Pendeen And The Gump

A lovely winters day today so I made a concerted effort to get out with the camera. The first stop was Whoon Gumpus, basically the moorland below Chun Castle, the iron age hill fort at North Road near Pendeen. The Gump, as we locals know it is a contiguous moorland bordering the Cornwall Wildlife Trust  Chun Moor's reserve, an area that looks totally suited to Hen Harrier and Short Eared Owls. No luck with them but I caught up with Goldie's, the first this year for me, as I have been a recluse.
 Pendeen was awesome, with hundreds, if not in the thousands of Auks flying through, and close. The sea was not so rough as yesterday but still frightening, the Auks normally fly just above sea level exploiting the up draught from the surface water as  many sea sea birds do, but today they sometimes had to rise forty to fifty feet or more, avoiding the massive waves. At times when the huge waves rolled in and formed a tube, the tube collapsed creating a noise was like a peal of thunder. If anyone gets the urge to photograph the seabirds at Pendeen over the next few days, please take extreme care, and do not be tempted to stand on the outer rocks. I was well back from the sea and photographed the Auks with a 300mm lens.

Golden Plover

Guillemot and Razorbill

Kittiwake

Kittiwake