Many thanks to Nick Watmough who delivers a first this week- not one but two POTW! Different birds, but the same species, date and photographer.
“After strong winds in the early part of the week a combination of warm sunny weather, a flurry of Snow Buntings and two delightful Desert Wheatears – part of widespread incursion into Western Europe – from Central Asia ensured the Sightings Pages were full of quality images. But before we get into the detail of those two species let us consider what else our photographers were pointing their cameras at this week.
On Tuesday Martin Webb obtained a lovely portrait of the Common Sandpiper that had returned to winter at Helston Boating Lake. The next day there were two excellent, but very different images of ducks – a fine portrait of a male Mandarin at Millbrook from Linda Birtwhistle and a compelling “record shot” of a American Wigeon that Adrian Langdon found at Walmsley. Another American Wigeon, this time a female, was well captured by Rebecca Bowyer on College Reservoir on Sunday.
We also received a series of fine images of commoner species during the second half of the week including a late Northern Wheatear at Godrevy Point from Martin Webb, Jays at Carnkie from Adrian Lea and Kingfishers at Hayle (Darren Rundle) and Carnkie (Adrian Lea)
During the week Snow Buntings were reported from at least 14 sites across the county giving photographers plenty of opportunities to catch up with them. There are two problems photographing “Snobs” who are typically happy and confiding little souls. First being able to get close to the subject can make framing difficult and second correctly exposing a white bird on a sunny day is always a challenge!
Kudos to Caroline Taylor for capturing all four members of the small flock on Rosewell Hill will such beautiful symmetry. I’m afraid we received too many Snow Bunting images this week to acknowledge them all, but I particularly enjoyed the series of portraits provided by Andy Tomkins of some of the East Pentire birds. But my top “Snob” shot was that taken by Deena Sharp who expertly cracked both exposure and framing to produce a very pleasing portrait of this charming species.
Vagrant Desert Wheatears are also often very confiding, and this weekend’s Cornish birds were no exception. The first-year male found by Dan Eva on St Agnes Head on Saturday spent two days ranging widely over the headland but would regularly come within a few metres of its admirers – which allowed Gill Fisher, Adrian Lea and Adil Khan to display their craft. The female found and photographed by David Collins at Kynance Cove on Sunday also appears to have offered exceptional views. For those of you who prefer video both birds were expertly captured on by John Chapple –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_xwdSlXCjY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsUrm_n2Q0w
Which neatly brings me to my pair of photos of the week. Stuart Croft managed to photograph both Desert Wheatears on Sunday. A perfectly exposed and pin sharp image of the St Agnes male flying across a blue Cornish sky is complemented by his understated portrait of the peachy Kynance female perched on a rock against a soft neutral background.
Thank you to everybody who submitted images and my apologies for fewer than usual name checks – it was a busy week. Please keep sending us your photographs which enrich the Sightings Page but in time Palores and Bird in Cornwall.”
Congratulations Stuart, my colleague from the Cirl Bunting days- good to see you’re still out and about in Cornwall. Two superb shots well deserving of Photos of the Week.