Cornwall Wild Life Trust Photographic Group Field Trip

I have been slacking lately with my photography, stuck to the armchair and glued to the television and above all, work. However after a field trip with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust camera club I am re-invigorated. First off, we went to Swanpool at Falmouth without much success, then the group split, and a few of us visited Stithians Reservoir. The following images were all captured at Stithians.

Reed Bunting

Dunnock

Water Rail

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Automobilia

We seem to wreak havoc with wildlife on our roads, I came across the Otter when I was on the way to work, and photographed it with my compact camera. The location , on the A30 bypassing Treneere Estate, in Penzance was unusual, and some way from water. European Otters are experiencing a successful recovery after the devastation of the pesticide DDT and over hunting, but rarely seen. I have seen very few Otters in my life time, some say that when they are seen in this way, it may indicate that they are doing well . As for me, I think it is another sad indictment of modernity.
Early morning light made photography difficult.

Black Heads ( Larus ridibundus)

I stole a couple of hours off from work yesterday afternoon, to photograph the reported Whooper Swan at Drift reservoir. No luck with the Whooper so I had to resort to photographing the Black Headed Gulls. A common species in Cornwall and always obliging.

Marathon Sanderling

Since my last Sanderling post, one of the blogs I follow Fair Isle http://fair-isle.blogspot.com/ found a colour ringed Sanderling. Colour ringing interests me so I did a little research on Sanderling and found an interesting statistic.

Sanderling Marathon
A sanderling, with a departure weight of just over 100g, has flown the 6,000km from Norway to Ghana in less than five days. The bird was photographed on 11 August 2009 in chilly, damp South Norway. On 16 August a Ghanaian biologist spotted him under the coconut palms on Esiama beach. The sanderling was recognized by the coloured rings on its legs. Biologists from the University of Groningen and the University of Ghana in Accra gave the birds coloured leg rings to learn more about how they live and their survival chances. You can read more about this story here and about the IWSG Sanderling Project here . This information can be found on this web site http://www.cr-birding.be/.