Snow Stops Play

Like everywhere Falmouth has received its fair share of snow and as a result there was no way out this morning. However also like the rest of the county there are hundreds of Thrushes flying around, mostly Redwing along with the odd Song Thrush and Feildfare. The Feildfare is now bird 99 on my local list of birds seen in walking distance from my house. Birding in Falmouth can be quite productive at times. This time last year I saw my first and so far only Waxing eating berries when walking back from school. Other birds that I've seen in Falmouth over the years also include Surf Scoter, Laughing Gull, Black Guillemot, Red Kite, Iceland Gull, Black Redstart and Merlin. Today wasn't that good but there was still 10+ med gull on Swanpool and lots of Blackcap in the garden. Feildfare were seen and heard throughout the day and around 50 Redwing feeding next door before being chased off by the local male Sparrowhawk.

Purple Portfolio

I like the colours in the image above and the lighting. All these images were taken in my last photography session of the Christmas holidays on Monday at Penzance. My favourite shots are the portrait (above) and the the first action shot (below).

These are very hit and miss action shots, but the 400d did alright but a nice new 7d would be even better! However its bit out my price range. The 400d's 3fps is just not quick enough for most action shots. When a birds flying it always photographs its wings in the same position or a wing obscuring the rest of the bird, so you really need 6fps+ to capture different posses.

A large selection of portrait shots of purple sandpipers in different lighting and different ranges. These birds winter every year at Jubilee Pool and show very well on the rocks at high tide. At low tide the birds disperse and feed at different beaches around Penzance.

Kingfisher

I was looking through some old files and found this digiscoped image. Despite probable being my favourite bird this is my only picture of a kingfisher that I've taken (and it isn't great), but I hope to improve on this in the next few months. This was taken back in March 2007 at Copperhouse Creek.

Long-tailed Duck

The female Long-tailed Duck was showing well today from the hide at Loe Pool. Despite the constant rain there was still plenty of birds on and around the pool like this Goldeneye, which the Long-tailed duck would feed with. There was also Shoveler, Pochard, Reed Bunting and plenty of fieldfare and Redwing in the hedgerows.

Star Trail Test Shot

Saturday night the weather was perfect for a long exposure of the stars. My camera normally uses shutter speeds between 30 secs and 1/4000 secs, but for this picture I used the bulb function for the first time and exposed it for just over 7 minutes. This blurred the stars as the Earth rotates. Next time I've got to find something more interesting for the foreground rather than houses!

At Last, an Otter!

I've waited along time but at last I've managed to see an Otter! Every time I have gone looking for one I always come close but always stumble across something else. When I went to France a few summers ago, an English holiday maker was fishing at the edge of a small lake and tolled me there was Otter in the reeds about five minutes before I got there (always like it!). However after an hour what I thought at first thought was an otter turned out to be a Coypu. Then the next year I went back and photographed two adults with three cubs! Then back in Cornwall I saw a Mink at Drift Reservoir. I've read in the log book that people have seen Otters here but were they in fact Mink or there Otters there as well? As I found out in Scotland they can happily live along side each other. In Tobermory there is a very tame Otter which can be seen regularly (I didn't see it or any other Otter in Scotland) the closest I came to was again a Mink. But back in Cornwall, there it was an Otter and on the way back from the county boarder, I stopped of at Porth Reservoir to see the Drake Ring-necked Duck. All in all a good days work and well worth the early start and a brilliant way to end 2009!

By the way Happy New Year to every one!

Top image is the Mink at Drift.

Middle image is the Otter in Cornwall (record shot).

Bottom image is the Coypu in France.