Monday 12 January 2009

Cornish pastie surprise!

After leaving the Snowy Owl, we headed east back along the coast through St Ives to Hayle for a spot of lunch. Now you can't go to Cornwall and not have a Philps Cornish pastie! They are fabulous. Full of prime steak, potato, carrot and swede. Originally Cornish pasties were made for the tin miners to take as their lunch down the mines. The thick crust along one side being a place to hold it whilst munching!
Before lunch though we spent a little time at the Hayle estuary to look for waders (shorebirds), ducks and gulls. Unfortunately we got there at low tide, but still managed to see plenty of Eurasian Wigeon, Teal, Redshank, Curlew, Lapwing, Dunlin and amongst the more common gulls we saw an adult Mediterranean gull.In Hayle we bought our pasties and sat and had lunch at Copperhouse Creek. This Little Egret posed nicely for me.
Here is what is left over from my lunch! (-: I thought I'd donate it to the local birds who seem to know that alot of people eat their pasties at this spot.Now a couple of days ago, my friend Evie from Sunnysideup asked if I could get a photograph of a Rook for her as she seen it in the British Bird book I'd given her for Christmas. So, just as I'd put the remains of my pastie on the wall, who should swagger along but this handsome brute! (-:
I was quite surprised to see this Rook in the middle of town as they are normally associated with pastureland.He certainly fancied a change from his normal diet though and swiped a bit of pastie before flying off.Another smart looking corvid that we have over here is the Jackdaw. They are smaller than Rooks and Carrion Crows and more dapper looking with their grey sheen to the back of the neck and a stunning white eye. This one also took a chunk of my pastie before leaving the rest to the Black-headed Gulls.

7 comments:

Eve said...

That is too funny Jenny...I believe that was me in the Rook clothing!! I NEVER would have let you leave that pastie there...I have always been know to eat everyones leftovers so now I know why I love that Rook so much!!! Great great post you made me laugh!!
PS before I read you post I got a test from Roy! I had to ID 4 crow type birds. I'm awaiting my score!! I think I did good!! I could never have done it without your book!! Thanks buddy!!

Anonymous said...

How cool. mmmm...Cornish pastie. I would head into town for some too.

Oddly enough, I'm very interested in your rook photos because I've never seen one! What fun!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen,
Nice shot of the L/Egret, which was difficult under those conditions. Evie is getting good on this ID lark, you will have to send her something more difficult. {:)

Mary said...

Love that egret! The pastie looks very good and I can see why the birds were happy to finish it for you. I'm always reading about those in British mysteries, so now I know what one looks like. That Rook is pretty neat with that sturdy looking bill!

Quiet Paths said...

What a regal looking egret that is. Beautiful birds. In Hawaii we saw lots of cattle egrets which look similar.

Now the Cornish Pastie I do something about because the miners from Butte, Montana brought the pastie with them into the copper mines. They are sold throughout Montana in various locations. (You can also find them in upper Michigan.) My own recipe which I make is taken from mu Aunt's recipe but I use ground beef. Carrots I have heard are considered an add-on - not of the original recipe but if the Cornish are doing carrots then it must be the real thing!

Jenny said...

Hi Evie, Ha! Janey nearly nabbed my leftover pastie. I think you and she would get along well! (-: Glad the book is coming in useful.

Hi Steve, As I mentioned in the post, Rooks are generally birds of the countryside (particularly pastureland) and congregate to nest in large colonies called Rookeries. All the corvids are great characters I think, tho with some unsavoury habits sometimes!

Hi Roy, right you are. I probably have PLENTY of duff photo shots of birds that we could confuse her with! (-:

Hi Mary, well I guess you've seen part of a pastie! (-: Rooks are great, but I think my favourite corvid is the Jackdaw, very smart looking and they have an amazing call too.

Hi Christine, yes, those Little Egrets are so graceful, they're a real success story over here and have only started breeding regularly in recent years here.
How fun that the pastie emigrated over to the USA. Philps do a minced beef one too. I don't know enough about the history of them to know if carrots were original to them or not.

Celeste said...

I lived in Hayle as a child and I love Philps pasties so your post was a great trip down memory lane for me.