White-tailed Eagle in Cornwall 18th April 2023

 

 

 

Heard that a White-tailed Eagle was back in Cornwall so popped out to take a look this afternoon.

Seems it's been around for a few days and is probably one of the released birds from the Isle of Wight project.

I'll enter the details on the Roy Dennis Foundation website later and they'll advise if it's one of theirs.

 I won't give out the location so please don't ask , if you know then you know!

All taken from about 600 metres away with a Nikon D500, 500mm lens plus a 1.4 converter, hence the poor quality image.....however good to watch it and it became my 150th bird of this year!

Purple Heron at Ruan Lanihorne, Cornwall. 9th April 2023.

 

An early start paid dividends this morning as I caught up with the adult Purple Heron down on the Fal at Ruan Lanihorne.

It was hunting in the reeds on the upstream side of the bridge before eventually flitting across the road out to the open water side.

Always difficult to pick out as it skulked around the marsh and the high hedgerow by the road made it even harder to find a hole to poke the lens through.

Good to see so many friends down there and sad to overlook the Black-winged Stilt that was also there but I'm a bit "stilted out" at present!

A few more pics to follow.....

Black-winged Stilts at Walmsley sanctuary, Wadebridge 8th April 2023.

 

Well who'd have thought we'd have a group of 6 Black-winged Stilts turn up at Walmsley this spring. Having raced off to Bude to see one on Tuesday it was a bit of a shock for 6 of them to turn up at our reserve, Walmsley sanctuary, on the Wednesday.

It's now Saturday and they're still there, feeding well and spreading across the site. Marsh Harrier is annoying them at times but I'm sure they will be used to these birds where they've come from.

A remote possibility they may try to breed but after last summer with 18 Glossy Ibis I've lost that hope factor! 

Here are a few images from the past few days.

 

4 of the 6 birds present

 

 

Adders sunning themselves in a Cornish hedge. 6th April 2023.

 

Spent several hours down in West Cornwall photographing Adders, our only venomous snake in the UK.

It was quite cold in the wind but sunny and they seemed to have tucked themselves into warm patches out of the wind in an overgrown Cornish hedge.

Initially we found about 8 separate sites but on checking closer realised that there were often 2 and sometimes 3 snakes intertwined. So if you look at the photos check how many heads are showing!

Several showed blue eyes which I understand is what happens before they slough their skin as their eyes are normally red. Sexing them was difficult and none showed the true bright grey of males but I think several were males and just ready to slough and show that fresh colour in the next few days.

Such a treat to see these as I've not found many other than under galvanized sheets in the past few years.

Here are a few more pics.....

3 heads in this one!

Black-winged Stilt at Bude. 4th April 2023.

 It's been a long time since I've seen a stilt in Cornwall and this one was well worth the wait.

It was found on the River Neet at the Strand in the lower part of Bude town in North Cornwall.

Almost like it was meant to be because a couple of us were at the funeral of dear Alan May who was the co-founder of the Lostwithiel U3A birdwatching group when I heard that this bird was in the locality. We'd toasted Alan at the wake so thought it rather appropriate to shoot off to Bude and seek out this bird....I'm sure he would have approved!

Having spent several hours in a "shitty" corner of a field for a Little Bunting yesterday this bird was a joy to see as I parked the car beside the river, crossed the road, started taking pictures! That simple & the light was good as well!

Here are a few from this afternoon, especially trying to show off those magnificent long legs it has.