Two West Cornwall Falcons.

A rare day off work on a rare sunny day, so decided to have a day out 'down west'. An early start ,hour and a half drive and I'm exploring the West Cornwall valleys hoping to find a scarce or uncommon species which often turn up here on October days. Yellow Browed Warblers had been seen the day before and a Red Eyed Vireo the previous week, but try as I might nothing really showed except brief views of Firecrest and Ring Ouzel.However I was trested to stunning views of two birds of prey, first a beautiful male Kestrel which sat on a wall in front of me at Cot valley before coming down within feet of me to sit in a small pool and start to bathe, almost too close to photograph ,I stepped back as far as I could but as I was looking down on him and I was unable to get the angle I would have liked, but still what a great view, a pity it was spooked by a passing van but lovely to see. On the way home with wonderful light I decided to look in on the Seals at Godrevy, which are always a treat. With the sun dipping I noticed a small bird of prey wizz past in front of me and thought it looked like it might have landed and sure enough there on the cliff right in front of me was a stunning female Merlin, how wonderful, it stayed for about five minutes taking no notice of me ( or other passers by) before taking off and chasing some waders.