Spoonbills at Walmsley sanctuary this afternoon 24th Jan 2017.

A couple of Spoonbills in at Walmsley today showing well in the winter sunshine. One is an adult, the other a youngster and as always with these birds along with egrets they always want to chase each other off feeding areas.

Snipe early this morning. 24th Jan 2017.

An early start this morning as Snipe was the target species for my camera today.

As it happened everything was frozen solid as I arrived at my canvas hide in the reeds at 7 am and no self respecting snipe was prepared to venture out on the ice!

Fortunately by about 9:30 things were warming up... except my toes! and a few snipe flew in and luckily one landed really close to my hide... Bingo!

Common Seal on River Camel again today. 22nd Jan 2017

We found the seal hauled out on a mudbank this morning and I've managed to gather some more information on it now.

It has a green tag on its flipper with the number 43 on it and has been released by the CornishSeal Sanctuary after rehab.

Probably released at Gwithian near Hayle.

Not got the dates yet but will post them later.

Common Seal in the River Camel upstream of Wadebridge 21/1/2017

Funny old day !

Went out looking for a reported Waxwing and ended up photographing a Seal in the River Camel just by Egloshayle Church upstream from Wadebridge and probably 6 or 7 miles from the sea.

I'd heard that one had been seen in the river and when I saw it was going upstream at low tide like a torpedo!

It looks like a Common seal but I'm not 100% as it's unusual for us to see this species, it's normally the Grey seal on our coast.

It looked healthy enough but what it's doing up here who knows!

Awaiting confirmation of the species!

Now confirmed as a Common Seal!

Seal survey from St.Agnes to St.Ives 17.1.2017

Bottlenose Dolphin

No great seal photos today although we counted several hundred on the beaches and in the water. 

Bottlenose Dolphins put on a show off Crantock beach on our way West and we picked them up on the way back off Holywell. 

Masses of seabirds out there today with lots of gannets in St.Ives bay and off Godrevy island.

Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose Dolphin

 

 

 

 

 

Grey seals

Razorbills

Gannets

Gannet

Shags

A couple of hours on the Amble marshes this morning. 14th Jan 2017.

Drake and duck Goosanders

I spent some time in the new hide at the Amble marshes this morning with Iain & Dave.

The first time I'd seen Goosanders in our reserves of Walmsley & Middle Amble, 1 male and 2 females.

Also had a distant pic of one of two Snipe that were hiding in the corner of a channel.

A pair of Stonechat were also busy feeding on some of the many gnats and midges in the air despite the freezing temperature today.

Thousands of Golden Plover and Lapwing on and over the marshes this morning.

Snipe

Female Stonechat

Female Stonechat

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Sunset at Pentire Point 3rd Jan 2017

A cracking sunset this evening taken from Pentire Point looking west toward Trevose Head.


A bit draughty though!


Also great light over the Rumps point a few minutes earlier.

Also managed to add a few more species to my #My200BirdYear,

Kestrel,
Redwing,
Shag,
Fulmar,
Barn Owl.

Thats taken me past 50 at 52, not bad for 3 days of not really pushing it too much!
Many common birds still to count, I get Greenfinch in the garden nearly every day but not since I started counting & I've still not spotted a Great Tit yet this year!

#My200BirdYear 2017 Day 2

Black tailed Godwits

I went down to the Amble marshes this afternoon to boost my ongoing count (that's lasted all of 2 days now!).

I did actually see Black tailed Godwit yesterday on the estuary but they were a lot closer today and the sun was shining!

Also got Water Pipit feeding along the edge of a ditch which is another good record.

Water Pipit

To finish off I got a Green Sandpiper in the same ditch!

Green Sandpiper

So the additions for today are:-

Water Pipit,
Blue Tit,
Long tailed Tit,
Chaffinch,
Dunnock,
Green Sandpiper,
Collar Dove,
Shoveler,
Teal,
Rook,
Snipe,
Wren,
Stonechat,
Little Grebe.

That's 14 more making my total 47 and I've still not seen a wagtail!

I have however seen Kingfisher on both days but only counted it once!

#My200BirdYear 2017 Day 1 1st January

I thought I'd give a go to the Bird Watching magazine #My200BirdYear count for the New Year.
I'm notoriuosly bad at keeping records and as I was helping Dave Thomas lead a walk on the Camel trail on New Years Day morning I thought it might be a good idea.

Anyway I started off with 33 species for Day 1 so only another 167 to go!

It was crappy wet weather so my only photo is "one I took earlier" of a peregrine which put on a great show coosing the group of ravens that looked to have been on a sheep carcass in the fields.

I now know the group of ravens to be "an unkindness" of ravens! Thanks Mike Scawin!

So here are my first birds from 1/1/2017, not necessarily in the order spotted!

Starling,
Blackbird,
Magpie,
Carrion Crow,
Jackdaw,
Raven,
Robin,
Greenshank,
Redshank,
Shelduck,
Mallard,
Wigeon,
Oystercatcher,
Blackcap,
House Sparrow,
Cormorant,
Grey Heron,
Little Egret,
Black headed Gull,
Herring gull,
Great Black backed Gull,
Black Tailed Godwit,
Curlew,
Peregrine Falcon,
Buzzard,
Kingfisher,
Goldfinch,
Lapwing,
Turnstone,
Canada Goose,
Dunlin,
Wood Pigeon,
Mute Swan.
33 and counting........