Goonhilly Earth Station

A clear night at last provided an opportunity for myself and Alan James to carry out some startrail photography at Goonhilly. The satellite dish "Arthur" (I think) was our main subject. We waited an hour or so for darkness to set in and then commenced our photography. Due to the dish being floodlit our exposure times were adjusted 200 shots in 7-10 minutes for me to get some star trail effect. After a few attempts the temperature commenced to drop away creating condensation on the camera lenses. We carried on but due to the condensation it became impossible to get as many shots as we wanted. That said, I was rather pleased with what I did get. One still image then two colour/black and white images for the blog:

Visit to Stithians

Well with the weather being a little pants the only option really was the Southern Cut off hide at Stithians. It was a tad wet and a little windy but you tried and make use of the conditions as best you can.  Some of these images were shot at ISO 12,500 so light levels were not fantastic. 

Goldcrest

Goldfinch in the rain

Squabbling at the feeders

Greenfinch

Not sure on the left hand duck?

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Goldfinch

Hayle and Tehidy

An early start calling in at Ryans field in Hayle at first. Spoonbill was visible but from a distance. Unfortunately the spoonbill decided not to stick around and flew over to the far side of Hayle estuary. After a quick chat decided conditions were pretty good for some Kingfisher photography at Tehidy. On arrival at Tehidy one of the Kingfisher feeding pools was covered partially in algae so we thought this may prevent the kingfisher from feeding sadly this was the case. After three hours I had just spun my camera around to pack up when the Kingfisher flew in, I quickly rattled off some shots. But as we thought the algae coverage prevented the bird from feeding. Still happy I got one of my better Kingfisher shots even though is was at the last minute!!!

Distant shot of a Spoonbill

Robin

Wren feeding

Black-headed gull

Grey Wagtail

Moorhen

Kingfisher