What a Glorious Day… admittedly a little bit of wind chop as the tide flooded up the river but a quick manouver by Leanne into the back and we were soon flying our way up towards Frenchmans Creek…
We’d got out into Helford creek basically as soon  as water started to show, after a brief wait for water to reach us which gave Leanne time to make us a sandwich for lunch and me time to stalk a black headed gull who was sifting the mud with the in coming tide..

Sifting the mud for food as the tide comes into Helford Creek

After a nice sandwich and cuppa, the water finally reached us with enough depth to float the boat so we pushed her into the water and slowly eased our way past the weed and out into the river…

We were still on the first pushes of the incoming tide as we turned into Frenchman’s Creek, the good thing about that is there weren’t many out in the creeks yet so there may be more chance of seeing the, Fast  disappearing from Cornwall, Kingfisher. In fact there was just a young couple of a twin Kayak own the Creek as we approached slowly.

Enjoying the afternoon sun in Frenchman's creek

We spent around 1/2hr in the creek but saw very little, I’m hoping at least one pair of Kingfishers did survive the cold winter snaps and predators (Having seen at least 3 stoats searching the river back last time we were here) that they may have a chance to re-populate the river by the end of the year..

Kingfishers are very short-lived. Many young will not have learned to fish by the time they are driven out of their parents territory and realistically only about half of the fledglings would survive more than a week or two.

Although very few survive to breed the following year, it’s usually enough to maintain the population. Likewise, only a quarter of adult birds survive from one breeding season to the next. Very few birds live longer than one breeding season. The oldest bird on record was only 7.5 years.

Most kingfishers die of cold or lack of food a severe winter can kill a very high percentage of the birds. Despite high breeding productivity, populations can take many years to recover from a bad winter, and of course thats what we have recently experienced with the warm one minute and cold the next climate changes over the winter.

We did see one lone female at the mouth of Frenchman’s on the fallen tree on our last trip but alas not to be seen this time, unfortunately the males will stay territorial and await the females to join them so she may have gone in search of a male.
Well enough of my favourite river bird, there was still plenty of activity out on the river and certainly the Black headed gulls were there in great numbers today..
The other species we saw in larger numbers than last year were the Shelduck, several pairs with youngsters were about in the creeks and the main river but unfortunately a little skittish when I took out the camera.. still we did manage a couple of shots of the youngsters…

Running for cover from the camera

A little uncertain young shelduck follows his siblings

Well certainly one thing that has returned to the river in significant numbers is boats and people… and there seemed to be more about than ever, and some very nice boats amongst them I have to say… as we’ll see later when we return down river to view the boats..
Meantime we decided to break out onto the main river again and head up towards Bishops Quay and Mawgan Creek.
It was so much less windy on the far side of the river so we tucked into the edge in the shelter of the ancient Oaks and sauntered up the river..
Lots of little boats were out too with people enjoying such a beautiful day on the river… here’s some friends we passed having a good old Sunday afternoon natter whilst being ferried down river in their little atlantic fisher…

Having a good old fashioned Chinwag as my Grandfather used to say

We Turned into Magan Creek and stopped to photograph some Blackheads and redshanks on the bank opposite Bishop’s quay.. unfortunately the boat wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a good shot and it was then we noticed the vast amount of trailing weed that was happily winding itself round the prop and engine so I had to shout off the engine and drift back across into the channel while we cleared it off the prop and water intake..

Egret amongst the Gulls and redshanks

Back in the Channel we stopped off at the quay for a few moments to say Hello to Ben and Kate who had the Grandchildren with them and obviously busy with the summer visitors  who I think had just launched in their little sailing Dinghy and were also enjoying the river…

Always good to see Kate’s smiling Face, but they seemed very busy so we didn’t hang around and left them to the Grandchildren while we went over to what used to be the swinging kettle before someone stole it (see previous post)
and there we had a nice cup of tea on the side of the river and watched others out enjoying themselves, including Ben and Kate’s Guests from the holiday home (we think)…

Getting the hang of it and having fun

Happy Holidays on the river

We were joined by a gentleman who was walking the local farmers dogs while they were away and had a really nice chat.. thats the one great thing about River life, we meet some fantastic really friendly people.
He showed us the sea spinach which we’d no idea existed and then took his leave and wandered back into the woods on to re-appear later in Helford village as we were putting the boat back on the roof of the van..

We set off again to head up to Gweek, but there was a bit of a nippy headwind so we decided against it and instead sailed slowly back down the river where the wind dropped and it was once again Beautiful in the sunshine..

Lots were out with their dogs today too, we passed a good few boats with dogs aboard in one form or another which does show how mans best friend can enjoy the river too

Full speed ahead Capn' and how about Mullet for tea?

A Life on the Ocean wave

We took some time out on the beach outside Port Navas and had a cuppa before continuing our search for a small sailing boat so that we could extend our trips by staying up the river for a few days at a time

These trips are all too short as we are so governed by getting the boat in and out of the water that we’re nearly always restricted to a 2 hours either side of the tide and it nearly always means we have to get off the river just when you don’t want to … especially now that we’ve been told we can’t launch our dinghy from the sailing club without being a member… but the site doesn’t earn us £400 a year yet to warrant paying that for membership just to launch the dinghy maybe once a week.. so the option is to buy a boat we can sail into the river on and stay on and sail home..  Something up to a 21-22 ft with a bilge keel would be perfect for us if anyone knows of anything or would like to help us with some patronage

Well that just about wrapped up our trip as we’d once again started to run out of water in the creek and we needed to get the boat out and loaded onto the van..

We’re planning a few more trips very soon so we hope to see you then…

Hope you enjoy the images.. many more of which are in our Galleries HERE!

bye for now

It had all been arranged, one of my Uncles was down in Cornwall for a weeks holiday and wanted to see what we did out on the rivers  with river images..
Uncle Richard was Kind enough to sort out an outboard for us when we first set up River Images and were struggling to get everything together… in fact it was basically him and my cousin Simon who made the whole thing possible for us so we wanted to thank him and  show him how beautiful the Helford river was while he was down here.

