Monday dawned to torrential rain and strong winds. I was due to go back today but as I was in no hurry I thought I would do a bit more birding. I did have to nip into town to buy a gift for the neighbour who was looking after the cat while I was away. So I thought I would walk along the promenade and go via Battery Rocks just in case the Purple Sandpipers were back. This turned out to be quite an experience! The tide was in and despite walking on the landward side of the road I managed to get splooshed by a breaking wave and got soaked. Miraculously there were some Purple Sanpipers hunkered down on the rocks so it was worth the soaking after all.
Purple Sandpipers trying not to be blown away in the wind
After my errand I returned to the house and said my farewells to my host before heading of in the rain back home. Before hitting the A30, I decided to nip into Hayle for one last try for the Ring-billed Gull on the way. As the tide was high I first went to Ryan's Field though something had flushed all the birds and there were only a few Lapwing and Redshank about. Next a trip across the road to the causeway where there were some loafing Gulls as well as the Dunlin flock but no Ring-billed. Not to worry, I soaked up the sights and sounds of the estuary for a bit
before reluctantly heading off on the A30 for the long slog home.
Hayle Estuary Gulls waiting out the high tide
I broke up the journey by rendezvousing with a friend who lives in Devon at one of the service stations on the A30. We had a lovely chat while the weather raged outside. Then it was back on the road, negotiating the rain which had reached biblical proportions. It was hard work that required extra concentration but eventually I arrived back at Casa Gnome late afternoon tired but very pleased with my long weekend away down in Cornwall. Now that my brother has a place down there, I can't help but think that this will be the first of many return trips to the far South West.
The next day I decided on a more leisurely start. After breakfast I first walked down to Tolcarne and Newlyn again. Once again I came across the female type Black Redstart and the Great Northern Diver was still in the harbour but once again there was no sign of the juvenile Iceland Gull.
The female type Black Redstart. I am guessing a 1w male as it appeared to be singing
The Great Norther Diver was showing better today
I went back to my brother's for elevenses and a catch-up with them before heading up the road to the Penzance Quaker meeting. I attend in Oxford and thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like attending another meeting. They had an excellent on site shop where after the meeting I had a nice bit of cake and a chat. Then it was back to base for lunch.
For the afternoon I planned to explore the area near St. Buryan where there were a couple of stone circles I wanted to visit. The first was at Boscowen-un which involved a five minute slither down a muddy track to a lovely little circle. Set in amongst the surrounding Bracken and Blackthorn, it was gorgeous!
The beautiful Boscowen-un stone circle
Then on to the Merry Maidens. This was just sited in a grass field so not quite as beautiful surrounding but was still very nice. Then it was back to base via St Just for another quick cup of tea. The evening was spent quietly at my brother's chatting with my hosts before turning in early once again.
My plan for Saturday was for it to be my main birding day while I was down here. I started off with a walk down to the promenade and then along to Tolcarne beach - always one of my favourite locations in PZ. In past days the Bonaparte's Gull had been frequenting this area though it had not been seen for several days and I had more or less dropped it from my target list. Still I found one of the two Black Redstarts easily enough, hopping about on the wall and perching on the surrounding rooftops. There were plenty of Rock Pipits walking around under the parked cars - I'd forgotten how unphased they could be by people down here.
The female type Black Redstart on the sea wall
One of the many Rock Pipits peeking out from behind a pub table
Next it was into Newlyn Harbour itself, looking for the juvenile Iceland Gull which has recently been seen on the traditional fish quay roof. There was no sign of it but a Great Norther Diver in the harbour was nice to see. I wandered down to the end of the harbour outer wall, enjoying the morning sunshine. It was all very pleasant.
Gig rowers in the harbour
The Great Northern Diver in the harbour
There are always plenty of Turnstone in the harbour at this time of year
Next I decided to walk to the other end of the promenade to year tick Purple Sandpiper off Battery Rocks. I enjoyed the walk but was disappointed to find no Sandpipers at all roosting there even though it was high tide. Disappointed I headed back to the house to grab some elevenses with my hosts before heading out again, this time in the car.
First stop was to Helston to catch up with the long-staying pair of Lesser Scaup. They had made the boating lake their home for the winter and seemed from reports to be a sure thing. True to form, after a bit of searching I found them tucked up asleep. I took some photos though they never really got too close nor raised their heads for long.
The Helston boating lake has hosted quite a few rare duck over the years
The two Lesser Scaup, tucked up with a wary eye open
The female actually lifted her head briefly
Next, it was off to Hayle estuary to try for the Ring-billed Gull. I opted for Lelant Station as a viewing platform where I'd had success last year on the Booted Eagle trip. There I met with a fellow birder and we scanned together. We got chatting and he turned out to be a local who had moved down from the Teeside area. Despite our combined efforts we could neither find the Ring-billed Gull nor the adult Iceland Gull that had occasionally been reported. There were several Med Gulls, the usual Common Gull flock that the Ring-billed liked to associated with. A Bar-tailed Godwit was a year tick and there were a few Goosander in the channel as well. All good stuff and I wasn't too bothered about missing my target.
