Tuesday 5th April: Stithians Reservoir

There was one bird which had been lingering for some time in Cornwall which I still needed for the Cornish list which was ring-necked duck. I'd missed the one at St. Gothian but I'd noticed that the Stithians bird, whose appearance had been rather erratic, had been reported regularly for a number of days so the next morning I got up early and drove over to Stithians reservoir. This time I made it straight to the southern causeway without getting lost as I'd done on my previous visit. As I pulled up a couple of sand martins were hawking low over the water, battling against the reasonably strong wind. I made my way to the hide and had a good scan but apart from a couple of teal and a few coots and moorhens it all appeared rather quiet. Rather than hanging about in the hide I decided to take a walk along the causeway and almost as soon as I did this a number of tufted ducks swam out from close into the bank and in amongst them was the drake ring-necked duck, looking very smart indeed. I spent a little time taking some digiscoped video from both the causeway and back in the hide but I didn't have too long before I had to be back at the cottage ready to start the decorating so the results were somewhat rushed and were little more than record shots. Still I was pleased finally to have caught up with this handsome duck

The Stithians ring-necked duck

Later that day after we'd all had enough of painting we headed over to Marazion for a stroll along the beach and to see if we could score a cream tea somewhere. On the way I was able to pick out a few sandwich terns hunting over Mounts Bay - a Cornish tick for me.