He’d brought with him the tender and engine from his own Yacht  so we all decided to meet up at Gweek and await the incoming tide.
Of course this is Cornwall, and as such is prone to rapid weather changes and today was no exception and the tide finally arrived into the creek along with the rain..
I (ever the optimist) decided it would soon pass over and by the time we were out of the creek and down towards Bishop’s Quay it would have cleared and be again a pleasant evening .. How wrong can you be

WE set off out of Gweek followed closely by Shin and Aidan in his boat and Richard and Charlie in their boat.. by the time we hit the Seal Sanctuary corner we had the umbrella’s up and the light had dropped to almost darkness making photographs all but impossible..
First encounter on the sandbank was one of the Grey Heron’s looking rather bedraggled and rain soaked and sorry for itself… so much so that he couldn’t even be bothered to fly off as we approached…

Grey Heron looking fed up and bedraggled by the rain

Across the river in the channel as the river was still quite low on the tide and the usual small waders had gathered on the corner… a good few redshanks were sheltering under the overhanging trees…

Redshanks under the shelter of overhanging trees

Well contrary to my thoughts.. the weather was in fact worsening and the wind was now funnelling up the river making it rather uncomfortable to say the least…
I had a quick chat with Leanne and we made the decision to head for the shelter of the swinging Kettle.. a favoutie little spot opposite Bishop’s quay where for years an old kettle has hung from a tree over the river which you could use to boil over a fire in the fire pit and make some tea.. and after all this time we found someone had taken it or simply thrown it in the river… some people are just unbelievable!!! if anyone has an old boiling kettle we can have.. the type with a spout, then we’d be happy to have it toreplace it and hope the t**ds ur will have gone home and it will hang there for another few years…

Anyhow we headed into the shelter there and gathered under the tree’s and enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the river regardless of the rain…

We stayed there for about 15-20 minutes and the rain just kept on coming down… thankfully we were dry under the old Oak trees but we eventually decided to call the trip off and head back with the tide and the wind to Gweek…
I grabbed a couple of shots of the Egrets and swans on the other side of the river and denied my urges to head over to Bishop’s Quay and we launched the boats again umbrella’s up and headed for the boatyard…

More Sheltering from the egrets while the swan's swim past

Richard and Charlie making the best of it

Aidan Ferries Sinead in her waterproof Poncho up the inside of the river

Charlie on the Helm with the Cap'n under the brolly

Well we finally made it back to the vans and got everything stripped down while the Girls made Tea.. the timimg was actually great as Glyn Jennie (my Aunt) and Sally (My Cousin) arrived back to collect Richard and Charlie just as we arrived back..

They soon packed up and decided to head off back to the house for warmth and to get dry.. I think regardless of the weather they had a chance to see what the great appeal was for me and I think underneath it they enjoyed the time on the river… Sadly the weather didn’t get much better for the time they were here so we didn’t get a chance to repeat it under better circumstances but hopefully they can enjoy it through the blog as many of our city dwelling friends do…

We sat under the big Brolly and watched the rain and the ducks drinking Tea until it was too dark to see much and then we headed home…

I can’t help it but rain or shine I find the river a beautiful place to be and can’t wait for the next trip…

Looking down river from Gweek

I’ll leave you with a couple of shots from the roadside after we’d loaded up…

Swans and Ducks being fed by the skipper of Lady Clare...

A couple of sorry looking bedraggled crows watch the Ducks being fed..

All fed and ready for Bed

more pics in the gallery … http://riverimages.co.uk/RiverGalleries/main.php?g2_itemId=12448 … enjoy!!

night all

and a bloody Big one too!! The most Extraordinary experience we’ve ever had, whilst cruising up the Fal River in the inflatable when a Ruddy great Grey Seal decided to pop up alongside the boat, scare itself and us half to death and leapt clean out of the water onto Leanne’s lap..drowned me and the camera with its flippers in the process (Thank God for Pro Sealed Bodies ) and leapt back into the water only to jump out again for a second go before swimming off down river to its waiting Mate… we didn’t hang around.. we chased the bugger to get its picture as the camera was still working… Just!!

The oily Bugger

Sammy the Lap dancing Seal

Laid back taking a rest between performances

I think we probably worried him more than a little by chasing after him, as we got closer he dived and we lost sight of him again.
Feeling rather soggy from the wave thrown over me from the Seals flippers, I turned the boat and headed back up the river towards Malpas.. Leanne was still quite dazed and stunned about what had just happened and just kept on saying she couldn’t believe what had just happened..

Hi everyone,

Well I have to say with all sincerity it is So good to be Back out on the river.. and what a fabulous day we picked to get back out there.. though I have to say it was cold out of the sun, and I’d made the mistake of launching in a pair of crocks and for those who haven’t felt the water at the moment let me say its definately COLD!!!
So apart from my feet being numb for the whole 4-5hours out on the water, we had a fantastic time which was rounded off by catching the end of the Gig Racing at the Helford passage..

Our journey began with a brief confrontation as we tried to launch from the sailing club, of which we aren’t members but we now realise that its members only that can launch from their slip.
My apologies for that oversight, but my thanks to the two very kind ladies who allowed us to continue and launch on this occasion only as it saved me from dragging the boat plus very heavy camera equipment back through the car park and down to the village to launch in the creek.

So smiling once more we burbled out of the sailing club and onto the river heading up to Port Navas for our first stop.

We were blessed with sunshine lighting up the river and a light but cold wind so we headed across the river into Port Navas and had a look around.. there wasn’t much in the way of wildlife but it was so beautiful out of the wind and in full sun.

Port Navas Yacht Club

We turned around by the Yacht club and headed back towards the main river followed closely by our Anchor man Aidan

Aidan Bringing up the rear and doing lots of spotting for us

Still very little in the way of wildlife, a couple of redshanks made a flyby calling out as they passed but I couldn’t get stable enough to get a shot of them.. still it was so nice to hear their pheep pheep pheep echo across the creek..

We set off up River with full intentions of calling on Kate and Ben at Bishop’s Quay, but the wind coming down river was really cutting so we diverted into Frenchman’s Creek for a cup of tea on the pontoon which has now taken up residence in the middle of the far end of the creek..

We were led into the creek by a single swan who foraged around in the edge and was joined by a pair of mallard..

Two mallard sneak past while the swan wasn't looking

Leanne spotted our first Little Egret sitting in a tree and I had to circle the boat around in the creek to get back to where I could photograph him… he was a beauty and stood there in the sun in all his glory for me to shoot him..

