Our first frog spawn of 2016 in the garden pond.

25th January and our first frog spawn in the garden pond this morning.

I've been expecting it any day as it's been "Croak City" out there for the past few evenings.

Not convinced that you can read anything into weather conditions and temperatures making much difference as previous years have been similar and yet it's been incredibly mild this winter.

Here are the past few years dates for first spawning:-

2015....29th Jan.
2014....4th Feb.
2013....27th Jan.
2012....14th Jan.

Green-winged Teal at Walmsley 8th Jan 2016

There has been a drake Green winged Teal at Walmsley bird sanctuary here in North Cornwall for several weeks.

With the lengthening days it has been easier to spot as it is displaying along with all the other Eurasian Teal.

The Green-winged is the North American nominate race Anas carolinensis and it's main ID difference is the white breast stripe and the lack of white stripe along the scapulars.

These are distant shots and more for birders than photographers!

Barn Owl at dusk 7th January 2016.

Having watched this barn owl at the weekend I knew when it was likely to leave its nest box at this time of year in order to go hunting.

So it was a simple matter of setting up the camera and waiting...... well not exactly but he did appear after a while and even better than the last time I watched, he jumped down from the nestbox onto a bough and preened for a few minutes allowing me some time for a few images. It was almost 5 pm and the light was very low but it's always a treat to watch one of our most enigmatic birds this close.

I'm not sure if it has a bad left eye or if it had just woken up!

Great Northern Divers in Newlyn harbour 5th Jan 2016.

There were at least 4 Great Northern Divers in Newlyn harbour on the high tide this afternoon.

These are known as the Common Loon to my friends in North America.... I think the Great Northern sounds much more befitting of a regal bird!

Great to get some photos as they dived amongst the multi coloured reflections from the Cornish fishing fleet.

Otter at Walmsley bird sanctuary.

An early morning start today to try to see all the waders and wildfowl in the reserve at roost.

Masses of birds including a lone barn owl perched up in the far meadow.

Highlight however proved to be mammalian in the shape of this otter which entertained for about 10 minutes in front of the tower hide.

Unfortunately the sun hadn't yet crested the brow and I was forced to use a very high ISO which produced a fair bit of noise/grain in the images.

Still it's always a joy to see otters at any time!

Cormorant at Tehidy Country Park.

A few images of a very amenable young cormorant that I've had the pleasure to watch and photograph over the past two days at Tehidy Country Park near Camborne.

Golitha Falls on the River Fowey.

Spent yesterday at the splendid Golitha Falls and The Cheesewring with friends from the Wadebridge & District Camera Club.


Just the perfect time at the falls as the beech leaves were in their best colours and just enough water to make great patterns as it swirled amongst fallen leaves.


I'll follow up with the Cheesewring pics in a couple of days.

Here are a few more from Golitha.....