Sparrowhawk misses out

Another cloudy day, but the Sparrowhawk paid a visit and completed four circuits of the marsh. The bird was unsuccessful in it's hunting attempts as snipe etc dodged out the way alerted by screeching Oyster Catchers. Gulls and Heron's also let the hunter know it's presence was not welcome. The Sparrowhawk today was persistent but unrewarded for it's efforts.

A low pass over the waters edge

Rebuke from the Gull

Low hover over reeds

Along the waters edge looking for snipe

Cold Easterlies and Low Cloud continues

Well seem to be spending time awaiting a break in the weather conditions again. Sunday is looking most promising day in the long range forecast so we will see what happens then. Meanwhile despite the weather it does pay sometimes to get out and about, images are to be had; just under more difficult conditions and less opportunities as the wildlife in general is more sensible than me and takes shelter, lol. I still had distant sightings of stoat, bitterns, to far for decent pictures, a gull eating a starfish and on a different note some horse riders enjoying the beach.

Settings Change:  I have changed the settings so only followers of the blog can comment, this saves people having to complete those annoying numbers/word verifications. Comments will still need to be approved though . So if you wish to comment you will have to follow the blog. This si the only way I can think off to avoid all the spam postings. I will monitor the next few posts to see if the new settings are viable.

Ok those settings did not quite work, so now tweaked again thanks to Keith at http://holdingmoments.blogspot.co.uk/ all should be working fine now comment wise. Check out his blog also it is quite good.

Anyhow here are some images from the last couple of days:

Gull with starfish

for some reason the gull had to take the starfish back to the water and thrash it around a bit (possibly it was still alive ? I don't know)

Moorhens engage in a stand off

Riders on Marazion Beach

Mute Swan arriving on the marsh

Distant flight shot of a Bittern

Frustrating day today

A great weather forecast prompted an early start. However the all day sun forecast was replaced by all day cloud, lol. I intended to hopefully get, Bittern, Sparrowhawk, Stoat and Short Eared Owl, but had no luck what so ever today; well it happens like that a lot of the time, lol. Still I did not come home without any images so here is a small selection below:

Blue Sky and a Cormorant

Greylag landing

Mallard

Grey Herons, nest building

Oyster Catchers flying past

Back to normal at Marazion

Well no fires and smokescreens today, lol.  A quick visit as the wind was forecast to pick up by lunchtime. And it did with most birds/wildlife seeking shelter from it.  So a few phots from early on today.

Greylag

Mute Swan in "charge" mode

Gull enjoying the sun

Bittern heading for one of those awkward landings

Grey Heron's, soon they will be jostling for this prime nesting spot

Bittern in the reed bed

Smoked out

FIRE STARTER

Well sun is out blue skies, a little wind. Enter the RSPB workforce who start burning reeds, the slight breeze means the marsh is completely engulfed in smoke and all birds/animals are spooked and disappear. I know they have a job to do but a bit of planning and common sense could be applied to these tasks, causing less disturbance to the marsh inhabitants. Nothing returned for two hours after this so I headed up Men an Tol to look around up there, saw a peregrine and fieldfare but nothing else all to distant to photograph. As the wind picked up I headed back to Marazion which was now returning to normal. Ok rant over, onto some pictures.

Bittern

Hybrid Canada Goose

Grey Heron

Curlew

Rabbit enjoying the sunshine

Last couple of days at Marazion

Still awaiting good weather conditions for some owl photography, so a few images from Marazion.

Little Egret

Sparrowhawk

Swan chase on the marsh

Successful end to the chase!

Hybrid Canada Goose

Marazion and Men an Tol

Well a few hours at Marazion looking for the elusive stoat, which remained elusive.  All things were pretty quiet on the whole with very little in the way of any sort of action until the afternoon! Late afternoon I paid my first visit to Men an Tol, did see a short eared owl, to distant for decent photography, but site has potential and worth another visit or two when weather conditions improve!

Mute Swan

Oyster Catcher, not quite the flight shot I want but close!

Rabbits at play

Greylag back flip, just looked funny!

Greylags bathing

Short Eared Owl

Moorhens fighting

Greylag bathing video

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=370712626370283&set=vb.100002946460594&type=2&theater

Morning sunshine and blue skies

Well a first this year sunshine and blue skies at Marazion, forecast all day but only lasted the morning! Some great light first thing but little activity. Most of the wildlife were absorbing the rays I think. Stoat didn't show again so I am guessing it has either predated a rabbit or has moved on.  As the light was good I used the D800 today, AF seems to work well in good light as the flight shots demonstrate. Some geese around today increasing the volume levels on the marsh, lol.  Here are some of the images from today, all taken in the morning!

Oyster Catcher

Moorhen

Grey Heron

Even the Little Egret came onto the marsh to capture the sun.

Canada geese getting a little boisterous 

Greylag geese

Sparrowhawk on patrol

Gull almost full frame good tracking AF by the D800

All quiet at present

Well last couple of days I have not managed to get any images of the stoat/bitterns and now the weather is turning wet again! Looking forward to Tuesday when a sunny but slightly windy day is forecast. Some pictures tonight and a short video of a grey heron. I shot the video to check out the video system and 2.7x crop factor on the D4 effectively using a 1890mm telephoto lens. Considering the distance to the heron I think it is rather impressive quality. Any how have a look and see what you all think.

Common Buzzard

Sparrowhawk

Oyster Catcher

The Snipe narrowly escapes the Sparrowhawk

Oyster Catcher

Rabbit

Ok the video would not upload to the blog so here is a link from youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO5zeqxcAf4&feature=youtu.be