Halloween Birds

Today Lisa and I had a tip from Phil the birder ( a very Knowledgeable fellow indeed) that three Black Redstarts where in the cemetery at St Just Church. So we thought as it is Halloween a trip to the graveyard is good timing. Respect was exercised and we kept to the pathways. The light was poor today, overcast and drizzle again so the ISO was pushed up to a maximum of 800.

Lisa's Scilly Isles Day Trip

Lisa and her father had a day trip to the Scilly Isles and here are a few of her photographs.

Snow Bunting
Black Redstart
Turnstone

Stonechat

Drift

A couple of days ago I went down to Drift with the hope of photographing the Whooper Swan. Unfortunately no Whooper but whilst in the car park this Buzzard did a low pass so as the camera was in hand I couldn't resist a quick blast with the Nikon. Note the throat, this bird has had a good feed.

Two More of The Yellow Browed

I pulled out two more of the Yellow browed Warbler. One thing that struck me when I scanned my photo's how I concentrated on getting the side view showing the wing bar and yellow brow. A couple of my shots are front view and I think the bird is stunning from the front , showing its breast and belly streaked with that fresh lemon colour.

I

Walmsley Part Two

A couple more from Walmsley.

Yellow Browed Warbler

This morning I received a phone call from Steve Rogers ( thanks Steve) to let me know that the yellow Browed warbler was showing well at Nanquidno. With family commitments today that entailed another roast lunch with Lisa's family, I thought, another opportunity missed. However in the late afternoon we went down to Nanquidno and I managed to photograph it in the Sycamores. These little Warblers are always on the move and with the light conditions I found it difficult to photograph. I had to push the ISO to 640, also the subject was backlit so I had to over expose by +.7 and+1.0. Please click on the images to enlarge

Hayle in the afternoon

Just a follow on from yesterday at Walmsley. We had four hours in the morning at Wadebridge a roast dinner at Sladsesbridge and Spoonbills at Hayle in the afternoon. Sorry to rub it in. These following photo's where taken at Hayle Estuary

All spoons and no bills

A fly by sparrowhawk
Showing well, this looks like the Marazion bird, note the probable head injury

Walmsley Nature Reserve

Today Lisa and I had a trip to the Walmsley Nature Reserve at Wadebridge. We were Lucky enough to share the hide with Colin Selway, who is local to Wadebridge, and a highly experienced
birder.

The first two shots are of a Pectoral Sandpiper, a North American vagrant, the shots are distant and classed as record shots. Colin was of the opinion that two where there but I can only claim one sighting. We also had two Knot, a number of snipe and Black Tail Godwit along with one Gadwall and Shoveler duck.

Northern Shoveler

Knot wih Black Tail Godwit

Gadwall

Spoonbill

A quick post of the Spoonbill at Marazion. Photo taken this morning, early around 0745 and the light conditions poor, overcast and drizzle. I pushed the ISO to 1000 and 1250 to acheive 1/50th of a second shutter speed so the images are noisy. Anyway that's the excuses over with. A descent photo can be seen http://ashleyh-photography.blogspot.com/and Bob Sharples http://bobsharplesphotography.blogspot.com/ blog.

.

.

Snow Bunting

What a lovely day today was so what shall I do. Flu jab at 1205 pm so that's the morning out. I check out Terry Georges Web report to see what is close to home and he reports that the Snow Bunting is still at Nanquidno, in the field adjacent to the airport to be precise. So after lunch off I go with all my kit, sore arm and no sign of the flu. I park close to the birds location and decide to leave the camera for a minute and just take the bins to locate the bird .No one around to ask so its up to me (much more satisfying). So, here I am the great white hunter looking for this bird scanning the field with my Zeiss Victory bins. No sign of a Snow Bunting so I drop the bins from my eyes and low and behold the bird is about four feet from me and feeding. Now I had to run back to the car to get the gear, set up and back to the bird. Please click on the images to enlarge.

Ryans Field

As well as photographing the seals we spent an hour at Ryan's field and photographed the hybrid goose and Canada's. Identification of the hybrid is proving difficult, the thinking is a Dark Morph Snow goose and probably an escapee. However to me the beak and legs look like they belong to a Bar Headed goose, anyway it appears that the bird has been around for a long time .

I snapped the Canada as it flew into the estuary, the only enhancement was to alter the light levels and with the selection tool I moderately sharpened its head.

Grey Seal Pups

We went down to Gwithian today to see if the Atlantic Grey seals had pupped. Success! but fewer seals than I had anticipated. Luckily the younger pup of the two I photographed had a feed at the milk bar.


Mother and Baby

This we think is the youngest and we think you can still see part of the umbilical cord

Starvin

Octopus and Lizards

When out and about on Gran Canaria I come across some Canarians foraging for Octopus at low tide, and the Lizard is a common indigenous species the Canarian Lizard.