Yellow Browed Warbler

The first of the Yellow Browed Warblers have started to migrate through with two found in Cot Valley today and one in Kenidjack. Here are a few images of  the individual located at the bottom end of Cot Vally. I captured these around 1730 this afternoon in poor light and foggy weather.

Glossy on a Gloomy Day

On what was a gloomy day with fine rain me an Lisa's very old Uncle went off to Stithians today to hopefully connect with the Glossy Ibis.We had Instant success from the Stuart Hutchens Hide only to be foiled by two dog walkers who flushed the Ibis, my understanding was you should stick to the footpath and not venture onto the reserve. We soon found the Glossy and had better views from the road although the chain link fence impeded photography.  The following images are record shots as the distance in poor weather and poor light was about 150 two 200 metres, we also saw the Pec Sand and an adult Med Gull.

Juvenile Rose Coloured Starling

This Juv Rosy Starling has been in St Just for over a week feeding on a bird table in a private front garden.

Raptors

Whilst out yesterday I photographed one of these Raptors soaring the thermals and looking for prey, some love these highly evolved creatures and others despise them. One of my favourite birds is the Peregrine Falcon, along with the Sparrowhawk with its supreme flying skills. The Peregrine is the fastest flying bird in the world and has been recorded in its stoop (or dive) at over two hundred miles per hour, in fact Frightful a captive bred Peregrine was clocked at 242 miles per hour  http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/birds-animals/birds-of-prey/falcon_peregrine_velocity.html

The reason for this blog is to highlight the plight of our Raptors, we recently have had incidents of intentional poisoning of our birds of prey under the pretence of saving our songbirds.In  Gloucester, Devon and in my home town we have experienced poisonings, birds such as the endangered Goshawks, Sparrowhawks and our Peregrines have suffered by the hands of these ill informed criminals. Deadly poisons have been used lacing dead pigeons with the poisons and leaving them in places, even public places endangering children. The fallacy of blaming our song bird decline on raptors is purely based on hear say and myth .  Check this link for the scientific facts                                                                                                                                                http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/birdsofprey_songbirds_tcm9-188711.pdf                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Convolvulus Hawk Moth

John Swann trapped and photographed this Convolvulus Hawk Moth today, when we wonder at bird migration this moth has made its way up from North Africa, amazing!!!

Nanquidno Valley

What seemed like the hottest day of the year  I went down to Nanquidno valley to try and catch up with the Hawfinch  unfortunately I had only fleeting views in the morning and nothing in the afternoon. John Chapel got me onto three Yellow Wagtails and we had great views of a Whinchat and Pied Flycatcher, also  two Redstarts push through but  were distant.