Black-tailed Godwit at St Clement

Another side shot of a first year Black-tailed Godwit.  I quite like this one with the water drip on the bill as well as the drip shown in the reflection.  This individual seems to be spending some time near the Tresemple Pool area and be very confiding on a rising tide. 

Spotted Crake at Marazion Marsh

One of the two Spotted Crakes seen at Marazion Marsh yesterday morning.  This one has to be one of the most obliging Spotted Crakes I've seen for a while.  It ventured out in the open just ten yards from us! 

Passage migrant waders through Cornwall in the last couple weeks

Below is a selection of waders taken recently, all in the Truro, Hayle, Lizard and Marazion areas.

Dunlin at Marazion Beach

Lesser Yellowlegs at Croft Pascoe pool

Little Stint at Carnsew Pool

Little Stint at Marazion Beach

Little Stint at Marazion Beach

Pectoral Sandpiper at Marazion Marsh

Juv Ringed Plover at Hayle Estuary

Sanderling at Marazion

Black-tailed Godwit at St Clement, Truro

First year Pectoral Sandpiper at Marazion Marsh

Pectoral Sandpiper has been fairly poorly represented in Cornwall this Autumn (so far). The one that has been present for over a week has been decidedly shy.  Only yesterday did I get anything like a decent view.  The species is not normally shy but this bird has been quite nervy and retiring, frequently adopting alert postures.

Curlew Sandpiper image from the past

With all the new software available these days, it paid to take all my old images in RAW format.  I was trawling through some files and came across this one.  I gave it some minor treatment in Capture NX2's latest update and this was the result!

Recent Dunlin images with Nikon D4s

Below are some juv Dunlin images taken in the last couple weeks at Carnsew Pool and Tresemple Pool.  They are taken with the Nikon D4s and 500mm F4, coupled up to the new 1.4x mk3 teleconverter.  The D4s is the most advanced camera Nikon have made to date.  I'm well used to using Nikon kit but this camera is a like an untamed stallion.  I'm taking a while to master it.  In particular the exposure is incredibly sensitive to perfect.  The 11 shot per second burst is nice though, as is the new spot focus system.

The spot focus on the eye is uber-accurate.

A flock of Dunlin at last light with nice reflections.  The spot focus locked on and didn't let go.

Black-tailed Godwit at St Clement, Truro

This single juv Black-tailed Godwit was showing well at St Clement yesterday evening.  The sun was quite low so gave a nice warm glow to the bird.  In addition, I saw 141 Redshank, 11 Greenshank and about twenty Dunlin, all roosting at the back of Tresemple Pool.

Peregrine code HV

I photographed this first year Peregrine over Lelant last week.  On closer inspection it has a yellow ring with the code HV.

Little Stint and Dunlin at Hayle

I went to Hayle Estuary on Sunday to check out some waders.  There were very few to look at though among the dozen or so Dunlins was a juv Little Stint.

Lesser Yellowlegs at Croft Pascoe, Lizard

The pond at Croft Pascoe is looking particularly attractive at the moment with low water levels exposing a decent amount of mud and shallow water.  Additionally, a new scrape has been created which clearly has an attraction to waders.  A Wood Sandpiper plus a few Common Snipe were also present.  I photographed the Lesser Yellowlegs from the road as it fed fairly close.  This is the first reported vagrant from the States for the season and I'm assuming Croft Pascoe will attract a few more soon.

Taken with Nikon D4s and 500mm F4.

Unprecedented numbers of terns at Hayle Estuary

Yesterday at Hayle there were in excess of 2000 terns, the majority being Common Tern.  We also saw 16 Black Tern, 3 Roseate Tern, a few Arctics and Sandwich plus a handful of Little Tern.  These numbers are unprecedented.  In 40 years of birding in Cornwall, I have never seen such numbers.  To see all six British terns in one evening is also an event.  The weather played a part but also St Ives Bay is good for sand eel at the moment so I'm guessing that the feeding environment is good.

Below are some of the images I took last night:

Silver-washed Fritillary at Breney Reserve

Last Sunday I found two Silver-washed Fritillary's at Breney Reserve near Helman Tor.  They were both in mint fresh condition.  I have never seen them here before.