Cornish bird trip - day 3 a day of two halves.

It really was a day of two halves in that it started out mizzerly/drizzerly grey and icily cold. By the time the afternoon and some sunshine had come along it seemed positively balmy!

We started out by having a sea watch at Portscatho beach just up the road from where we were staying in St Mawes. We were after the recently reported Red-necked Grebe, always a tricky bird to see each year. We weren't successful on this occasion but we enjoyed watching several Mediterranean Gulls flying across the bay in front of us. This species has recently undergone a marked increase in Britain. It is a lovely 'white winged' Gull similar in size to the more common Black-headed Gull. Unfortunately they were all too far out to get a photo. 

 After our sea watch we headed west again to Marazion near Penzance. This is a lovely area with reed beds on one side of the coastal road and the sea and beach on the other.

It wasn't a morning for photography but I managed to take some photos nonetheless. Here, one of my favourite waders, the Oystercatcher.

 A pair of Greylag Geese flying over the Reserve.

A Grey Heron flying in to land amongst the reeds.

 In the afternoon, we headed north again towards St Ives and then east to Godrevy. This is a wonderfully scenic headland where we had our lunch looking out over the ocean. We didn't envy all the people at work on this Monday afternoon! Miraculously, the sun peeked through the clouds and shone for the rest of the day. Lovely!!! (click on the image to enlarge).

 Me enjoying the wonderful view. Excuse the geeky hat! (-:

 A pleasing rock formation.

 Our target bird to see was an unringed Chough that had been reported here in recent days. After a short walk along the headland, we were pleased to find this one bird feeding on the cliff edge. It was quite a distance away, so these record shots are heavily cropped.

This is a real success story. A few years ago, there had been a program ready to re-introduce Chough to Cornwall. Just as they were about to start the re-introduction, Choughs from the continent recolonised by themselves. They are still few and far between but are steadily recolonising which is great! Chough is a member of the corvid family and seeing this bird along with both Jay and Raven on other days meant that we'd seen every species of corvid in Britain on this trip.

We were so busy watching this Chough that we nearly missed looking down into the inlet below and discovering a colony of Grey Seals and their pups! 

They looked like elongated pebbles strewn along the beach! This was as close as my camera could get.

 Our last stop of the day was at St Clements along the Tresillian River near Falmouth. We stopped here to try and find me a Spotted Redshank for the year and it also had the added bonus of being a beautiful walk! 

 As you can see the tide was low and we soon found the reported Spotted Redshank, another tick on my year list! (-: The walk along here was lovely and we were accompanied by the sounds of Redshank, Greenshank and the beautiful bubbling call of the Curlew.

 This particular Curlew had a juicy but wiggly worm to deal with!

On the way back to the car and home, we came across this Little Egret, another great success story of recolonisation in Britain. 30 years ago they were a rarity but now it would be weird not to see one on an estuary.

I'll post about our last day of our Cornish trip shortly.

Cornish birding trip - Day 2

Our first stop today would be at Penzance on the extreme southwest tip of Cornwall. This was an hours drive from where were were staying and so involved a reasonably early start to catch the falling tide. The small island of St Michael's Mount in Penzance bay is always photogenic. At low tide there is a causeway across to the island. The sky was dull and overcast (not conducive to exciting photography) and there was a freezing easterly wind.

On the beach there were several Rock Pipits. They differ from their Meadow relatives in being a colder brown colour and the breast streaks are more smudgy and diffuse.

On rocks surrounding the Jubilee Pool we soon found our target species. A cold looking Ruddy Turnstone.....

......and several Purple Sandpipers. These birds always seem to be found on rocks close to crashing waves. It always seems a perilous place to spend time!

One of them decided it was time for it's early morning and very chilly bath!

With a thorough preen afterwards.

We saw more than birds at Penzance. This Grey Seal kept popping up to check us out.

 Our next stop was further north towards St Ives. While eating our lunch at Copperhouse Creek, we were joined by various Corvids (members of the Crow family). In fact it turned out to be a Corvidfest! (-: First up was this striking leucistic (abnormal pale feathers)Carrion Crow. It also seemed to have a slightly deformed bill. That didn't stop it from picking up scraps from our lunch however! (-:

Next up was a Jackdaw. A smaller cousin to the Crow with a startling white eye.

The chance of scraps soon brought in a couple of Rooks. I normally associate this corvid with a very rural setting of large trees and fields. Rooks differ from Carrion Crows in their more shaggy/scruffy appearance and that bare area around the bill.

Last but not least of the corvids was a shyer Magpie. It sidled in after the larger corvids and various gulls had left.

Not to be left out of the scrum for scraps was this pair of Herring Gulls.

Our final stop for the day was inland at Rosenannon Downs. We were hoping to watch the evening raptor/owl roost which had been reported regularly here. The area looked promising. Unfortunately for us, it didn't turn out that way on this occasion. It was a lovely scenic area to end the day however.

 There'll be more from Cornwall soon.

Cornish bird trip - Day 1

I was lucky to get the chance for some winter birding with friends down in Devon and Cornwall this last weekend. We started off well. Just after picking up my friends in Weston Super Mare, I decided to fill up with diesel for the long journey down to Cornwall. In the petrel station forecourt were 13 Bohemian Waxwings sitting in a tree! I was busy getting the diesel and also the light was awful, so no photo, but the good start boded well for our 4 day trip. 

Our first stop was in Devon, close to Exeter. Steps Bridge at Dunsford is a well known area to try for Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. It also has a lovely River which very often has Dipper.

 We did indeed find a Dipper along the river. The light was poor and I couldn't get very close, so these are record shots only. 

Here are my birding friends, Jane, Emma and Louise. Ready to find that elusive Woodpecker!

 There were being very diligent in their task! (-:

Eventually we were rewarded with excellent views of this very hard to find bird. It has declined badly in recent years and not enough is known as to why. Although the views were good, they weren't good enough for a photo. So, this obliging Robin will have to do instead.

 It was lovely to see signs of Spring well on the way with wild Daffodils dotting the woodland floor.

 After finding our target species here, we enjoyed the lovely walk back along the river to the car.

 We had a couple of other stops on the way down to where we were staying, but no scenic ones, so the next post will start with our first full day of birding in Cornwall.