Bad start but ok end to the day.

Well thought I get up early as good weather was forecast, carry out a quick visit to the Lizard to look for Choughs and anything else that may be around.  Well i looked out and it was raining, though I would google Lizard to get my directions (certain location) no thats not going to happen phone and internet down!! So went off anyway when rain had stopped visited Lizard and Kyance but no sign of anything significant.  Howling wind though. Off to Marazion and then Drift and back to Maza. Tried the canon 7d video on the Black necked grebe, it works but only in quicktime so need a video converter to edit with windows movie maker and upload to utube. (How thoughful of Canon, NOT) Did mange some pictures today as follows:

Dunnock, in full voice at Marazion

Whooper Swan, yes still at Drift.

Egret fishing at Marazion

Heron also fishing at Marazion, despite the low light at the time I do like this image as the Heron's eye is visible just above the water surface.

Marazion and Drift, No New Faces

Had a short afternoon out.  Quick visit to Marazion but it was rather windswept, spotted one Bittern.  Due to the wind I decided to pay a visit to Drift where the light was ok and sheltered from the wind also, bonus. No new faces but did try the 600mm telephoto minus teleconverter (just prime lens) to see if overall sharpness increased any and I wasn't disappointed see below.

Gulls over the sea at Marazion

Black necked Grebe, shaking himself dry. Some may not like this image because of the head blur but I do, I think the motion adds to the overall image/action

Goosander, this is such a hard bird to photography technically, white body dark, head. Would be easier if the distance wasn't so far off.

Hybrid Goose at Drift.

The Black Necked Grebe taken with the 600mm lens without converter and canon 7D body, this looks good enlarged

St Gothians Geese and Gulls.

An unexpected break in the cloud mean't a quick visit to St Gothian Sands at Godrevy. Many gulls are showingalready in their summer plumage. The peace and quiet on the main pool was shattered every now and then by the rivavlry between the geese producing some explosive action and lots of noise. After some quick pictures at St Gothians I decided to head for Ryan's Field at Hayle, unfortunatly no pictures here as the dark clouds once again caught up with me. But I did observe a lot of Black Headed gulls in summer plumage. Onto the images from 24th Feb 2010:

The explosive action of the Canada's Goose

Lesser Black Backed Gull

Black Headed Gull

Mallard

All rather quiet

I was busy today taking the odd surfing picture down at Porthleven http://www.surfphots.co.uk/Gallery/thumbnails.php?album=63 link for those who are interested.  I still had time to nip down to Marazion afterwards, here it is still very very quiet. Have you seen the car advert where none of the birds fly? Yes that is what Marazion is like at present.  Just one shot today of the Bittern which are becoming increasinly harder to view. Weather this week is forecast, rain and more rain up until Sunday at least so I don't think I shall be adding much stuff for the next few days. However I have a few days off in March so I should be able to expand out of  the locality and get some different species, I hope!

Bittern, becoming increasinly hard to spot at the moment.

Nice barrels for the surfers at Porthleven

Lots of hours and work for zero return

Well for three days now I seem to of been snookered by the weather, poor light and a lack of subjects on show when I have been out. You always need a little luck on your side when trying to capture images of wildlife I guess mine wasn't with me this weekend.  However it is good to see some fine images on the other blogs, J & R Sue, Mike Anders at Stithians etc. So well done to them. Patience is also required so I will be out again soon and with luck get some more quality pictures for the blog. Some images below my best in three days!

Stonechat: about to fly, due to the low light the next shot in the sequence was blurred.

Oyster Catcher bathing

Carrion Crow

Bittern

Cloud Magnet, TLR Velvia and Chichester Peregrines

Bit off an odd title, how ever all will become clear. Everywhere I went and set up yesterday a black cloud would appear with in five minutes, hence the title cloud magnet and no new images in this post.  I did meet up with Janet and David Shaw under the clouds at Marazion putting their recently aquired 7D and 1d MK4 to the test. They run a website http://www.chichesterperegrines.co.uk/ which has some great images of Pergrines at Chichester. There other site http://www.davidshawwildlife.co.uk/ contains some stunning wildlife images. David also informed me on his recent visit to Cornwall that he has gained his first ever pictures of Bittern at Marazion. (Where else?) Earlier that day he also took what he describes as his best ever images of Cornish Chough's and will be posting them on his site on return home. So check out the above sites you will be impressed.

