Barn Owls hunting over the marshes. November 2021.

 I've been really fortunate to have been able to photograph some amazing Barn Owls in the past few days.

There have been up to 3 individuals hunting over the marshes during the late afternoons & early evenings.

The only thing that has limited my photography has been the low light levels.

There's been 2 males, one of which is ringed, and a female. At times there have been 2 birds competing for the same voles but mostly they seem to get on well together when quartering the same meadow. Maybe they're a family group or siblings, although we ringed all the young birds for the past 3 years in this locale so possibly they're 2 adults and a juvenile.

Anyhow I've had some incredible experiences with these birds , one of which circled me very closely and then hovered over my head at about 6 feet away. It then continued hunting so I reckon I may have been accepted as "part of the environmental furniture"!

Here are a few images not in any special order.

Autumn foray to Luxulyan valley, Cornwall. 1st Nov 2021.

 

 

 The Wadebridge & District Camera Club held their autumn foray today at Luxulyan valley .

The weather was mixed with heavy showers making the ground very wet, muddy & slippery. That said, the light was great for the type of photography we were doing, fungi, fast flowing streams and woodland landscapes.

Here are a few of my efforts......

Photographing the Red Deer rut on Exmoor. 14th October 2021.

 

I was aware that a group of friends were heading to Exmoor in the hope of photographing red deer, they'd pre-booked with a local guide and had travelled up the day before.

I had a call that afternoon to say someone had dropped out & did I fancy a run up to the moors.

Thought about it for a while, sussed out the distances involved & the fact I needed to be at the meeting place by 7:15 am.  Finally decided it was do-able if I left home at 4:15 am.... an unearthly hour!

Well it was a foggy morning, especially going across Bodmin moor on the A30 but with very little traffic around at that time of the morning I was on the M5 in no time. I eventually arrived 3/4 an hour early at 6:30 to be greeted by much more thick fog.

It was good to meet up with Andy, Jasmina, Lynda & Lisa and to be introduced to our guide for the morning Andrew Turner of Red Stag Safari.

We drove out to the moors in his Land Rover Discovery to be greeted by an amazing view of....nothing"!

Lynda, Jasmina & Andy

After pacing up and down for half an hour it was decided to venture a little farther in the hope the fog may lift as we kept raising our hopes each time a bright spot appeared through the fog.

Sure enough a mile or so farther on and we just popped out of the fog into the sunshine.... spirits were lifted all around!

So that was the weather sorted, all we needed to do was spot some deer!

It didn't take long as we could hear a couple of stags "belving"across the moor and our guide was on to them very quickly.

We could see a stag and a handful of hinds out in the long moor grass & bracken. Downside was that they could see us. However we were patient and took a few long distance photos just to "set the scene".

As the morning warmed up and the sun played across the moor the stag decided to go and sit down with his harem of hinds in close proximity. This was the moment for us to slowly and quietly move into position, keeping downwind and a low profile we tripped and stumbled our way across the moorland tussocks trying hard not to yelp as we crashed to the wet ground.

Eventually it was decided we'd stop and wait to see if the stag would stand up as he has to check out his females regularly to see if they are ready for mating.

All we could see was the top of his antlers but we were aware that there would be several hinds dotted around and one of them would possibly give the game away that we were there.

Just the antlers poking out of the vegetation

As predicted one of the hinds suddenly became alert to our presence and started looking around toward the still seated stag.

A hind on the alert

It took quite a while for the stag to get motivated enough to get up and look around so we had plenty of time for photos. We were still at a respectable distance and stayed close together so as not to make the deer feel hemmed in.

Finally the stag decides to take a look around

When the stag decides to get to his feet it's almost like he can't really believe that he's been stalked into big lens territory. He looked around, toward us, right, then left and each time displaying that wonderful profile that wildlife photographers crave.

What an animal, the largest British land mammal in all its glory.

We have plenty of time as, despite being a very"wild" animal he will still follow his hinds to make sure he doesn't miss out on mating with them or worse to ensure another stag doesn't woo them away.

Soon he turns and trots off with his group of females, not a mad rush but enough to say "I'm wild and your not what I expect to find emerging from the bracken"!

We were all shell shocked by the experience, I for one never expected to get this quality of photographs and I know all of our group were thrilled with the experience. Judging by many of the images I've seen from the others it seems we all got some stunning photographs.

After we'd trudged back to the vehicle weighed down with cameras, super-telephoto lenses & tripods it was almost boring to lean over the hedge and get some shots of another distant stag and a group of mixed prickets and hinds,,,,but it had to be done!

What a morning!

I ventured back into the moor after a bite of lunch & saw a few more groups of deer but they'd all "gone lie" and I couldn't imagine I could better my earlier success so I turned tail and headed home.

Job done!

Thanks for the invite, albeit a wee bit late and to Lisa for organising the event. 

It was an experience I'll cherish.

Mediterranean Gulls in the Camel estuary in Summer/Autumn 2021

Med gulls & Black headed gulls line up on the oyster floats. August 28th

 

August 28th

July 20th

There was a recent count of over 300 Mediterranean gulls on the town bar off of Padstow harbour.

So it was inevitable that there would be a few birds with "readable" colour rings on their legs.

For a few years I've used my kayak to drift amongst the oyster floats that are anchored off Porthilly point next to Rock on the opposite side of the estuary from Padstow. These floats are well used by seabirds at all states of the tide and if a bit of care is taken they will stay to be photographed and the ring numbers recorded. Although for me getting a good quality photo of any bird outweighs my "recording instincts"!

