The weather forecast for today was for cooler breezier conditions and this was indeed what we awoke to with a rather stiff northerly wind making conditions distinctly chilly despite the lovely sunshine that prevailed for much of the day. It was a bit of a shame as yesterday there'd been a few new birds in the county with a second Penwith Woodchat Shrike turning up as well as a Nanjizal Wryneck. However, sadly a northerly wind was rather going to put the kaibosh on any further drift migrant action.
Today we were going to get cracking with some of our DIY tasks but before I kunckled down to it I decided to start the day by looking for Woodchat Shrikes nearby in the St Just area. One has been gracing the hedgerows south of the Cot valley for several days now but as I mentioned above, a second bird was discovered yesterday in Tregeseal and as that was slightly easier to get to I decided to start off with this one first. This location was actually one that I wasn't familiar with so I did a bit of asking around yesterday evening before eventually learning that the bird had been seen off the long track that leads to the vicarage that lies on New Road to the south of Tregeseal itself. I didn't bother starting too early so it wasn't until around 9:30 that I arrived and parked up in a convenient layby near the start of the drive. As I was getting ready a nearby dog walker told me where the Shrike had been located yesterday which reassured me that I was at least at the right spot. I spent some twenty minutes working my way back and forth along the drive though there weren't that many hiding places for a Shrike there and there was no sign of it at all. I therefore soon gave up on this bird and decided to try for the long-staying Cot bird instead. I nipped over to the Cot valley and parked by the power sub-station before yomping across the stream, up past the Youth Hostel and up the steps that lead up to the footpath across the bulb fields. The bird was supposedly located near the junction between the first and second fields and as I approached I could see another birder working his way across the field though he was at the far end of the field by the time I arrived and he did't seem to be watching anything so I decided to try and find it for myself. A quick scan and I spotted the bird briefly in the hedges bordering the fields to the seaward side of the field that I was on. I set up my scope and fortunately it soon posed nicely on some bare branches enabling me to take some digiscoped photos of it.
This was just my third ever Woodchat Shrike, though with all three of them having been seen in Cornwall it wasn't any kind of tick other than a year one - still they're always nice birds to see. I didn't have the luxury of spending too long watching it though as I was all too aware that my VLW would already be cracking on with the DIY and it wasn't fair to have her shoulder all the burden of the work. Therefore with some photos in the can I hurried back to the car and back to the cottage where I spent the rest of the morning sanding down a wooden bench ready for painting.
By the end of the morning the bench had been sanded but I had a bit of a headache from using the power sander for such a long time so I wandered down to the lighthouse to clear my head and to see if I could find the Black Redstart from yesterday. In the stiff breeze there wasn't much to be seen apart from a female Stonechat and a couple of Dunnocks and there was no sign of the Redstart. The two Ravens were about as usual but there were no Chough about at all - I presume that they're off breeding somewhere else at this time of year.
Back at base, we had lunch and then planned what to do for the afternoon. As we needed to do some shopping we decided in the end to head over to Marazion and to do our usual wander along the beach for tea somewhere. There was remarkably little bird life on the beach as we walked - I'm more used to the winter months where there are good numbers of waders and gulls but the shoreline was nearly deserted. We had some tea in the Godolphin Arms overlooking the Mount and I managed to spot a passing Sandwich Tern out of the window as we sat there. Then it was back to the car and a short hop to Sainsbury's for some shopping before we headed back to the cottage for the evening.
Fortunately the forecast is for much calmer conditions tomorrow though it will still not be that warm. Let's hope that the drop in wind will be enough to encourage more drift migrant action.
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