I woke up far too early this morning, no doubt excited at the prospect of doing my Pendeen rounds once more. I was out shortly after first light where despite the lack of wind there was mercifully not too much of the dreaded Pendeen fog. Indeed it had been a very clear night last night and I did wonder about whether this might lead to a bit of a clear-out. As I started my rounds it did certainly seem to be very quiet. One of the Wheatears was still about first thing though it too soon departed. There was quite a bit of movement overhead with a steady passage of Chaffinch all morning interspersed with the odd Skylark. Apart from that it was pretty much just the usual stuff. There was no sign of the Black Redstart down by the lighthouse nor of the Yellow-browed Warbler up at Calartha. The only point of note was an interesting pale warbler half way up the valley by the S-bend Sallows that I never managed to get a proper look at. Perhaps one that got away. Up at Calartha I met up with a couple of birders, DH and SH who turned out to be friends of TM. We got chatting as you do and walked down the road again together. They went off to look for cetaceans for a while and later reported a couple of Blue-finned Tuna from the cliff top by the cottages.
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| Early morning Wheatear |
Back at the cottage I had breakfast and waited to see what news came in. A Dusky Warbler found by MW at PG at the Coastguard lookout was too far and given the all the Cat Birders who'd be out and about, would probably be too crowded. Instead I opted for a report of a Rosefinch at Land's End car park though it was probably going to be a hiding to nothing. I have a rule of thumb that at least half of all initial Cornish reports turn out never to be seen again and the Land's End Sallows are very hard to bird. Still, L was happy to be left alone for a couple of hours and it wasn't too far away so off I set. There I found, as predicted. that there had been no news so I had a little wander around though apart from quite a few Siskins flyin over there was little of note. I bumped into P&H who reported a Black Redstart at the complex so I went for a look but couldn't find it. Soon it was time to head back to the cottage, stopping off at St Just to pick up provisions for lunch.
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| Dunnock |
After lunch I'd promised L that we could do something that he wanted and he'd opted for the classic tea at Jordans café at Marazion. As this would involve very little exercise on his part at all I suggested that we first went for a little explore along the Carn Gloose road to look for Vagrant Emperors though when we got there it was rather overcast and breezy. Another birder who'd been there over an hour had reported no Emperors so we just did a quick zip round (3 Stonechats and a Kestrel) and headed off to Marazion.
After the usual tea in the car looking out at the sea (you can get more British than that!) we went for a walk along the beach towards the Red River mouth and back along the road. I had a quick scan over the Marsh as we went though there was little to report apart from a singing Cetti's Warbler. Then it was back to the car and off home to the cottage.
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| Marazion Buzzard |
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