Goosander

I caught up with the Goosander's  on Hayle estuary, these are all females.

Isabelline Turk

I managed to get to Pendeen today, to photograph the Turkestan/ / Brown/Redback Shrike. Or a variant of the above. This Juvenile bird is causing some confusion in the birding world as to what species of Shrike it actually is, although Paul St Pierre, RSPB guru, seems to think that the conclusion is Turkestan.
All I can say, "it  is no good asking me".

 Here is a shot of the wings as they apparently are a good indicator of what species of Shrike this bird is.

Three From Ryan's Field

Ruckin Feasters

I don't do much sport photography, but this weekend is St Just feast, the time of year when St just celebrates the church.
An ancient celebration which is held in November every year to celebrate the dedication of the parish church. The feast itself is a two-day event with a church service and civic procession being held on the Sunday of the feast and a larger scale popular celebration being held on the Monday (which includes a meeting of the local hunt). A description of St Just feast, from 1882, follows:

"Rich and poor still at this season keep open house, and all the young people from St. Just who are in service for many miles around, if they can possibly be spared, go home on the Saturday and stay until the Tuesday morning. A small fair is held in the streets on Monday evening, when the young men are expected to treat their sweethearts liberally, and a great deal of "foolish money" that can be ill afforded is often spent"

 Sports now play a great part in the celebrations along with plenty of pints of beer.

Yellow Billed Cuckoo

I made a concerted to go to Porthgwarra this afternoon to see the Yellow Billed Cuckoo, I have missed a few rarities this Autumn migration but could not resist this species as it is a lifer for me. It should be in South America, unfortunately for this poor bird it was in all probability blown off course by hurricane Gonzales, my Photography is below average butI only took a 70 to 200 zoom len's with a two times converter and no Tri-pod. The most important thing for me was to see the bird.

Seals and Kestrel

A short trip to Gwithian, mainly to see if there were any seal pups. No luck, but I managed to grab a few shots of the adults. The North cliffs at Gwithian are a great place to see Seals but the photography is difficult as you photograph from the cliff tops.

Gannet

Another Pendeen session, with the hope of a passage of some of the rarer sea birds. Once again, no luck with the passage migrants such as Arctic, Pom or Long-tailed Skuas, so my attention once again turned to the Gannet.

Hawk Moth, Pec Sand and Emperor

A couple of shots from today, the first two and last is a shot of an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar found on my Fuschias, the second, a mediocre shot of an Migrant Hawker Dragonfly and the third another below average shot of the Pectoral Sandpiper currently at Marazion.

1.4 Times At Drift and Botallack

I recently purchased the latest 1.4 x converter from Nikon, so I took it  to Drift and Botallack to give it a field test.

 Caught napping by this Common Sandpiper

 Above, a flock of 14 Chough at Botallack

A Few Shots From This Year