Little Egret watching over the River

We moored to the pontoon and stepped out of the boat for a while so Leanne could stretch her legs and back, she’s still suffering from the whiplash from the accident last month, so we were just making short trips today so it wasn’t too much for her.
The sun was on the Pontoon and it was just so beautiful and peaceful that we sat there and had a cup of tea whilst watching for any signs of other wildlife..
The reflections in the water of the old roots and trees were pretty awesome and I mounted the camera on the tripod using the pontoon as a base….

Amazing Reflections in Frenchman's Creek

More reflections

It was while I was shooting the reflections from the pontoon that i thought I’d spotted the kingfisher, you can just see him in the middle of the fallen tree just above the waterline in this next shot.. the speck of his blue back shining through the tree and also reflecting in the water…

Is that a Kingfisher?

After watching him for around 10 minutes and him not moving we got into the boat to take a closer look.. it was then that we discovered  our kingfisher was actually a Lenor fabric softener bottle wedged in the branches of the fallen tree… it took a while for Leanne’s laughter to subside and I learned the lesson of sailing without my glasses .
As we turned to head out of the creek we both noticed it had got distinctively more windy than it had been while we sat on the pontoon.. and I noticed the reflections were gone as we realised the wind had changed direction and was now blowing into the creek.
Aidan had popped over to Constantine to see if there was any fishing to be had while we went into Frenchman’s so we headed across the river to the creek to catch up for some Lunch..
As we burbled into the creek there was a nice little yacht up for sale… very tempting as the thoughts of having somewhere to sleep over on the river is something we’ve both long had a hankering for.. However with more pressing financial committments we have to continue to dream for a little longer..

A case of be still my beating heart.. there's only two noughts in hundred not three

Onward into the creek where Aidan was waiting with fresh cooked bacon and cheese rolls…and as we approached we were given an arial display of some precision from the Helfords answer to the red arrows.. the Helford Shelducks… here’s the highlights!!

The Flyby

Getting into Formation

Chasing Gerry

Heading Home

Well with that spectacular show we pulled into shore for Lunch…

After Lunch we left Aidan to tend the fire and make sure it was all out before joining us on the river again, and we headed off up the creek.. on the Quay we spotted one man and his dog pulling in a fish, I whipped out the camera to record the catch..

Line taut with the pull of the catch

Obviously too small to eat and being a gentleman of the river he replaced it back to the river to grow and be caught again..

Back to freedom

I just love this next image it shows a true bond between man and his best freind as he points out the fish and the dog watches on one leg raised…Priceless

There he goes...

It warms the heart, and thats what I love about our expeditions on the river.. there’s always so much to photograph, and candid river life is the best of all..
We decided at the mouth of the creek that we’d pass on going up river as there was still a cold breeze blowing right in your face and it certainly had a bite to it..so we headed down river.
20 – 20 vision Leanne spotted the burnt out roof of one of the houses just after constantine.. I, of course only saw it through the lens at 500mm

Sadly burned out roof

We carried on Down River and was treated to our second beautiful Little Egret.. snow white in the afternoon sun..

Egret takes flight

The Graceful flight of the Little Egret

The last stretch before the helford passage and we saw our last piece of wildlife for the day… half a dozen Oystercatchers.. probably hoping to grab some cockles before the trigging on good friday

Well as we approached the Helford passage and noticed a crowd on the beach plus a large Gazebo etc Aidan called out and pointed out what appeared to be a lot of gig boats being rowed back into the mouth of the river.
Switching to full power on our little 2.5 yamaha we screamed off down river haha
We reached the finish line Just before the ladies teams came in.. although I wasn’t in position to see who won for which I apologise but if anyone would like to let me know we’ll gladly add it here… for now here’s Richard Lander and Irene too

Richard lander Ladies team

Irene Too Ladies

Well we followed them in towards the Passage not really knowing what was happening, and as we approached the beach we noticed the men were getting in as the ladies got out and figured there must be another race…

Mens teams preparing to race

I checked the time to see if we would have time to shoot the race as we now knew we couldn’t recover the boat from the sailing club so we had to make sure there was water in the creek for us to get out.. it looked as though we may just be able to make it so we made our way back out into the river to wait for the start.
Sitting out in the middle of the river like a cork at sea seemed to be forever as the gigs rowed out to the start line.. we were both by now getting cold and was tempted to just head in to the warm van and a nice cup of tea.. Then Leanne pointed out that the race had actually started and they were well under way..

I manouvered to a good spot to shoot the finish but the light was dropping  a bit and with the move,ent of the boat it was certainly promising more than a few blurry images.. However we did manage to get a few..
I had to quickly manouver the boat as the Regina Maris came in just in front of the Gigs but I’m pretty sure Irene too was first over the line followed closely by Lantic..

Regina Maris sailing Home

Irene Too over the finish line

Lantic follows in Second

Just time to shoot the last of the gigs coming home and then follow them across to the Passage to grab a few final shots before heading off at full speed across the river..

Races over all gethering back on the beach... hopefully a good event for the teams

WE made it into the creek in the nick of time just having to drag the boat the last 10 yards to the ford and haul it up onto the road..
Will have to check out and see if we can afford to join the sailing Club as I hate cutting the shooting short so iyt will be a real advantage to be able to get in at lower times of the tide using their facilities.. hopefully we’ll sell enough pics over the season to cover the cost

Hope you enjoyed our first real trip back out on the river and we look forward to many more with the coming Season..
You can view the rest of the images from our trip in the Gallery and the Gig Races in their own category HERE

Please feel free to contact us leave a message or comment on any of our posts and we’ll hopefully see you all again very soon

Mel & Leanne ^

Hi everyone.. so sorry for the lack of posts recently and yes we know the river has been beautiful in this beginning of spring but the truth is we can’t get out!!

A local fisherman to us decided to rush home after 7 days at sea and rounded a corner way too fast.. I saw him before he saw me and stopped as far over the left of the road as was possible with two large granite hedgerows but by the time he saw us and tried to brake he lost control and mounted the wall before ploughing into the side of us as he fell off the wall..

His car ended up wedged down the side of my van on its side and thankfully no one was hurt badly.. Leanne took a really bad shaking up and is suffering from whiplash but the main problem is the van, for the present time, is unusable and consequently we can’t transport our little boat to the river to be able to get out and take some more river Images…..

