Another drizzly and misty day but mercifully quite warm with light winds. However a delightful interlude was on hand at David and Sarah Chapman's smallholding near Hayle where David had laid on a visit from a couple of falconers with an immature female Goshawk.
With great kindness and skill the falconer, Wayne, flew his bird so that we could all get the pictures we wanted of this magnificent bird.
 

Many thanks to David and Sarah for the photographic opportunity and for the lunch she laid on, and also to Wayne and Doreen for bringing their bird to show us.

The light was so poor that all the images were taken at ISO 2000, f5 and shutter speeds between 1/200s and 1/640s

A dull, dull day, so in two minds whether or not  to carry the camera around. Pleased I did though as there was a Great Northern Diver in Par Harbour. The little Gull was still on Par Beach Pool but I think I have enough pictures of that. Maybe if the sun ever comes out I will have another go at that one.
Finally a cold dusk at Tregonetha produced absolutely nothing.

Christmas Eve and a fine sunny morning (with a few showers) Against the low sun this Grey Heron struck a dramatic pose on Par Beach.

Around at Spit Beach by the rock pile near the harbour wall there were three and possibly 4 female Black Redstarts.

Summer must be on its way. The days are getting longer, the Black-headed gulls are coming into colour and the sun was out for five minutes today at Par Beach Pool!
Shown below are a well coloured Black-headed gull and the long staying Little Gull. Ideal subjects to try out a new 500mm lens on.

More shots of a Kestrel I am afraid, they seem to be everywhere at the moment. This one was at Marazion where I was trying out a  500mm f4.5 Sigma lens. The second shot shows it with an unidentified small, brown and furry mammal it caught in the short grass not so far away from where I was standing. The flypast with prey was at about 50m.

After the very low water levels in Par Beach Pool during the summer the level is now so high that even the causeway is under water. No sign of the reported Bittern but this Black-tailed Godwit suddenly appeared and started feeding along the near edge. It was quite approachable which gave me a chance to get this picture