Many thanks again to Adrian Lea for his round-up of the week’s photos.
‘The week began with an exceptionally overcast and wet Monday, with most photographers confined to houses or hides, with Martin Webb managing a Goldfinch from the comfort of his house in Hayle and Kathy White watching the Mallard and her ducklings from the Stuart Hutchings hide at Stithians.
Tuesday brought some brighter weather, with Steve Ford photographing a duo of grebe at Stithians and Martin Webb providing a great photographic record of breeding Shelduck on the Hayle Estuary, while Steve Rogers managed a magnificent Swift flight shot at Drift Reservoir.
Wednesday saw Paul Davies at the Walmsley Sanctuary, where he was clearly having a great time photographing Chiffchaff, Reed Warbler, Black-tailed Godwits and an excellent flight shot of a Marsh Harrier. Martin Webb was enjoying his local patch at Hayle, providing some lovely Little Egret, Shelduck and Oystercatcher images on Wednesday and returning there on Thursday to photograph a Whimbrel. The late submission Swift and House Martin photo taken by Anthony Mills at Drift Reservoir was also another excellent flight shot.
Friday was indeed the calm before the storm and I particularly liked the Meadow Pipit photographed at Mullion by Jonathan Warner, the Reed Warbler submitted by Gavin Williams and the Skylarks at Bassett Cove by Regina Griffiths.
Saturday was a washout, high winds and heavy rain resulted in the cancellation of the last day of the Royal Cornwall Show – well done to Steve Ashby and Jasmina Goodair for braving the elements to remove the Cornwall Birds stand, although Martin Webb returned to Hayle as the sun emerged in the afternoon and was able to provide some lovely Black-tailed Godwit and Shelduck images. Sunday afternoon witnessed the fledging of the last of 6 Barn Swallows at Gulval, beautifully captured in the photograph by J Hawkey and K Dalziel, what a great image of a Cornish summer.
My favourite photographs this week are all flights shots – the Swift and House Martin at Drift Reservoir by Anthony Mills, the Swift at Drift by Steve Rogers and the male Marsh Harrier at Walmsley Sanctuary by Paul Davies. I acknowledge the technical challenge in taking each of these images but I particularly liked the Marsh Harrier and I’ve therefore selected this as my choice this week.
Many thanks once again to everyone who has taken the time to submit sighting reports, photographs and videos to our sightings team, it really is greatly appreciated by so many people’
Nice to see a House Martin included in Adrians selection – please remember our House Martin survey and log any nest sites on our website https://surveys.cbwps.org.uk/house-martin/
Congratulations Paul on another excellent picture.
