Back from Wales

Hi everyone,

I got back late last night from Wales, I will upload some of the images and some information on how I got on through the whole trip over the next few days.

Plus I did a load of moving image which I will be combining to create a short video of the trip and what I got up to, in practice for the moving image project in my 2nd year at Falmouth studying Marine & Natural History Photography.

Wales: The final week

I'm having a great time in Wales, now into my final week. Once I'm home I'll not only hopefully have some great photos to show you all but also a video of my trip that I am putting together, but to start off here is an image I took yesterday of a Wood Warbler.

Wood Warbler - Phylloscopus sibilatrix

Wales!!

So yesterday I drove up from Horsham to north Wales to the rspb glaslyn osprey project. There is a small visitors centre set up with telescopes and a live feed of the nest, after a chat with the warden I got to know a bit more about the birds and the area, later in the evening I headed off to the caravan which will be my home for the next two weeks. 

Today I'm in the hide on the protection site, keeping an eye on the birds and making sure they stay in view of the live feed. Although still about 500 feet away from the nest I hope one of the birds will do a fly past so I can get some photos !! 

I will try to keep you all updated although signal isn't great here so I can't upload any photos.

Back in Horsham

Finally back in Horsham, not for long though. Only till Saturday then I'm off to Wales for 2 weeks as a Osprey conservation volunteer  Not long after getting home I was out in the garden and we found the first Stag Beetle of the year, so today I spent some time photographing it. Hopefully over the next few weeks we will be seeing a few more.

Stag Beetle - Lucanidae

Although I would love to be photographing over the next week and all the way through summer I need money and will be spending the next week or so carrying on my search for a summer job.

Parents down

Great couple of days with my parents down before I head down to Horsham on monday, they arrived on Wednesday and we had a lovely meal over at the Rising Sun in St Mawes before they headed to bed, tired from their long trip down here.

On Thursday the photography began, starting at Windmill Farm (owned by Cornwall Wildlife Trust) we saw a number of four spotted chasers all darting around the pond and some other species  but we all seemed most interested when we found a small toad (Bufo bufo) under a piece of fabric.

Common Toad - (Bufo bufo)

After Windmill Farm we headed down to Kynance Cove on the coast where we saw some interesting species of flowers including some early purple orchids (Orchis mascula) which were dotted around but not in the numbers we had seen previously. We also found a Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) flying around down a small stream that follows the main foot path to the beach.


Onwards from a nice meal at the cafe we headed back to the car and to The Lizard Point, where we hoped to see the Choughs (Pyrrhocorax) a pon arriving we had the cave they nested in pointed out to us along with some distressing news that over the previous week a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) and a buzzard (Buteo buteo) had been in and they were worried that they had eaten the chicks although they weren't 100% sure. Never the less we did seem them flying around and just as we headed back to the car they landed on the ground near by us!

Choughs - (Pyrrhocorax)

Having been on a recent trip with David Chapman to Windmill Farm and then to North Predannack Downs Nature Reserve I decided to finish the day there, in the hope of finding some Green Veined Orchids (Anacamptis morio) like I had photographed their on the trip with David, after arriving we headed straight to the spot I had found them on the 30th May but unfortunately they had all died, after a little searching however we did find one and I took Dad through the steps in photographing them using grass to blur the foreground and reflectors to light the subject.

Green Veined Orchids (Anacamptis morio)

The next day I woke up, having previously been using all my own equipment along with a Nikon D7000 and a Nikon 300mm F2.8 that I had booked from the campus photography stores I switched the lens for a Nikon 600mm F4 along with a tripod with a gimbal head to allow me to been the lens steady when photographing. I also booked out a Canon 7D, Canon 10-22mm F3.5-F4.5 and a macro flash kit. Both set ups mainly for tomorrow when I am photographing a filming at the Bioblitz but I took them out anyway just in case.

Our first stop was Kennall Vale as folks hadn't been before, we walked around the main path both me and Dad taking a number of landscapes and close ups to capture the movement of the water under the over handing trees.

Kennal Vale

From here we headed to Tehidy, a bit of a let down as I hadn't been able to visit since February I was expecting more life but compare to before there was little. However the Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) still covered the trees, now joined by Crows (Corvus) and Jackdaws (Corvus monedula).

Rooks - (Corvus frugilegus) 

The main lack of species seen we believe was down to the now abundance of food in the woods meaning the animals down rely on humans so much as a food source and are able to find their own. So we headed back to the cliffs and to Hell Mouth.  Once we arrived we walked to the cliff and along the coastal path back towards Tehidy. On the way we spotted Fulmars (Fulmarus), Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), Shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae) and Razorbills (Alca torda)all on nests. The Herring gulls and some of the Cormorants even had chicks which we were able to photograph looking down from the top.

Herring Gulls Chicks -  (Larus argentatus)

After watched the chicks wobble around their nests awhile before falling back to sleep we went down to Godrevy in search for the Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). Going straight to the cove in which they are found we were hoping to saw 6 all floating in the water, every now and then attempting to go ashore then changing their minds at the last moment. This was a interesting behaviour to watch as before I had only seen them at low tide sun bathing on the beach which was now covered by the tide.

