Nightjars..."you ain't seen me right?" Cornwall July 2024

 Nightjars... What special birds! Masters of camouflage!

For many years I've enjoyed going out to watch & more often hear them in the forests & heathland of mid & north Cornwall.

Until now all of my photographs have been grab shots of them perched at the top of a tree or whizzing past my ear!

 

All that changed this year when I found my first bird at roost on the ground! 

With its eyes closed and just an occasional flicker showing it was still alive I watched it intently thinking 'does he know I'm here' or is he so confident in its ability to stay motionless and its camouflage that it thinks I can't see it.

Or is it genuinely asleep and doesn't know I'm near?

I've now watched a dozen in various places and always given them plenty of space and photographed them with a long 500mm lens, sometimes cropping in strongly on my computer. Often they are surrounded by dead timber and dry grasses so that they blend in perfectly. In fact I will often gaze for many minutes before I notice one lying along a log of the exact same cryptic colouration. 

These birds are not on nests but roosting probably after fledging young, often close to forestry & heath tracks & footpaths. I'm sure they get regularly disturbed by dogs as these areas are popular with dog walkers and I often see dogs rooting through the areas the nightjars inhabit.

I'm confident that I'm not disturbing them as I have found so many in regular areas, often on the same logs or branches.

So here is a selection of recent images....

 

I suspect this is a juvenile

European Bison & European Elk (Moose) in Poland, May 2024.

European Bison at sunrise

Our trip to Poland with friends from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Photographic Group was a great success and I'm pleased with many photos.

I thought I'd share a few at a time as and when I get around to processing the many images.

A 4am.start was essential to find the European Bison or Wisent when it was out of the forest and grazing in the meadows at sunrise. The Bialowieza Forest straddles the Polish border with Belarus and this is where the bison are found. They are the largest animal that ever lived on the European continent but were hunted out by the end of first World War. They were re-introduced to the forest in 1929 and  now number over 1400 individuals.

We were lucky to find 3 bison grazing in the early morning light in a forest meadow near a village and had the opportunity to photograph them with long lenses from a safe distance.

Many thanks to Tomasz Jezierczuk from Wild Poland for his organisation and wildlife skills, much appreciated.

Our time spent in the Biebrza marshes also brought us into contact with another of Europe's large mammals the European Elk or Eurasian Moose, the largest of the deer family and second only in size to the bison.

Called Elk in Europe, it is in fact the same species as the North American Moose which I've had the pleasure of photographing many times in the US.

The wet marshes with Birch and Willow are the ideal elk habitat and we got lucky and watched them on 2 early morning drives out from our hotel.

The first time we saw a bull with small antlers in velvet and the second 2 youngsters, possibly siblings.

All photographs were taken either through the open door or window of the van or from the road with us hiding behind the van. Long lenses were used on both occasions.

Here are a few images....

Hopefully I'll get some more images posted again soon, with lots of birds to come!

 
 

Crossbills in North Cornwall. 2nd October 2019

Male Crossbill

I finally found the Crossbills in the forest at Davidstow this afternoon at the 3rd attempt.

Well worth the wait although having spent all my time gazing at the spruce cones looking for the birds I was shocked to see them behind me in the shade and with not a cone in sight!

Also pleased to see a juvenile with them so they will have bred this year and hopefully locally.

Female Crossbill

Male Crossbill

Female Crossbill

Female Crossbill with a juvenile.

Birds in Hungary Day 6. Ural Owl in the Bukk Hills. 19th May 2018.

Ural Owl

The Ural Owl was one of our target species to photograph whilst up in the Bukk Hills region.

Sadly this was the only usable photo I got and I don't think anyone else got any either.

It's been a bad vole year in the forest glades and the owls haven't bred this year. That makes it very difficult to find the birds as they now wander freely across the region.

Luckily our guides Attila 1 and Attila 2 managed to track one down and our illustrious leader Oliver Smart pointed this bird out to me as it perched amongst the foliage at some distance.

Never going to win any awards but very pleased to add this bird to my non-existant list!

It's still Winter!

Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor

To follow on from yesterdays blog when the signs of spring were showing we went to Dartmoor today where they are still in the depths of Winter.

We hiked up to Wistmans Wood from Two Bridges hoping that the light would lift as forecast but it was heavy cloud all day but with some stunning snow scenery.

Here are a few images and being there today reminded me what a fascinating place it is amongst the stunted oaks of the high moor and how I must make an effort to get back there again in the spring.

A lone oak

 

Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor

Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor