Birding Cornwall

After getting off the Isles of Scilly, we stayed overnight in Penzance on the southwest tip of Cornwall. We had planned to gradually bird our way home, but although the previous day had been a beautiful blue sky and sunshine day, this day dawned cold and grey and drizzly. In spite of this, we managed to get a couple of hours birding in before having to call it a day and head home. The photo below shows St Michael's mount which is a small island just off Penzance. At low tide there is a causeway across to the island.Our first birding stop was at Nanquidno Valley. The scenery here is wonderful even on a drizzly day!We were hoping to see Firecrest and Yellow-browed Warbler down this valley, but the weather conditions just weren't right. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful walk along the Cornish cliffs here.You wouldn't have liked standing so close to the cliff edge as my friends did Evie! (-:

On the way back up from Nanquidno valley, we stopped briefly near St Just airport to see this Snow Bunting. As you can see, this photo is heavily cropped and taken in bad light, so not a brilliant capture, but a nice record shot.We couldn't leave Cornwall without having a famous Phipps Cornish pastie, so as it was nearly lunchtime by now and the weather was worsening, we stopped at Copperhouse Creek to have our pastie lunch. The photo below shows the estuary.At least here, there were some bird photo opportunities. This Little Egret was feeding just below us. You can just about see it's bright yellow feet in the water.

I think the birds have got to know that many people come here to eat their pastie, so as we munched away, we became aware of many beady eyes watching. Rooks are generally found out in the countryside around agricultural fields, but this one has discovered an easy meal can be had at Copperhouse Creek!

They differ from Carrion Crows with their more shaggy look and bare parts around the bill.This is easily my most favourite corvid, the Jackdaw. They have the most wonderful 'chacking' call and that white eye and pale neck are distinctive. They are quite a bit smaller than Carrion Crows or Rooks.These two look like right Jack the Lads! Ready for a bust-up! (-: All they were doing though, was waiting for me to share my pastie with them!Which I eventually did, and then it was a free for all!After lunch, the weather deteriorated even more, so it was time to head home back to Chris after my week away.