So unless anyone’s got anything we could use to go out on the river in while we’re there, we won’t be able to get out there until the van is fixed which will be hopefully by the end of march fingers crossed…

We did manage a trip in the hire car to Gweek this week and I’ll post the shots we got from there as soon as I can but we so desperately want to get out into the creeks again and get this site up and running ready for Easter when we hope you’ll all be back with us..

Here’s a few images from Kate Kirby at Bishop’s Quay which are definately showing us what we’re missing…

A beautiful frosty morning on the Quay -image by Kate Kirby

Wonderful reflections

Gig on the river

I love this image Kate, its a perfect composition the winterry tree’s the stillness of the river and the cut through of the Gig throwing perfect reflections of all into the river.. wonderful pictures and this is definately my favourite followed by the view from your window

gigboat2

Canada's in the field

Thanks for your comments, thoughts and kindness, and a special thank you to Kate for the wonderful images above,    we look forward to seeing you all again soon

Until then Happy St Pirans Day to everyone!!

Mel & Leanne xx

At Last!”

we made it onto the river this afternoon for a few hours and it was great to be back out on the water surveying the wildlife and just generally drinking in the beauty of the river..

We decided to launch from Gweek as it was only a 6mtr Tide so we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of water to play with.. we arrived at Gweek just before 12 noon, and got the boat ready and had some lunch while we waited for some water in the Creek..

A couple of swans had made their way up river and were being fed by one of the local residents of the river from his boat..

The river was running quite rapidly through the road bridge but the creek was still empty and we were now chasing the time if we were going to be able to spend a little time with Kate and Ben at the Quay and still do all we wanted to do.. But it was just good to be going out at all…

Finally there was enough water to get the boat in by the bridge and manouver it through the shallows past the moored boats until we were deep enough to drop the engine and burble out of the creek and into the main Helford River

The river was so quiet and peaceful as we moved down out of  Gweek Quay and down past the Seal Sanctuary… AQ couple of fishermen were fishing from the banks opposite the sanctuary so we negotiated their lines and headed towards the first mudbank where Shelduck and Curlew were sifting the mud and drilling for food..Shelduck on the bank by the Seal Sanctuary

In no time at all we rounded the corner on the far side and were heading to Bishop’s quay, there were lots of waders around, Redshank Curlew Whimbrel Egret and Heron and lots of small waders flying about as we came close to them most probably dunlin and sandpiper or sanderlings but it was difficult to see as we had left the binoculars in the van in my rush to get on the water..

The light had fallen quite dramatically as the skies filled with what looked like snow clouds and blocked out the sun so Photography was becoming more and more difficult.. You need High ISO and fast speeds to overcome the movement and vibration of the boat and engine and in this light almost everything I shot had motion blur of one kind or another, so my apologies for the few photographs this trip but it was just a short visit and as I say we lost the light quickly.

We turned into the Quay and saw the welcome waves from the house and off the quay so we headed in to see Kate and Ben and drop off one of our desk calendars for Kate.. Ben was busy moving Nets around and general work on the Quay and Kate invited us to join her upstairs for a cup of tea and some of her wonderful Lemon Drizzle cake oh and spice cake mmm
We had a lovely chat and met our New friend Gracie May River, who was adorable and Kept Leanne busy with a game of snap or happy families before showing us around the holiday house which is a dream if you want a really lovely place to stay for a holiday.. I couldn’t think of anywhere better..
watered fed and warm we decided we should get back out onto the river as we’d arranged to meet up with a friend Aidan who was probably just heading down river on his Kayak.. Kate Packed us some cake to take for us and him and we thanked her once again and said goodbye to her and Gracie May promising we would return soon…

We sailed out of the creek and turned down river to see if we could find Aidan and eventually moored on the bank to wait for him to catch us up.. eventually he appeared round the corner and rowed in to meet up with us..

We had more tea from Leanne’s flask and a piece of Kate’s Spice cake.. (Aidan ate all the Lemon Drizzle) and said how wonderfully moist and tasty it was…
I’d put the camera on the tripod to try and get a few shots in the fading light and we realised the tide had actually dropped out quite a bit as one leg of the tripod was originally in the edge of the water and was noaw a foot clear of it so we figured as it was a smaller tide we’d best think of making our way back up river to gweek..

I captured a couple of shots down river to show how quiet it was, blissfully quiet in fact

as we burbled up the river once again the birds were flying over us or away from us and the light so low now it was almost impossible to get a flight shot but I tried and here’s the results :

Heron passing over

Female Mallard heading back to Bishops Quay

Shelduck flying in a full circle until we got past them and they settled where they'd started from behind us..

By the time we got to Gweek there was very little water in the creek so we had to go up past the boatyard where I dropped Leanne off and rowed up the river to the bridge.. Aidan pulled me into the deeper water when I ran shallow and we eventually got the boat out of the water by the Bridge..

What an absolutely superb afternoon it had been.. a little dissappointing Photography wise but nontheless the spirit was filled once more..

Massive massive thank you’s to Ben Kate and Gracie May River for making us so welcome again on the Quay and sharing their hospitality.

By the time we arrived home we’d a lovely Mail from kate and she’d added some more of her images which I’ll leave you with for today.. including the masses of Blue tits and finches which were constantly on her feeders…

Canada Geese on the mud and grass banks in Bishops Quay -image by Kate Kirby

A lovely Crisp Image from Kate's balcony overlooking the Quay -image by Kate Kirby

Bishop’s Quay Bird Feeders -images by Kate Kirby

thank you for taking time to read our adventures on the river..

Until Next time

Mel^

Hi again Everyone, my apologies for the delay in getting back to the river.  The winter had been a particularly hard time for me this year I’m afraid, not only due to the big Freeze, for which I would dearly have loved to have travelled the river and photographed the stunning scenery, but also due to my Rheumatoid Arthritis which had started to flare again in late november.

The long and short of it was that the Chemotherapy they are now using to treat My RA should have lasted up to 6 months from August which would have meant I would be only just starting to feel it wearing off about now, but I had to be booked back into Treliske on the 21st December for more treatment..
The Chemo infusions take around 6 hours and my second one had to be postponed because of the ice and snow until the 8th january so here I am almost 2 weeks after and hoping that the sickness that comes with it will have worn off by the weekend and allow me to make my first trip of 2010 up the Helford River.

I’m indeed looking forward to catching up with a few friends we’ve met on our visits, and especially Kate and Ben who have so kindly sent me some images of the River and the Quay in snow, which has also prompted me to write on the blog just so I can share those with you as I’m sure Kate won’t mind me publishing them.

I’ll start with the Snow Images from Bishops Quay which I believe are taken on Kate’s   Fujifilm Finepix  S5700..

Bishop's Quay in Snow

Bishop's Quay in Snow

Bishop's Quay in Snow

4 fabulous images showing a little of the beauty the snow brought along with the Chaos for many.. and speaking of Chaos Kate tells me they have now closed the lane up to Mawgan past Rock Cottage for the next 8 weeks which will have no doubt isolated them more than a little so if you’re on the river and pass Bishops Quay shout a Hello to help them avoid cabin fever..

We will definitely be going up there in the next week or so to say hello and to thank Kate personally for these lovely Photographs.. I’m presuming this is Kate’s Grandson showing us the lane is closed..

The lane to Mawgan closed for 8 weeks

but here’s a much prettier view of the lane in snow..

No doubt treachorous to drive on but a beautiful vision of the lane in snow

Kate tells me she’s been feeding the wild birds around the clock as Have many of us, thankfully their feeding ground is getting better again now but with the large influx of birds due to the freezing conditions elsewhere there really is still a food shortage for so many species..

I tried hard to save the life of one poor Lapwing who’d had one foot frozen off and was in a real bad way when I found him.. we thought it would be his only chance to keep him warm and feed him up but sadly he died the next day having lost so much bodyweight due to the frozen ground.. They feed on worms and insects and he obviously couldn’t find anything with the frozen land probably for a few days..
They need so much body fat which comes from their food and proteins to help them fly and as with this chap if they don’t have that they become grounded and endangered and many have died in the freeze.

So please keep feeding the birds always, but especially in winter.

Frozen Lapwing we rescued from the frozen marsh

Back to the River, or Riverside.. Here’s a couple of Kates Fine feathered friends who were kept happy and healthy on Spaghetti and hot Pasta during the freeze

A happy Clan fed on Hot spaghetti and Pasta

and from one Happy Brood to what must have been another when they arrived to this spread.. Now those who have tasted Kate’s Cakes well know how delicious and moreish they are so I can ascertain this spread would have been absolutely Mouthwatering..

A Fabulous Christmas Spread at Bishops Quay

Well I have to sincerely Thank Kate and Ben for the Photographs that have given me my first opportunity to blog about the River this year, and I’m looking forward to many many trips there this year and to meeting again Old Friends and many New ones..

New year Blessings to you all, be sure to give our little Dinghy a wave if you see us on the river this year and if we manage to capture some good images we’ll most definately share them here with you all..

All the Very Very Best for 2010 from Leanne and Myself

Mel^

Thanks to everyone who supported the Christmas fair at the Down by the Riverside Cafe in Helford Village.
Leanne did a great job showing off river images while I just walked around the village and up to Frenchmans and back taking pictures and wishing I’d brought the boat
Have to say Ottie did a fantastic job putting the event together so a great big thanks to the Cafe Crew..

Was great to see Ben & Kate from Bishops Quay again, and thanks for supporting us Kate.

here’s a few pics from the day while you were all working

It was nice to see the village from a different perspective anyhow and it can all look so different.. The Larch at larch Cottage taking on some lovely shades of Autumn for example..

The river was looking particularly quiet when I reached the ferry point and look out to sea… just a few boats moving slowly in the breeze, a far cry from a few weeks back when the river was alive with the end of summer tourists… still all things need time to recover

Onward and upward was the next stage heading over to the beach at Penarvon for the first stop.. saw lots of these on my walk which I have no clue what they were so if the plant lovers or gardeners among you wish to enlighten me it will be appreciated.. I just thought they made a really nice picture..

Just up the path from Penarvon cottage I discovered this beautiful old out building.. I’d thought it really lent itself to some sepia toning but decided to leave the colours as it just didn’t warrant taking anything away from it.. I love old buildings like this and there’s so much within the picture.. I stood for quite a while there and watched the birds to-ing and fro-ing for food from the feeders just by the side.

beeches by the beach at Penarvon

Those who have made this uphill climb on the way over to Frenchmans creek will have come across the wonderful yard up above ‘Penguin’ ( always thought that should have been written as Pen Gwynn complete with its old mangles and machinery..

From there its into the woodland walk and more beautiful shades of Autumn with sunlight streaming through the now stark oaks where squirrels were busy gathering for the cold weather to come.. they were far too busy to stop for a photograph so I made do with the trees..

I have to admit that this was as far as I got.. with all the uphill and downhill climbs my legs were becoming increasingly more unstable so I figured I’d best not make the descent down to frenchmans and headed back to the village.. besides I was feeling a little hungry too especially when I saw these fellows sitting there looking rather delicious… not that I ate any as I honestly don’t know my Fungii well enough to take the risks.. sometimes I miss my old walking buddy from my days in the Yorkshire dales who would simply grab a wonderful selection of natural foods during our walks and promptly fry them up for lunch.. I headed back to the down by the riverside cafe..

Suitably refreshed after lunch with my lovely wife I set off once again for the village and the creek.. I’d bought bread at the post office and met a lovely local lady who’d thought I was TV crew due to having the big tripod and camera Lens and who seemed quite relieved that I was only shooting the wildlife and beauty of the village and River… she told me where I could photograph ‘Egg’ her very own Egret friend who had become rather territorial about his space on the Helford creek.. so here he is prancing around the boat looking for unsuspecting fish and raisinga commotion to any other Egret who fancied his space..

 and in scenes reminiscent of a summers day.. which immediately reminded of the poem…shall I compare thee..

and more of the hairy plants

back along the creek and it was simply curteous to visit the most photographed cottage in Helford.. I didn’t clone out the satellite dish on this image though many do… I do think its a sign of our times

Sometimes art just creates itself.. like this image which was taken completely unknowingly when I caught the shutter button as I walked along..

Well the afternoon had galloped away from me and I walked back along the creek catching the mallards at play in the edge of the creek in the incoming tide.. finally water was making its way into the creek.

A sudden Pheep pheep pheep drew my attention along the creek to the main river where a few oystercatchers flew past .. I just managed to get the tripod down in time to catch the last one passing by.. on their way up to Bishop’s Quay I shouldn’t wonder..

and that rounds up another trip to Helford.. I hope you enjoyed the different viewpoint as I enjoyed the river from its walks rather than from the boat…

Until next time.. thanks for dropping by and having a look..

your comments are always welcomed..

