Reynaurd The Fox

The following images with exception to the last one were taken on the 13 of June 2008 at a quarter to seven in the evening, yes, we did have some fine days last summer!

We had been watching these cubs for some time, and wondered, how we could get close enough to photograph them. Basically throwing some dog food around, and sitting in the long grass did the trick, partly through their hunger and the cubs inquisitiveness.

Although my preference is to watch and photograph birds, I intend to include as much of the Natural World as possible on the blog.

The first four shots are of healthy cubs, going about there business, on a fine summers evening.

The last harrowing photograph was taken on Wednesday evening 25th of February in the same area, although not a quality shot it shows the suffering these animals can experience in the natural world. This fox is probably infested with mange.

The fox is vilified and recognised by some for its killing spree's; sadly, this logic is all to often is applied to some of our raptors such as the Goshawk and Hen Harrier who are indiscriminately killed to preserve the pleasures of man.

Oyster Catchers Only

I have been trying to photograph this species for some time now, and then on the the 26th of December, I had some success. The weather was fine with plenty of available light that allowed fast shutter speeds.

My camera settings on my Nikon D300 was as follows, aperture f8, exposure compensation for the flight shots was -0.7 and for the others was -0.3 and perhaps should have been -0.7, ISO 500,all that resulted in a shutter speed of 1/2000th of a second.
Location was at Marazion, Cornwall, in and around Chapel Rock.

St Clements,St Gothian and St Stithians

A quick upload of today the 21st of Febuary's photo's with the narrative to follow later. Basically success at St Clements in Truro, and at St Gothian sands, Gwithian, Hayle. Got lost in Stithians. The Scaup and pintail were photographed at Gwithian and the Greenshank at St Clements, Truro.

Grey Phalarope at Marazion

This little Grey Phalarope (known as a Red Phalarope when in it's stunning Breeding colours) was at Marazion beach on the 17th of January.It really did show well, allowing relatively close photography.Generally Grey Phalarope spend the winter in the Atlantic, they usually appear on the coast during a storm and I understand that they are sometimes known as storm birds.

Ironically, on this day I left my camera at home, so the following images are shared between Lisa, Alan and myself (when I managed to prize the camera out of Lisa's hands).
Lisa won the Cornwall birding (what a web site) first monthly Photography competition with the first picture, a shot of the bird taking off .

Marazion is a fine place for photography just check out the swoptics blog for Steve's pic s at Marazion.

Frozen Snipe

These photo's where taken at Marazion during the cold weather by my father in Law Alan Fowles.

Stunned Dunnock and assorted birds in the garden

We have two Dunnock in our garden. This one was found in our back garden on the patio in the cold weather,we think it had been harrassed by our resident Sparrow Hawk, cat or it was just dog tired due to the cold. After a warm up and rest in the house we released it back into the garden and we still have two resident Dunnock.

I was lucky enough to take this Blackcap eating a berry in the Cotoneaster bush.I took a burst of about ten shots and didn't really know what I had until I downloaded the shots.

Today I have added a further six images that I have photographed in the garden over the last two months, although the Blackbird was taken today.

Yellowhammers in the garden

We have been lucky throughout the winter months to have six Yellowhammers feeding from the spilled seed from the seed feeders in the garden.

Archived birds in West Cornwall

This post relates to the photo's I have uploaded to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust photogroup site. They are archival and will add some content to the blog while I continue to get my head around the art of blogging and page layouts. I photographed this Buzzard from my Garden. The farmer was cutting his hay field and seventeen Buzzards were competing for the dead mice.So if you want to photograph Buzzards find a hay field .


The Tufted duck was photographed on a Cornwall Wildlife Trust field Trip and the Snowy Owl is the Owl that has been in West Cornwall until recently.

This Kestrel was photographed at Botallack Cliffs, a great place for kestrels as you can get above them whilst they are hovering around the cliffs and photograph them above and below.

This is one of my favourite shots of a wren carrying food to its young.The sign of things to come.

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First attempt at blogging!

Well here we go,our first attempt of blogging.Encouraged by Steve Rogers (SWOPTICS) to do a blog so it is his fault if it all go's wrong.

I purchased a load photographic and optical gear from Steve(I may of caused the credit crunch) and Lisa and I haven't looked back.Basically our main interest is bird watching but we then joined the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and its Photographic Group so our portfolio will expand.

Our equipment is as follows.I shoot with a Nikon D300 Camera, my lenses are a 80-400 Nikon Zoom and an 18 -200 Nikon Zoom, Lisa has a Nikon D90 with HD Video capabilities a 18-105 Nikon Zoom and commandeers my lenses .

I follow several blogs that include the now famous Stithians Blog, JR and Sue and of course the Swoptics blog all good stuff with excellant and birding info.

My father in law has also equiped himself (can't say where he purchased it as could be tantamount to advertising) and he may contribute to this blog.

I will try and upload my first photo tonight, It is only a Greater Blackback Gull (knowing my luck it will end up being Archie our yorkie) I took tonight down at Cot Valley, St just in Cornwall.I was hoping to see and Photograph the Grey Phalarope unfortunately he wasn't there.