CORNISH BIRDS PREY 3 (THE OWL SET)

This is the third part of my visit to the Cornish Birds Of Prey Centre and features some of the Owls that are on display, From the tiny Scops Owl to the large Bengal Eagle Owl and the Great Horned Owl.

BARN OWL.

BARN OWL

He's one year old and a typical grumpy youngster.

BENGAL EAGLE OWL.

BENGAL EAGLE OWL

GREAT HORNED OWL.

GREAT HORNED OWL

PALE SCOPS OWL.

PALE SCOPS OWL

So tiny and so beautiful.

SNOWY OWL.

SNOWY OWL

TAWNY OWL.



TAWNY OWL.

CORNISH BIRDS OF PREY 2 (THE POWER OF FLIGHT).

For the second post of my visit to the Cornish Bird Of Prey Centre I want to concentrate on the flying display. Now I know a lot of you will look at these images and say they are blurred, but this is what I intended to achieve. I have hundreds of Raptor images of pin sharp birds just stuck in the sky, what I wanted to show was the raw power and aggression of these birds in hunting mode. The only birds which gave me what I was after were the two Harris Hawks, being larger than the others and slightly slower. The American Kestrel was to small, and the Peregrine was to fast and I have plenty of blurred shots of these to prove it. So I kept the ISO setting down to 100 and the shutter speed between 1/300 - 1/400s.

So when looking at the first image of the Peregrine and then the others I hope you will get a feeling of what I was trying to portray.

My own personal opinion these are some of the best shots of the day.

HARRIS HAWK.

HARRIS HAWK.

HARRIS HAWK.

HARRIS HAWK.

HARRIS HAWK.

Being sharper does not have the same effect.

PEREGRINE x SAKER FALCON.



PEREGRINE x SAKER FALCON.

The only shot I got in full speed.

CORNISH BIRDS OF PREY

On Thursday I visited the Cornish Bird of Prey centre at St Columb Major (See information on Side Bar) and had a really pleasant experience.

Needless to say I took loads of Photos (almost 300 ) which will take me a while to process and go through, so I will start with the images below and more of this great visit will appear in forthcoming posts.

Thanks to everyone for their wishes, I am feeling much better though still not 100% after two visits to the quack who diagnosed a throat virus which has to run its coarse. Its  the week of ear ache that's been the worse. (Ok snide comments allowed).

AMERICAN KESTREL.

PALE SCOPS OWL

GYR FALCON x

PERGERINE x SAKER FALCON.



CORMORANT (PREHISTORIC OR WHAT).

Things are beginning to improve slowly,but have not done much birding just a couple of trips to Stithians over the weekend looking for the Pectoral  Sandpiper without any luck. Best I can offer for this post is a couple of images of the nearest thing we can get to a prehistoric bird the Cormorant. I wonder if anyone has a bird or animal in their part of the world which could be called Prehistoric?

CORMORANT.

CORMORANT.

" MORFARCH "

Hi Everyone sorry for the lack of posts over the last two weeks, as you know we have been on holiday and for the last three days have not been feeling to great with a sore throat, headaches and no energy. (Guess the flu season is on its way). So I am going to keep this fairly short, last Sat and Sunday was spent catching up, Monday had the beginnings of a sore throat, Monday evening my Brother-in-Law David who lives in Falmouth rang to say that on Tuesday he was taking his yacht "MORFARCH " out for a days sailing Northward along the South Coast from Falmouth,and would I like to Join him. As you can imagine feeling rough or no I jumped at the idea. We were also joined by his Nephew Alan and we set of from Falmouth at 10 am and arrived back just after six in the evening. So below is a selection of images from the day. I will only title a few and leave the rest for you to enjoy. So thanks Dave it was a great day and we all enjoyed it very much.

CASTING OFF.

PART OF FALMOUTH WATERFRONT.

HEADING OUT.

PENDENNIS POINT.

ON THE RIGHT DAVID AND ALAN ON THE LEFT.

A BEAUTIFUL OLD WOODEN SAILER.

HEADING NORTH.

ALONG THE COAST.

SUN, SEA, AND SKY.

LIFE AT 45 DEGREES.

HEADING HOME.

ST ANTHONY LIGHT.

MORFARCH 36 FT TAKING A WELL EARNED REST.



BACK IN THE LAND OF PASTIES AND CREAM

Hi Everyone
                   Just to say sorry for the lack of posts this last week as my wife and I have been in Kent for a weeks holiday, and very enjoyable it was to.


So thanks very much for all your comments and I will get around to catching up on all your blogs over the next few days,and try to get a few images on.

GODREVY 11/09/2010

Just managed a hour and a half at  St Gothian Sands this morning as we were sitting the Grandchildren, not very much activity but loads of dog walkers, so what with avoiding dogfights and stepping in the proverbial, I did not stick around to long.

Still I managed to get a few shots of ordinary stuff and have included these from the visit. So its looking forward to tomorrow, weather is supposed to be good and four of us are going down west to see what we can turn up.

LINNET.

WHEATEAR.

BLACK-HEADED- GULL.

WHEATEAR.