Mel x

Mel

Monday 12th October 2009
What a beautiful sunrise we saw as we made our way from Penzance to Helford, but as usual I was in a Hurry to get to Helford and the camera’s were packed in the bag. It was certainly promising to be the anticipated wonderful day, and as we pulled into an empty Helford car park around 7-45am the Sun was beating down, and yet there was a frosty feel to the air as I untied the boat from the van telling us that the clear night had been a colder one.
We Set the boat up ready to go and sat in the morning sun with some fresh tea awaiting the tide filling the creek a little when we finally got the chance to have a brief chat with Ottie from the down by the Riverside cafe in the car park there.. She’s done so much to help us with the launch of the site and we’d spoken to her about leaving all the regatta images with her at the cafe for people to look through who couldn’t get to us on the internet.
We gave her the contact sheets and that was one box ticked from our to do list today so we decided as we’d seen her we may as well launch a little earlier down by the sailing club and make a move out onto the river.
The water was so calm and the sun was already beating down and taking the morning chill from the air.. we sauntered out into the main channel and my first shot of the day was of one of the Blackheaded gulls in his winter plumage making him nearly all white, especially in the bright sun.. unfortunately He’d been ringed.. I know it has to be done for the recording etc and I know also how important that can be for the knowledge we need to help all birds but it does kind of spoil an otherwise perfect specimen for a photographer..

Mediterranean gull in winter plumage - Kindly verified and Corrected by Kevin Collins

The River was so peaceful this morning with very little activity, but that would change later no doubt with the flooding tide taking us up river I took a moment to drink in the view across the Helford estuary before we left it behind and headed up river.
Buzzards were already out hunting over the river and woods and as usual the crows were already trying their best to harrass them…

Buzzard being hounded by crows but looking unphased

We turned into Frenchman’s creek and the water was almost still and the usual eerie silence which makes this one of the most magical creeks on the river was there again, but today something was different.. at first I thought it was a mist overhanging the far end of the creek but it also looked to the naked eye as though something was rising from the water in the mist..
Of course as we got further into the creek we realised it was actually a floating pontoon that had been anchored in the creek which was actually drying out in the heat of the morning sun..

an eerie presence in Frenchman's creek

We sailed past resisiting the urge to moor to it and have a walk along it,  and left it behind us to be the latest play thing for the grey wagtails which were darting on and off and across the creek, too fast unfortunately for me to catch on camera this morning.
At the far end of the creek (which was still out of the sun) squirrels played in the Oaks collecting their winter feast no doubt but keeping well hidden from us only peeking out every so often to see if we were still there.. we decided to leave them in peace and head off back up the creek to rejoin the main river.

The Egrets had begun taking to the trees to enjoy the heat in the sun.. always a difficult shot at the best of times to get the definition of the brilliant white of the Egrets feathers surrounded by the Greens and Now autumn browns and reds of the Oak leaves behind, but today made even more difficult with the sheer power of the bright morning sunlight, but the usual characters were there, perhaps we should start to name them but they’re still difficult to recognise them all yet. However if we do I will definately be nicknaming this one gandalf after all it just fits don’t you think? He always seems to be a loner away from the rest of them on his own looking rather majestic and knowledgable.

Gandalf the grey gone white enjoying the suns rays

I turned and took the final view of the creek as we pulled out into the main river flow and headed up towards Bishop’s Quay to meet up with another of our new found river friends Kate & Ben and deliver them their photographic print of the two egrets from one of our previous trips.

Looking into Frencgmans Creek

Others were already joining us out on the river and we passed and waved to a small riverboat filled with awestruck visitors heading into the creek one of who’m was also smitten with my affliction of having a long lens and camera growing out of one side of his head

Visitors to Frenchmans' creek

We hugged the shoreline and moved slowly up the river being watched suspiciously by the Curlew sitting under the Oak boughs at the rivers edge, and echoed by the redshanks letting out an occasional call which is smoewhere between a shrill squeal and a whistle as they alerted others to our presence..
The heron’s nervously taking to flight as soon as we approached their roosting or fishing spots and flying alongside or soaring overhead casting mighty shadows over the river.

Curlew on the edge of the river

The Grey Heron in flight alongside us

Redshanks marking our progress and calling up river to relatives

Over the last couple of years of coming here I’ve grown to love the river like a second home, and days like this are simply too magickal to relate in a simple blog, much better writers than myself have done and will continue to do much better jobs than I ever could but I’m sure these photographs must warm even the coldest soul to this wonderfully integrated co-existence between Human bird and animal that continues year after year on these banks. At least I sincerely hope they convey some message of the love I feel for life being here on the river.
And with those thoughts in my mind of a great zest and enthusiasm for life and an awe of the beauty of these precious life forms that we co-exist with, I’m suddenly brought back to ground by the screech of the corvids avidly attacking yet another Buzzard peacefully going about his business, and looking up to find them just above me..

Anything larger or peculiar to them seems a threat which must be chased off to these corvids

and while observing and capturing these moments again the massive shadows of the egrets and herons cover us as they soar over from one side of the river to another..

Grey Heron overhead

Grey Heron

We carried on up the river towards the edge of Bishops Quay passing more Curlew, redshank ,greenshank , and whimbrel who had singly wandered down river  away from the main masses of wading birds that hang to the beach opposite Bishop’s Quay and apparently squabble (as Kate told us) over the dissappearing beach as the tide rises in the creek..

Redshank

One little Egret retreated from the waters edge and onto the safety of the bank to stand like a reprimanded child and await our passing before returning to the river to sift the mud looking for food.

Young little Egret awaiting our passing

And finally we rounded the corner and passed the beach where the waders have taken up residence and today saw Whimbrel Curlew Redshank Greenshank Oyster catchers and at least one common sandpiper ….almost coming to grief in the mud as the engine stopped on us and dug into the mud as we’d travelled a bit too shallow even for our little boat..
We managed to row ourselves out of trouble and back to deeper water and headed back round to follow the channel markers into Bishops Quay where Ben and Kate were waiting with Tea and Exquisite chocolate cake for us which we sat eating whilst baking in the sun  on the Quay, listening to fascinating stories, and exchanging our own, whilst also observing the birdlife on the beach opposite..

