am find quite a joy to use. 

CIRL BUNTING.

CIRL BUNTING.

CIRL BUNTING.

GOLDFINCH.

WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS 10/11/2013

Photographic opportunities have been on the sparse side lately, so sorry for the lack of posts.
I have been out on a few occasions and nothing has been close enough to shoot, so that aside I did get down to Hayle yesterday morning and finally caught up with the White-Rumped Sandpipers on the forth attempt,
There have been three of these hanging around for the past week or so which is unusual as we normally only get single birds.
So the images below are the best of the bunch, not the best light and I have had to crop them quite a bit as well as using a 1x4 converter which I do not find ideal.
Still something is better than nothing at all.  

WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER & CORMORANT 23/10/2013.

Just a quick post tonight with a couple of shots of the Summer Plumage Great Northern Diver which has been on Longrock Pool at Marazion for the last couple of days.
The Cormorant was taken on Hayle Estuary on the way back home. 

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

CORMORANT.

PENDEEN & HAYLE ESTUARY 08/10/2013

Spent a couple of hours at Pendeen & Hayle Estuary yesterday morning, the aim at Pendeen was to try and get some closer images of the Durian Shrike that had been thee for a few days.
Sad to say it did not show, so after an hour I went down towards Penberth Cove for the Snow Bunting and must say it was a very obliging bird, as part of the time it was walking around my feet.
Then the weather began to close in so made my way back to Hayle Estuary to see if the Black-Winged Stilt was showing, as it happened it was right up by the bridge on the Causeway making for some decent shots even though the weather was very dull and the lighting flat.
So a few images below of the mornings effort which was very enjoyable.

BLACK-WINGED STILT.

BLACK-WINGED STILT.

SNOW BUNTING.

SNOW BUNTING.

BAR-TAILED GODWIT.

OSPREY AT LAST + CLOUDED YELLOW

The title say's it all, after chasing all the ospreys that have been sighted this Autumn only to be told I'd missed them by 15 or 20 minutes.
Anyway I arrived at Carnsew Pool on the Hayle Estuary just after 07.30 this morning looking for this Osprey for the third time only to be told it was seen flying out to sea 10 mins earlier.
Well to tell you the truth I almost walked back to the car and say blow it (in so many words). but I decided to walk around the pool to a point where I could watch both the Estuary and the Pool.
Well after about 50 mins all the Gulls on the mudflats went up and I knew something was around, after a couple of minutes I spotted my quarry.The Osprey came gliding along the Estuary and I got off a good number of shots. I can tell you I was over the moon at this encounter as I like Raptors and my only Osprey shots before were a couple of rubbish record ones, so this was great.
So below are a couple of the images.
Also on the way back to the car Brian spotted a Clouded Yellow Butterfly, must be one of the last immigrants from mainland Europe, so all in all the morning went from despair to euphoria.

OSPREY.

OSPREY.

CLOUDED YELLOW.

BLACK-WINGED STILT 30/09/2013

OH Boy! What a wet,windy, soggy, foggy week we have had, it has really let us know that Summer is over.Needless to say it has not given me much chance to get the camera out, but on a brighter note I did manage to catch up with the Black-Winged Stilt on Hayle Estuary yesterday morning, and managed to get a few images.
They are not the best and I can only say they are record shots, but thought I would share them with you anyway. I had to put the waterproof cover over the camera and lens because of the rain and the very dull conditions, also had to crop them quite heavily and use very high ISO settings.
Still we have to make the best nature throws at us.
The other images were taken in the garden at the beginning of last week during the last of the good weather. 

BLACK-WINGED STILT.

BLACK-WINGED STILT.

BLACK-WINGED STILT.

FLESH FLY.

PLUME MOTH.

WILD HONEYSUCKLE.

BIRDS,MOTELS & HOTELS

As you have probably noticed I have not been to active again, this is because there always seems to be plenty of other jobs in hand at the moment.
Anyway have had a couple of short trips up to Stithians res over the last two weeks, and did manage a few images a few of which I have put on today,sad to say nothing rare but just ordinary species.
So the birds will be part one of this post, and the second part will be of something I have had in mind since the spring, so read on.

CHIFFCHAFF.

BLACK-HEADED GULL.

LONG-TAILED TIT.

Ok so now here is the second part of the post, as you know I do love doing macro shots of insects during the summer months, and everything we see and read tells us how they are all suffering from loss of habitat and declining rapidly.

So I decided I would try to do my little bit to help, this year I have put more insect friendly plants into the garden and have stopped doing any form of pest control which could harm them.

Then I decided I wanted to try and give them places to hibernate during the winter, so after a lot of research about the best ways to do this I came up with the two ideas below.

The first was a simple structure which I call a Bug Motel that is very basic, its just a metre of garden mesh formed into a circle and held with cable ties.

Twigs are pushed through the bottom to keep it off the ground, it is then filled with dry leaves and a large plant saucer placed on top to help keep it dry.

BUG MOTEL.

Next I decided I would try something a little more elaborate, so decided to build a Bug Hotel. Having looked at many commercial ones on the market I decided to build my own.

For this I obtained a large wooden pallet and took it apart, this took some time as the wire nails they use really hold the thing together and are quite hard to pull out.

I finally ended up with the structure below which I hope will attract Ladybirds, Solitary bees, Lacewings among other things.

The part at the top with slit openings was to be for butterflies, but after extensive reading from many scorches there is no evidence that butterflies use these, so have filled it with twigs,leaves and a hanging basket liner shredded up so there is more room for more insects.

So that's the latest project and it will be interesting to see what happens, so I hope this will perhaps inspire one or two of you to have a go, after all it cannot do any harm only good.

If you do please post me and let me know how you get on.

BUG HOTEL.

BUG HOTEL.

REED WARBLER & BUTTERFLIES.

So the beautiful summer weather has finally broken, and its been foggy and wet for the past couple of days, one good thing about it is I will have a bit more time for the computer.
Have been out birding a couple of times and even though a few nice species are turning up they never seem to show when I arrive, or to far away for photo's but that's birding for you.
So a few images from the last week or so, and though most of it is pretty normal stuff I was very pleased with the shots of the Reed Warbler at Marazion as this is a bird that is normally very hard to see let alone photograph. It was very obliging as it went through some small shrubs feeding.
I hope to be able to get out a bit more often from now on, and get back into some bird photography as the Autumn and Winter migration gets under way.

RED ADMIRAL.

REED WARBLER.

REED WARBLER.

SMALL TORTOISESHELL.

SMALL TORTOISESHELL & BUMBLE BEE.

(Thanks for sharing)

WALL BROWN.

BITS AND PIECES 30/08/2013

A few images from some quick trips out with the cameras over the last week, have still been pretty busy repainting the back of the house, and helping my wife to pick loads of blackberries.
She has made some tasty jam and frozen  a lot down for use during the winter, as well as giving some to the girls.
All this activity has left me with very sore and scratched up legs. 'Tip' don't go blackberry picking with shorts on, still it was worth it.
I still have quite a backlog of images to get through so will have plenty to post over the next few weeks as I can get to them.

BUMBLE BEE.

CATALINA FLYING BOAT.

Doing a short display at Castle Point Falmouth on Sunday 18th August, during a five day flight around the British Isles to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first flight in 1913.

GATEKEEPER.

HERRING GULL.

SUNSET OVER THE ATLANTIC (PORTREATH)

Going home to roost.