Seal Cove at Godrevy

From Godrevy we headed to St.Ives for a walk around the shops and some Fish & Chips before headed back to base.

Tomorrow I am filming and photographing the BioBlitz, a 24 hour study of every species of wildlife big or small that can be found on Tremough Campus and at Argal Reservoir. I will be mainly focusing on the wildlife but also trying to capture the locals and students getting handing on and getting to know what can be found on their doorstep.

Update

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last month, I have been working on my university work, making sure it was all done ready for the handin. I am now pleased to say I have finished my first year at Falmouth university with a 2:1 on average. Next year I aim to come out with a strong 1st!!

So what have I been up to over the month? Well to start with I was using medium and large format photography to capture interesting landscapes of the natural world around Cornwall, I have attached one of the images below. Taken on a Bronica camera at Hells Mouth, Cornwall.

Over this term I have been on a number of dives with Panasonic GX1 camera in a underwater housing and single strobe. During these dives I have seen a Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) , a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops), Velvet Swimming Crabs (Necora puber), Wrasse (Labridae), Common Starfish (Asterias rubens), Spiny Starfish (Marthasterias glacialis) and lots lots more, our coastline is truly amazing. I have included a couple of my favourite images below for more look at my flickr site, please let me know what you think?

Rock Goby - Gobius paganellus

Velvet Swimming Crab - Necora puber

In-between work I signed up for three trips with a local photographer, David Chapman. In these trips we visited Windmill Farm, Bunny's Hill, Bedruthan Steps and Kynance Cove. During these trip we mainly focused on the few flowers that had emerged even with the late spring we have been having, in the trips to Woodmill Farm we were able to also photograph some damselflies and dragonflies. Some of my best images are below.

Lighthouse near Padstow

Early purple orchid - Orchis mascula

Oxeye Daisy at Kynance Cove - Leucanthemum vulgare

Emerging Damselfly  

Four-spotted Chaser - Libellula quadrimaculata

Water beetle

Green-veined Orchid - Anacamptis morio

Saturday 20th April - Godrevy - Tehidy - Hells Mouth

Great day out photography, starting early and heading over to Godrevy in search for any seals that had come up onto the surfers beach, unfortunately early wasn't early enough as the surfers were already there and the beach and sea was full of them. Which instantly made me want to go in and join!!

As I made my way along the coast at Godrevy I spotted two small birds fly up, on closer inspection I realized they were a pair of Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis), the problem was that their camouflage was so good that the only time I could find them was if they flew up and land quite close, their feather pattern matched the grass perfectly meaning quite often I'd be walking around trying to find them then out of no where one would fly up from right next to me.

Meadow Pipits - Anthus pratensis

After spending some time photographing the Meadow Pipits I made my way further along the coast, spotting some Rock Pipits (Anthus petrosus) and Sand Martins (Riparia riparia) on the way. Before reaching the point facing out to the lighthouse, as I sat down watching the Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) fly past I noticed a Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) pop up down below in the water and then another appeared, just looking straight up at me on top of the cliff.  From there I made my way past the bay, which is full of them and back down back to my car.

Grey Seal - Halichoerus grypus

From Godrevy I headed to Tehidy, having never been there before I didn't know what to expect, the first thing I did notice from the moment I walked out of my car was a set of large nests up in the trees, then as I get closer I started to spot a number of Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) until there must have been on in nearly every tree and on the floor. It was as if I had stepped into an eerie horror film with them all looking down at me.

Rooks - Corvus frugilegus

As I made my way around the first lake from the south car park I moved into a wooded area and up a hill towards the coast, on the way passing through some fields where I spotted a pair of Whearears (Oenanthe)  perched on the some fence posts.

Whearears - Oenanthe

From the fields I walked down to the cliffs and to some amazing views, and to top it off the Wrens (Troglodytidae) were singing on the tops of the gorse. As I made my way along the path to the North Car Park for Tehidy, I noticed a pair of Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) following me along the cliffs, with the sea behind and perched lovely on post, until I come anywhere close and they fly off.

Stonechat - Saxicola rubicola

Making my way back into the country park and back down the hill this time through the woods, I headed over the Oak Woods where I found a pair of Jays collected and eating peanuts that were scattered on the floor.

As I made my way back to the car I saw a fellow photographer and bird watcher (standing out with a huge Canon 600mm Lens) as went over to see if he had seen anything of interest, as we started to talk he suggested I headed over the to  Hells Mouth and gave me directions to it. With information of there being Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) and a chance of a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) I headed off.

On arrival I headed straight to the cliffs and started to spotted a number of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) nesting on the cliff and some Fulmars (Fulmarus) flying around, but no Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) as I made my way along the edge I started to wonder if he meant the fields behind, then suddenly one flies over and dives over the edge of the cliff, I quickly make my way over and look over the edge expecting it to be miles away but there it was just sat there looking back up at me. What a sight, I only mange to capture 2 image before she left as I was stunned for a few seconds from being so close to a wild kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).

Kestrels - Falco tinnunculus