A few images from the last few weeks…

I’ve not been about for a while and this trend may continue for a while yet, but I took a little time out this evening to post something. I am trying to catch up with what everyone has been up to. I’ve missed so much!

A bit of this and that from the last few weeks:-

Swifts nesting in the roof above my bedroom. I have been trying to capture the male coming in to feed the female, who I can only assume is sitting eggs, but he's too quick for me, even though he stuggles to get in. Very difficult to take the shot with the bright sky in the background when all you have is a small face peering at you from the darkness. Any advice would be greatly appreciated to improve on quality!

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A Herring Gull with a problem, at Par... Fishing twine protruding from the head and I suspect that is attached to a hook, which must be lodged in the throat.
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Moorhen at Par (with six chicks altogether).

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I was not supposed to be bird watching today (apart from the garden head count this morning, which I am very pleased to say included Firecrest and Goldcrest, but not at the same time), but as Derek was in the area we ended up going out for what was supposed to be a short session around St Austell Bay! Pentewan, Mevagissey, Porthmellon, Gorran, Porthluney (Caerhays). THANK YOU Derek.

What followed was a day list of 69 species, 3 life ticks for me (Red-Throated Diver, Red-Necked Grebe and Eider) and numerous year ticks; as always a valuable lesson out in the field and a very enjoyable morning! In fact I enjoyed it so much that after I had left Derek and visited my friend Molly I decided to use the last hour or so before the light faded to have a look at Manoa Valley Sewage works, where I spotted the gates to the sewage works had been left open and a couple of South West Water employees were sitting in a van inside the compound. I smiled at Trevor and jumped out of the car. I went in and explained to them why we were there; how the sun is always in a difficult position at that time of day to look into the trees and how nice it would be if we could spend some time inside the sewage works compound (never thought I’d ever find myself saying something like that to anyone!). Anyway, the one chap said to me “you are welcome to come in for a while; we’ll be here for another half an hour, but I doubt you’ll see anything in ere except seagulls love”… to which I replied “where there’s muck, there’s flies and where there’s flies there’s birds”… He smiled, winked at me and said “enjoy!” :-)
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Chiffchaff - Manoa Valley
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Dunnock - Gorran - I got to know the Dunnock better today, thanks to Derek. The female Dunnock is apparently "Polyandrous" - No further comment!
Info. for the Dunnock can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnock
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Female Eider - Porthmellon
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Razorbill - Mevagissey
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This shows how far away it was, but it was so close in the scope - we had a lovely view!

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Herring Gull - Mevagissey
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Robin - Gorran
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Robin singing at sunset in the sewage works - a lovely end to the day!
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