Fulmars, Skylarks & Stonechats

Fulmars

This pair of Fulmars have taken over what looks like a ravens nest on the North Cornish cliffs.

Possibly the raven had built on a traditional Fulmar site and was subsequently ousted. Still from the photographic side of things it was very close and in decent light!

I've also included a few more images from today's trip to the cliffs.

Fulmar

 

 

 

Skylark

Skylark

 

Male Stonechat

Early birds at Godrevy

Cornish Chough

We had an early start to photograph birds and landscapes at Godrevy near Hayle this morning.

After watching the sunrise and illuminating the lighthouse we spotted a lone chough feeding on the clifftop. I note also that it hasn't been ringed.

I was delighted to get some shots of this the emblem of Cornwall!

Cornish Chough

Cornish Chough

Next came a couple of kestrels that were feeding on worms on the soft clifftop, they were most accommodating and allowed quite close shooting.

Male Kestrel

Kestrel

Kestrel

Kestrel

Kestrel

 Finally after some poor shots of ravens I got a nice few of a skylark feeding on the vegetation inland from the cliff edge.

Skylark

Godrevy lighthouse at dawn.

Birds on the Cornish cliffs

I spent the morning on the cliffs near Padstow today and it was glorious.

It's only 15 minutes from home but I know I don't go there often enough.

The flowers were great and the birds all looked fantastic in their best breeding plumages.

The skylark was feeding on the ground near the coast path and was unbothered by my attention whilst the meadow pipit was nesting in the bottom of a gorse bush and was a little more wary.

The stonechat was flipping around all over the place with it's mate in tow and was likely to have been nesting somewhere in the vicinity.

The guillemots were sharing a ledge with 6 razorbills and I did count 35 guillies but there were several more under the cliff area I was stood on but an accurate count can only be done by boat.

A peregrine was in distant attendance and a female kestrel was hunting from a fence post and allowed me to get quite close.

Skylark

Meadow Pipit

Female Stonechat

Guillemots

Guillemots

Peregrine Falcon

Female Kestrel