Waders Beach

Gulls shelducks and Oystercatchers join the rest of the waders on this slowly dissappearing beach

Now in truth there are many, but if I were to have to recommend one spot to spend for a fantastic holiday on this river in the single most beautiful part of Cornwall, then Bishop’s Quay would have to be it for so many reasons.
If you have any interest at all in Nature and Birdlife, art, painting  photography or writing, then this spot will bring you so much fulfillment and inspiration, and send you home with a wealth of information and media that will last a lifetime within you.
I’ve sifted this Quay and the Creek only a few times by comparison but I have never been dissappointed in rain Wind or sunshine with this wealth of wildlife which feeds my soul with every visit.. They have it all.. all the waders and small water and land mammals.. larger too so I’m told.. with kingfishers, grey wagtails mallard shelduck and swans all playing among the boats and fallen trees in the creek, and Ben told us of Foxes playing in the fields opposite in the mornings.. and I must also say, that the owners of the Holiday Cottage here on the Quay Kate and Ben are two of the Nicest and friendliest people I have ever  met, and Kate ( an enthralling lady and  photographer herself has albums of photographs from the river and surrounds going back Hundreds of years.. a whole library of fascination that I could happily lose myself in for days were it ever an opportunity. You can find details of the Quay Holiday house on the side border  of this blog should you wish to look further into the holiday of a lifetime here..
Whether you wish to Holiday there or not, be sure to call a hello to them if you venture on the river at all and pass the quay.. I personally look forward to many many more visits.
Hard as it was to leave all this behind, its the truth in the saying that ‘time and tide wait for no man’ that dragged us away and back to our little boat to head back out onto the river, and waving our goodbyes for today we set off back down river with the now outgoing tide.

Bishops Quay and the romantic Old Holiday House with its balconies overlooking the creek

We knew we had little time this afternoon if we were to bring the boat out of the creek at Helford as the tide would be low in just a few hours and would be very much later if we had to wait for it to return into the creek.
Not having Aidan’s help today meant we realistically couldn’t get out at the sailing club as we would normally do due to my quickly failing strength under pressure, it just wouldn’t be practical to attempt to pull the boat up the slipway.. so we decided we’d pay a brief visit to Polwheveral, where we’d seen the Osprey a couple of times before, and Constantine and then make our way back to helford creek while there was still enough water to get out by the ford.
Kingfishers flew past us and across the river and we finally managed to catch one sitting in the lower branches of  an old Oak tree overhanging the river as we headed down river..

Kingfisher watching our approach

Such an entertaining bird to watch fishing..

As we rounded the corner into Polwheveral(constantine), we were treated to a procession of a family of mute swans who escorted us into the creek..

2 of the 5 juvenile mute swans

all 5 young following the parents along the creek

Once again dark shadows flew overhead and set the corvids squawking again.. crows and jackdaws everywhere and the we saw him, OZZIE, our majestic Osprey.

He landed at the tip of an old decaying oak tree and surveyed us and the creek…  we turned and headed closer to him

Ozzie watches our approach with caution

It doesn’t take long before his trust is gone and he’s away over the top of us leaving me spinning round like a bottle top in a sink when the plugs pulled trying to get a focus on him..

Clack!! the autofocus locks on and grabs the shot

Crows to the fore a quick swerve and he's away again

Unphased Ozzie still surveys the creek and especially us below circling with him..

King of the skies.. well the Helford Skies at least

Up and away over the oak forest and into the main river leaving us and the crows way behind

Filled to the brim and overflowing nothing would break my smile when I checked the images as Leanne clung to an anchored fishing boat to steady us..  YES!!! I had the shots.. I was ecstatic.. what a culmination of events.. Today could not have ended better… A Fantastic day, fabulous weather, great company and  an arial display that couldn’t be matched from Ozzie
the crows miffed at being left behind picked on a juvenile Gannet who’d wandered inland to see how good the fishing was.

Juvenile gannet

We headed out of the creek and down river to Helford nlooking back to see Ozzie soaring way up river and hoping he’d stay around at least until wednesday when we’d be back on the river..
We sailed into the Helford creek and managed to get almost all the way up and onto the hard beach where we pulled the boat to the ford.
I got the van from the car park and attached the new home made bracket i’d made for the back bumper over  and dropped the boats paiter eye over the hook.. Leanne checked the road and I drove the van back to the car park and the whole thing went just too easy..
WHAT A DAY!!!

we drank tea and happily chatted as we unpacked the boat in glorious sunshine and loaded it on the van..
We spoke to Aidan who was heading to Marazion and filled with all we were we set off to meet up and tell him all about our fantastic day on the river.. He simply said.. you’ve really enjoyed today haven’t you…
Oh yes   we certainly have, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and sharing our day and images..

Thank you for taking that time out to read..

Mel & Leanne x

It was a hard one, should we make the trip or give it a miss? the tides were all wrong and it would mean launching no later than 8am in order to get out of the creek in Helford..
Lots of humming and aaghin later on the saturday night we decided lets just turn up and see what happens..
5am Start only to find our favourite Cornish Mizzle getting heavier on the way to Helford and becoming actual rain, eventually it stopped just outside Helston and we though everything was going to be fine..
Dawn was just breaking as we pulled through Newtown into Helford and a mist hung over the river and it started to rain again..
we stood by the van under Umbrella’s having a cup of fresh brewed tea waiting and watching the tide slowly dissapearing from the creek.. eventually it stopped.. light broke through the heavy cloud out at sea and we made the decision.. Lets launch while we can and see how it goes.. we can always come back in at the sailing club if the rain gets heavy.. so we loaded up Serendipity (Our inflatable) aptly named as Serene and a little bit Dippy, Leanne being the Serene one and even I admit to being dippy most of the time.. after all here I was 7am on a sunday morning cloudy and damp planning on dragging a few thousand quids worth of camera equipment up the muddy river in search of anything and anyone as dippy as me to be out there.
We certainly missed Aidan on this trip,  he was visiting his  mother in Hospital (Hoping she’s doing a lot better my friend) and he usually helped (more than I realised) to launch us with all the equipment..

