Treecreeper

Re-visited the nesting Treecreepers and took a few shots from a distance with the 500mm lens. Such a small and fast bird it was hard to pick them up as they came up the tree trunk.

The wet weather seems to have slowed down their progress although there were enough midges circling around me to leave me covered in red blotches later in the day!

For the officianos this was taken using manual exposure, taking the reading from the background and dropping it a stop then using fill flash off camera with a long extension lead stretched to a nearby branch. 1/80th sec @ f5.6. ISO 200.

Treecreeper

Spotted Redshank

A couple of distant shots of a summer plumage Spotted Redshank that has been on the River Camel here for a while.

It has given me the run-around a bit as when it's in close association with other redshanks they are very skittish and it takes flight as well.

These were taken with a 500mm with a 1.4 x converter in poor light but hopefully I may get another try at it before it continues north.

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Grey seals

A few images taken on Monday of grey seals on the beach above Godrevy on the north Cornwall coast near Hayle.

2 seals were playing in the surf in what looked like a courtship display but not being sure of their sexes I wouldn't like to confirm that's what it was!

Also included are some shots of some of the 65 we counted on the beach.

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Cormorants & Shags

I had a day out at Hell's Mouth and Godrevy today and with the help of Bob Sharples managed to spend some time at the cormorant colony and then on to Godrevy.

The seals were good there so I'll include them in my next blog.

Cormorants

Cormorants

Possibly P.c.sinensis or just an old P.c.Cormorant

Possibly P.c.sinensis or just an old P.c.Cormorant

Cormorants

Nesting Shag

Goldfinch

I've have between 8 and 20 goldfinches visiting the feeders in my garden every day.

So many that they're going through sunflower hearts so fast that they need topping up twice a day.

They only use the niger seeds when the sunflower hearts are empty and really turn their noses up at black sunflower seeds where they've got to do some work in cracking the shells!.

There are about 10 greenfinches and up to 4 siskins visting daily.

Here are a couple of shots I took of a goldfinch amidst a sprig of blackthorn which I fixed to the feeder.

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Songbirds

A walk with the dogs this morning showed me that many songbirds were pairing up and singing in the hedgerows, but as usual I didn't have my camera gear.

So a quick dash back to the house and I was able to grab a few shots of my main target species Yellowhammer, with a few shots of a pair of Linnets and a Wren.

Male Yellowhammer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male Linnet

Female Linnet

Wren

Coots

Coots love to scrap with each other and they regularly have territory disputes with the neighbours and then after a good "rough & tumble" both paddle off across the water as the best of friends!

Notice any similarities to the human world?

Coots

Coots

Coots

Robin

Sometimes the simple, uncomplicated images work best and these few shots of a singing robin fall into that mould.

I was just packing up my gear after photographing the Treecreepers nest building when this little guy started singing it's heart out just above the car.

Shots were taken with the lens resting on the car roof!

Singing Robin

Robin

Singing Robin