The TLR velvia is a photoshop action which boost the vibrancy of images rather, it does it rather better than the hue/saturation commands in photoshop. In layman's terms it gives your images a vibrancy normally associated with colour slide film. The action can be downloaded here http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/TLRDigitalVelvia.htm and more photoshop actions can be found here http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/photoshop-tools.htm.  All the actions are free but a small donation is welcome. I am thinking about getting the sharpening action, this one you do pay for 50 usd I think, however on initial view it does seem to take sharpening to a level I haven't come accross before!  A couple of pictures the first without the TLR action and second with the velvia TLR, subtle differences.

Normal image

TLR Velvia action applied.

Normal Image

TLR Velvia action applied (this one was also put through Neat Image noiseware reduction)

Trouble at Stithians

I was having a day off the photography today, however the sun showed itself so I set off to Stithians. After five minutes in the main hide it started raining, thirty minutes later and nothing was happening. Off over to the Southern cut off for thirty minutes again zero going on so back to the main hide. After twenty minutes of mind numbing nothing happening  I was about to pack up when a pair of Great Crested Grebes appeared on the far side. Perfectly timed a third one flew in and all hell broke loose, the two adults were split and one of them paired off with the youngster for today anyhow! The geese then joined in with their own boisterous goings on. It was mainly rain on 30 minutes sun out for 5 minutes throughout the afternoon, so I opted to be stuck in the hide.  Just before I left at 5.15pm a Drake Gadwall showed well in front of the hide. Here are the images from today.

Great Crested Grebe

Reed Bunting: from the Southern Cut Off Hide

Great Crested Grebe: the fighting begins.

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe on the charge to do battle

Peace breaks out

Great Crested Grebe

Pochard

Canada Geese: decide to make a racket along with the Great Crested Grebes.

Gadwall Drake

More from Drift and Marazion

With yesterday being a busy day photography wise, here are some more images from the same shoot. Poor weather and catching up on a few things mean I may not get any new material until the weekend. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Black Headed Grebe

Buzzard

Swan

Tufted Duck

Wigeon

Canada Goose

Another visit to Marazion and Drift

Late post today, due to the next door neighbours chimmney catching fire. Saw quite a bit today and even photographed some of it. I did miss the weasels and sparrowhawk though. Some excellent lighting at Drift gave some nice images of tufted duck and black necked grebe. Also seen today, Goosander, Bittern, Buzzard, Magpie, Heron, Swans, Long tailed tits amongst others.  I will post some images tonight and possibly some more later this week or I will stick the remainder in the monthly batch I do for my site.

Long Tailed Tit

Bittern

Tufted Duck (Male)

Tufted Duck (Female)

Black Headed Gull

Whooper Swan

Goosander, just a record shot it was to far away to get any quality pictures.

Cormorant:  Looks superb in the low afternoon sunlight

Black Necked Grebe

Drift and Marazion

Started at Marazion where the sun was out but it was still freezing.  Despite the good light it seemed the majority off wildlife was having a day off.  With little happening at Marazion I set off for Drift (not one of my favourite places) With a forecast of full sun all day I was a bit miffed when the sun disappeared as I got to Drift (bl--y weather forecasts!!!) A quick circuit around the left side produced nothing.  This was followed by a quick sarnie and brew to warm up, then off down the otherside to photograph the geese. After this it was a quick visit to Marazion but bad light and cold forced me to call it a day.  It is forecast cloudy tomorrow so that means the sun should be out!! We shall see.  Onto today pictures.

Little Egret: caught in quality lighting conditions at Marazion.

Song Thrush: enjoying a snail for breakfast

Crow; enjoying a youghurt for breakfast left by some uncaring member of the public.

Gull v Coot: There was no love lost between these two, the gull was really pounding the coot, it only escaped the harrassing gull by racing into a pile of tufted ducks.

Canada Goose

Cormorant