I made the decision to push out from the sailing club and dragged the boat off down the road while Leanne visited the ladies room .. Now those who know the slip at the HRSC will know its not best trying to let the boat take you down the slip on your own at a rate of knots wearing a pair of well worn crocs that decide to slide on anything remotely slippy.. but there I was trying to keep my Backside from touching base and hanging onto the dinghy for dear life as we both slid down the last part of the slip on to the rocks.. well pebbles .. below  HOWEVER apart from a slightly oulled muscle in my right chest somewhere we made it intact and in enough time to regain composure and look Cool by the time leanne arrived a few minutes later.
The last few rumpy pumpy rolls over the cobbles and the boat was in the water and we burbled out towards the main river channel..
Looking back to sea was an amazing sight – The Dawn light was dissappearing ina blue haze  out at sea and the brighter light coming in showed a little promise that we may not be completely mad for being out here..

Morning Light on the Helford

It was so peaceful as we burbled slowly up the river, curlew flying rapidly downstream with the tide and Cormorants already out hunting breakfast.. it was only as we reached the entrance to Frenchman’s creek that we realised there wasn’t going to be enough water to get us to Bishops quay, or indeed into any of the creeks today until much later, the tide does that .. a 6am High tide leaves you high and dry most of the day…so we made the decision to see how far we could get up river and slowly drift back down with the tide to spend a little time around the beaches at the mouth of the Helford.. or whatever the weather decided to change in those plans…
There were a tremendous amount of  Cormorants around this morning so hopefully the fishing may have improved after the red tide of a few weeks back.. here’s a couple resting on one of the fallen trees just past Frenchman’s.

Resting Cormorants

Many fallen leaves floated on top of the river today showing massive signs that autumn was well and truly with us… The oak forests that line the Helford river were turning Golden through reds and browns and made the most amazing mosaic of colours.. another Cormorant flew past us giving us the amazing green eye as if to say who you taking pics of then?

Cormorant in flight up the river

We decided to settle for an hour at the edge of Polpenwith Creek (I hope I got that right) just before bishops quay as it was getting difficult to get any further, we had a quick look first at the Dory moored at the end of the creek as its something I’ve thought would be a lot easier and better bet for us to use for the river trips if we could find somewhere to moor it on the river, and of course if I manage to sell any photographs along the way to finance that idea lol…  It would certainly give us a lot more room than we currently have in the inflatable.. ah well!!  maybe in some other dimension somewhere.
We camped by the bench on the path that leads down to tremayne Quay to have a bit of lunch and for me to take a few more stable images of the river and surrounds.. such as the Autumn colours in the forest opposite.. I heard tell this was one of the 14 oldest forests in Europe.. its certainly quite magickal walking through it..the amazing twisting boughs of the oaks.

Autumn Shades in the Forest

Meanwhile a watchful Buzzard soared above us checking out the larder below probably wondering what was for his lunch today.. we thought we saw the Osprey again but he was too far over Constantine (Polwheveral)  creek to be able to tell for sure..

Buzzard Soaring above

Things were definately working out for us as we sat having lunch realising that we’d definately made the right decision to come out today.. all around were storm clouds and yet we sat here in a pocket of sunshine drinking in the beauty that most only dream about…
I wandered down and checked the river and realised if we were going to move at all for the next few hours then we’d best move now or we were going to be fast running out of water as we approached low tide.
Curlew watched as we dragged the boat off the mud back to the river before flying off upstream to the mud banks freshly exposed with the low tide.

Curlew watching from the mud flats

Curlew in flight

We trundled off down the river again once again observing the massive amount of Cormorants fishing in the wide part of the river between constantine and frenchmans creek

Fishing Cormorant

Fishing Side by side...

and the Old guys watching on…

watchful Trio

We sailed on down through helford to find a nice quiet beach to sit out the Low tide and enjoy a little afternoon sun..
Meanwhile life on the river was awakening more down here, with sunday morning boat repairs taking advantage of the low tide and Cockle collecting from the beaches..

Easy does it on a sunday Morning

She Collects Cockles on the sea shore.... or something like that

We settled ourselves down on the beach by the mouth of the river overlooking Mawnan and watched the life travel up and down the river… Boats were starting to move with the tide in and out and we were happy to be sitting in this pocket of Glorious sunshine while all around the storm clouds and rain was visible…
I turned a little green with envy as a super Dory passed us and remember distinctly calling to Leanne.. probably a little too loudly.. I WANT ONE OF THEM!!!   if anyone has one for sale or any Dory (preferably Dell Quay) for not too many Mola id be interested to hear

A photogs dream - Super Dory

Lovely old Boats

and some lovely Shiny new ones...

Stormy Clouds over Mawnan Smith

I spent the next hour or so humming dock of the bay by Otis redding and watching little boats medium boats and great big boats moving about on the river while reflecting on my lil’ old serendipity dragged on the beach..

Serendipity

Some enjoying Pleasure sailing

others trying to make a living

and me amusing myself taking pictures of it all including the Whimbrel on the rocks beside us

And so it was that the afternoon passed us by as we sat enjoying the sunsine before setting sail back up with the tide to try to get into Frenchmans and hopefully find some more wildlife..
As we wandered upstream we realised all the sailing Dinghies were heading out of the club and heading in our general direction so we moved off to one side to allow them passage.. and of course shot a few as they passed

Others also enjoying the opportunity to sail as the river flooded in

Well we finally wandered down into Frenchmans creek and sadly the light was changing and the grey that had surrounded the helford all day threatening finally descended making any real wildlife photography virtually impossible in the lowlight.. however we did discover these wonderful fungii growing on one of the tree’s as we walked together through the woods..

Fungii on a tree in the woods

Back out into the main river we found another watchful Buzzard sitting atop one of the trees..catching the last glinting rays of the setting sun..

Buzzard

how rapidly the days go on these trips, but here we were fast approcahing the 12th hour since we set off for todays trip and Leanne was looking decidedly weary.. but once again no mishaps or accidents so the day had been another eventful success.. hopefully you’ll enjoy some of the images.

As always don’t forget these are just a selection of the days images and many more reside in our ongoing Galleries… HERE 

Out into the main river flow we found the light had moved up river and as the sun dropped behind us it left us once again with some amazing scenery to take home with us…

The Suns rays warming the storm clouds above.. a scene that fills the heart

And finally I moved midstream to line up this wonderful boat Wanda in the setting sun

The only thing to beat this view would be to be sitting on that boat enjoying a glass of wine

And on that Note good people of the Helford river I’ll leave you until the next time I’m able to glide upon these wonderful waters in search of inspiration and fulfillment…
Thanks for taking the time to look…

Mel x