What A Weekend

What a weekend and the highlight was the obvious Red Rumped Swallow at St Gothian NR, although on Sunday late afternoon I helped out with counting in the Hen Harriers returning to their roost with John Swann and Dave Parker,two locally renowned birders and a gold mine of information. I had stunning views of a male Hen Harrier with a total count of four, two males and two females. We also notched up a Short Eared Owl and a Barn Owl, what a weekend!!!

On Sunday morning at Marazion I was rubbing shoulders with some of the birdwatching hierarchy from Truro, Hayle and Lanner so I remained humble, especially in the presence of Roystan Wilkins and Steve Rogers. The Kestrel is what I would call an over the shoulder shot, I was photographing over Bob Sharples shoulder and he was photographing over Steve Rogers shoulder. I have included another shot of the RR Swallow, I was talking to DP whether the Marazion bird was the same bird I saw at St Gothian and DP felt the Marazion bird had more red on its belly and breast than the one I photographed. This may be due to the camera settings. I under exposed the shots by one stop, this prevents bleaching of the white areas and increases the shutter speeds. The negative effect it may have is less saturation of the colours, so I have saturated the breast and belly of the RR Swallow and it has brought out its colouring.