5th November: End of Trip Review

I've been back home in Oxford for a few days now and have a had a chance to go through my various photos and to work out a few ID's for some fungi and inverts. I've also had time to reflect on my trip and it's various highs and low.

Bolbitius titubans - Yellow Fieldcap Mushroom

Black Sexton Beetle - found in my moth trap

Like the "part one" trip this was a rather low key affair though thankfully there was at least more bird action this time around: it seems as though autumn came very late to the far south west. Indeed if a few things had worked out it would have been an excellent trip: had the Yellow-billed Cuckoo lasted just one more day and had the Radde's Warbler been more showy then I'd have been a very happy bunny. As it was I had to content myself with the usual long stayers, namely the Lesser Yellowlegs, the Rose-colour Starling, a poorly seen Red-breasted Flycatcher and a nice Yellow-browed Warbler. Of course the star of the week has to be my self-found Pendeen Barred Warbler, seen on a week when (according to the RBA review of the week) there was a resurgence of this species, mostly in the west of the country. It's a great shame that it didn't linger at all but I'm just pleased to have got what is a relatively difficult Cornish species under my belt and especially to have got it on my local Cornish patch of Pendeen.

Talking of Pendeen, I couldn't help but notice that my Pendeen birding chum Ian Kendall, managed to find Britain's third Eastern Crowned Warbler up north in Cleveland within the last week. Knowing just what a top birder Ian is, I'm not altogether surprised but he certainly deserves what must be the find of a lifetime. Well done Ian!

So a list of the highlights, first the Scarce+ birds:

Rose-coloured Starling
Lesser Yellowlegs
Barred Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Red-breasted Flycatcher

The Lesser Yellowlegs was the only rarer bird that I actually photographed

There was also a supporting cast of:


Dartford Warbler
Black Redstart
Merlin
Peregrine

The Pendeen Black Redstart

On the moth front the star attraction has to be the Brindled Ochre, I hadn't realised just how hard they are to get but even Penwith mothing stalwart John Swann has never trapped one so I must have been rather lucky.

Brindled Ochre

There were also a few new plants to add to my fledgling plant list with the Musk Storksbill and the Scurvygrass the main ones.

Musk Storksbill

So in conclusion, a low key end of October visit but with a few new sightings on my various lists to keep things ticking over so I can't complain.