On the 20th July it was mostly Med gulls with a few Black headed's on the floats along with maybe a dozen Sandwich Terns. By the end of August it's more Black headed & less Med Guls with about 20 Sandwich Terns, although I did watch the terns farther upstream toward Wadebridge feeding at high water.

Thanks to Mark Grantham chair of Cornwall Birds I've been very impressed with the response to the colour ringed birds I've passed to him. 

Thanks to the "RINGING/COLOUR RINGING PROGRAMME OF MEDITERRANEAN GULLS
Larus melanocephalus IN FRANCE" team & the METAL RINGING/COLOUR RINGING PROGRAMME OF MEDITERRANEAN GULLS Larus melanocephalus IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS" 

I've learnt a lot about the wanderings of these gulls.

Both teams answered our emails overnight and have updated their sighting record to include my reports. Very impressed with their respective responses!

So here are a few pics of ringed birds along with a precis of their movements without any "people" info.

3YYP coloured ringed Med Gull.

The above Med gull ringed with colour ring 3YYP was ringed as a >3rd Cal year bird on 13/05/2017 at Antwerpen, Flanders, BELGIUM.

It was then spotted in the Camel estuary from 26th July 2017 until 8th Nov 2017 when it was then spotted on 09/01/2018 at Ria A Coruña, Santa Cruz de Oleiros, Lians; Oleiros; A Coruña; Galicia; SPAIN.

On 24/03/2018 it was at gravières des Bretonnières; Montreuil-sur-Loir; Maine-et-Loire; Pays de la Loire; France.

On 13/07/2018 it was back on the Camel estuary; Padstow; Cornwall; England; where it stayed until the 1st Dec 2018.

On 30/12/2018 it was at Vila Nova de Milfontes; Odemira; Beja; Portugal.

On 12th Feb 2019 it was back in Ria A Coruña in Spain.

On 16/04/2019 it was back in Belgium at Antwerpen; Flanders; BELGIUM.

On 14/06/2019 at Zwin; Knokke-Heist; West-Vlaanderen; Flanders; BELGIUM.

Then on 22/07/2019 back at the Camel estuary; Padstow; Cornwall; England;

It then stayed there until 6th October 2019.

It then moved but stayed in Cornwall and was seen on 18/11/2019 at Portscatho; Gerrans; Cornwall; England;

By 09/03/2020 it was back to where it was initially ringed in Antwerpen; Flanders; BELGIUM.

By 24/07/2020 it was back in the Camel estuary; Padstow; Cornwall; England;

It stayed on the Camel until 18th Nov 2020.

On 15/03/2021 it was back to Antwerpen; Flanders; BELGIUM where it was recorded until 19th April 2021.

On 19/07/2021 it was back in the UK at Lodmoor RSPB; Weymouth; Dorset; England;

Finally up to date I photographed it back on the Camel estuary on 21/07/2021 Padstow; Cornwall; England;

So after all of that we know a lot about this bird that has returned to the Camel for 4 consecutive years since it was ringed.

I have the history of several others but it is a laborious job extracting the information from the pdf's so take it from me there is a lot of movement of these birds between the UK & Europe & I don't expect Brexit to change that!

34LR coloured ringed Med Gull.

 

34LR was ringed as a >3rd Calendar year bird on 12/05/2021 Zwarts eiland, Ventjagersplaten (Haringvliet), Den Bommel, The Netherlands.

 

3462 colour ringed Med Gull.

 

3462 Med Gull was ringed as a pullus or nestling on 18/06/2020 again at Antwerpen; Flanders; BELGIUM.

It was recorded on the Camel on 21st Aug 2020 until 21st Oct 2020 then again on 10th July 2021 and when I photographed it on 20th July 2021.

Yellow ring Med Gull AZEN ringed in Leipzig Germany.

Here is the information I've received about this bird.......

Current colour ring yellow AZEN

Species Mediterranean gull (Larus melanocephalus)

Central Hiddensee

Ringing date 11.06.2019

Ringing place Rehbach Gravel Pit, Leipzig, Sachsen

Ringer Team Leipzig

Age at ringing 1 Pullus: nestling or chick, unable to fly.

Date Place Country Latitude / Longitude Km Days Type Finder Remarks

01.07.2019 Rehbach Gravel Pit, Leipzig, Sachsen Germany

02.07.2019 Rehbach Gravel Pit, Leipzig, Sachsen Germany

08.07.2019 Rehbach Gravel Pit, Leipzig, Sachsen Germany

02.08.2019 Camel Estuary, Cornwall

08.08.2019 Camel Estuary, Cornwall

15.09.2019 Camel Estuary, Cornwall 

28.08.2021 Photographed  by myself on the Camel estuary Cornwall.

 

On the 25th & 26th September I was lucky to be included in a meeting with Renaud Flamant from Belgium who was visiting the Cornwall for the weekend and hoping to "read" some Med gull rings.

Renaud is the co-ordinator for most of the Med gull ringing projects in Western Europe.

Along with Derek Julian we visited a few sites on the Camel estuary & on the Sunday Renaud visited the Lizard & Hayle estuary with Mark Grantham & Simon Taylor. 

I learned a lot in a short time spending a few hours sat on the edge of the estuary watching, recording and listening to and about, Med gulls.

We spotted several colour ringed gulls and I will post some details of them when they've been processed.

What I did learn was about their "two step" migration pattern where they fly west from their breeding grounds in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary etc. and turn up on our estuary (and of course many others). After spending several months here they then fly south to Spain or Portugal to see out the winter before heading north again to breed in the spring.

Renaud & myself

Derek, myself & Renaud.

 

Gulls roosting on the oyster floats at Porthilly point.