Common Dolphins & birds off the North Cornwall coast. 4th August 2021.

Juvenile Common Dolphin

A mid morning phone call from my good friend Will Delacour resulted in a fantastic afternoon of wildlife watching and photography.

The tides are small at present so we only had a short window in which to get out to sea from Wadebridge and back in again on the same tide.

So we left at 1:30 pm and got back at 5:20 pm and saw masses of good stuff in between!

I've never seen so many Mediterranean Gulls in the estuary before, must have been well into 300+.

The Common dolphins didn't disappoint either with lots of small pods on 6-8 animals either busy feeding or lolling around after feeding.

Also lots of jellyfish around, compass, moon & purple/blues.

We noticed a few gannets circling in the air and immediately saw dolphins feeding below them and by the time we neared the feeding frenzy dozens more gannets arrived & were diving in amongst the gulls and dolphins.An amazing sight with the blue sky full of white gannets and the sea awash with gulls, shags & dolphins!

 

Gannets filled the sky

dolphin amidst the gulls

Diving gannet

Manx Shearwater

Needless to say I took many hundreds of photos so here are a few more dolphin pictures....

2 adults with a calf

2 adults with a calf

Marsh Harrier at Walmsley sanctuary 26th July - 3rd August 2021.

 

I first became aware of this bird on the 26th July when it suddenly appeared perched in the top of a willow tree along the line of old slates that runs across the reserve. 

It is very dark both top and bottom and has a bright orange head around a black facial mask.This is the plumage of a juvenile marsh harrier so I'm now left wondering where it had fledged from. I'm aware there are several pairs on the Somerset Levels but sort of hope its been hatched a bit nearer to home.

Well wherever its come from it has spent at least a week now on the reserve and the Amble marshes wetland area. Not only that it has put on an amazing show for watchers and photographers with numerous forays around the 3 islands in front of the tower hide at Walmsley. At times within touching distance of the shutters.

Needless to say I've taken many photos so I will quit typing and just add a load of images of this stunning bird.

Too close to get him all in the photo!

crashing into the reeds

Red deer and red fox together in harmony? 28th July 2021.

 

A young red deer stag & Red fox

Well it was a most bizarre encounter... a red deer totally out of context as to where I'd normally expect to see it and a "hanger-on" staying close in a possible symbiotic relationship.

To start with I'd never seen a red deer this close to my home and in the Camel estuary catchment area. I have however photographed Roe deer in this very same meadow but I expected that!

Roe deer

I had been birdwatching and as I wandered though the meadows I spotted a deer in the wetlands of a nearby meadow.

I had my Nikon 500mm lens on a Nikon D500 camera so took a few distant shots as an insurance against a "fleeing mammal"! 

I then proceeded to drop any gear I was carrying and start to stalk along the hedge line downwind and in the shadows of a high Cornish hedge.

I took plenty of photos as I moved and then noticed that there was a red fox at the feet of the stag. Pretty good at noticing that but I didn't notice the dead elm tree that had fallen at right angles to my path in the long grass & shadows! 

Oops! Ass over tit I went! ending up sprawled on my face in the wet margins ... fortunately only my pride was really hurt!

Also good fortune favoured me and neither the deer or the fox noticed my tumble.

I got up & shook myself down and carried on stalking them in the shadows.

Eventually I got so close that I could only just get the deer into the frame so I took lots of photos until the deer had a full on view of me and decided he'd seen enough of my athletic physique and masculine visage. That was it, he turned and jogged off through the hedge with a sense of "what the hell was that"!

Here are a few photos of how the sequence panned out until such time as the deer had scarpered and the fox then decided to stalk me and got so close that I could smell the rabbit on his breath!! 😄😄😄