News had broken that the Bonaparte's Gull was back along the promenade at Wherrytown. I'd arranged to meet a friend for a walk at Marazion beach at 3pm but just had time to nip back into PZ to see if I could connect. I parked by the tennis courts and started walking towards Newlyn. In the end the flock of loafing gulls were right by the river outflow at Tolcarne so I had to walk the entire distance. There was a birder down on the beach but I decided to stay on the promenade. After a bit of scanning I found the Bonaparte's on the rocks. I yelled down to the other birder and put him on it. I was just about to do some digiscoping when it flew off. Looking at the time I decided not to linger any longer but hurried back to the car for my rendezvous at Marazion.
At Marazion I had an enjoyable walk along the beach with my friend, admiring St Michael's Mount (though we didn't go over) and then walking along St. Michael's Way a bit, following the Red River along the edge of the marsh. Very enjoyable! Then we parted company and I headed back to my brother's place. That evening we went out for a very enjoyable meal in the town. I was quite tired after my day out in the fresh air and soon retired to bed for the evening.
St. Michael's Mount as yet another band of rain approaches
The rest of the family had gone off elsewhere for a couple of weeks leaving just me and the cat alone to our own devices. After a few days of rattling around in the house on my own I decided that a change of scenery for a few days would do me good as well so decided to head down to Cornwall. This choice of destination was strongly influenced by the fact that my brother and his wife had recently moved down to Penzance from London. Regular readers will recall that I used to own a holiday cottage down in Pendeen but eventually the burden of constant maintenance and an illegal campsite next door proved too much and it was sold. However, the promise of free accommodation that didn't require any DIY was too strong to resist and I arranged everything hastily before setting off on Friday morning at around 9am.
In terms of what I was planning for my trip down to Cornwall, there were
a few decent birds around. These included a pair of Lesser Scaup at
Helston on the boating lake, the (presumably returning) Ring-billed Gull
at Hayle that I'd seen last year, a Bonaparte's Gull along the promenade in Penzance and the
Pacific Diver near Mousehole. Nothing too urgent but all nice birds to
see. With the promise of a supporting case of some Divers, a couple of
Black Redstart and an Iceland Gull or two it should be a nice weekend
away. In addition, I was keen to do some walking and to explore bits of
the area I'd not visited much before. In particular I was keen to visit
some of the many ancient stone circles that are sited in this area. With
some friends also to catch up with as well as my brother and his
wife to see, it promised to be a good weekend away.
There was one additional reason for going down: as I have discussed in previous posts (see e.g. The Zitting Cisticola twitch) that my binoculars have outlived their usefulness and were in sore need of replacement. I'd been meaning to visit an optics shop for some time to try various things out but each time something had come up to thwart me. I had more or less decided on getting the Swarovski 8 x 32 NL Pures, having read rave reviews about them and having tried out a birding friend's pair. Howver, I wanted to compare them to the 10 x 32's just in case I could be tempted to the higher magnification. I had my reservations about the higher magnification: being of slight stature a small, a lightweight pair would suit me better and I was wary of handshake counteracting any magnification benefit but it would be nice to at least test them out. So I made arrangements to stop off at South West Optics in Torquay. This would more or less be en route, entailing just a thirty minute detour from my route down to Cornwall.
The journey to Torquay was uneventful and I arrived at just after midday at an industrial estate not too far off the main road into the town. The previous proprietor had been a Cornish birder whom I knew though he had retired and someone new had taken over. On the phone he had been trying to tempt me to the 10 x 32's saying how great they were but when I arrived he was all about the 8 x 32's. I was puzzled at this sudden change of advice until he confessed he'd just sold the last pair of 10 x 32's. Anyway, I tried the 8's and they were really good. I did notice that as I was a bit tired from driving I did have a bit of hand shake even with these so decided that these would be fine. Whenever I've used 10's in the past I've always found them too much in this respect. So I bought the 8's before heading back to the car and back on to Cornwall.
I finally arrived sometime around 3pm. With just a couple of hours of daylight left, and having spent most of the day in the car, I decided to head inland to go for a walk on the moors. There was a stone circle up behind Tregeseal that I wanted to visit so I headed up there. It was rather muddy on the track up but the beautiful ancient scenery and the lovely babbling stream that accompanies the track soon combined to work their magic and to soothe away the travails of the journey. Up on the moors themselves I revelled in the vast emptiness and the timelessness of the landscape. I'd forgotten just how beautiful it all was. I paid my respects to the stone circle and then wandered over to the rocky outcrop known as the Ancestors where I sat atop, taking it all in.
Tregeseal stone circle
The view from the Ancestors looking over towards St Just
In terms of birds (I supposed I ought to mention them since this is a birding blog) it was the usual stuff: a Stonechat, a Raven, a Kestrel and a Wren. As it started to get dark I headed back down, spotting a hunting Barn Owl as it quartered over the field next to me. This is actually a species that is not so easy to see in this area. Back in St Just (where I'd parked) I scored a quick cup of tea before heading back to Penzance to where my brother's house was. This turned out to be a wonderfully large victorian house on one of the leafy roads that leads down to the promenade at Penzance. It was far enough from the sea to be sheltered from direct storm damage and sea corrosion (something I knew of only too well from having to maintain my old holiday cottage) but close enough so you could walk there in a few minutes. There I passed a very pleasant evening catching up with the two of them and eating a very nice meal prepared by my brother, who is no mean chef. Then I turned in and slept soundly.
I realise that I never posted a "final" post on my Pendeen Birding blog. Readers may have gathered from the lack of posts that "something" had happened. The something was that we ended up selling our cottage in Pendeen a couple of years ago. This was partly that the burden of having to maintain it from a distance was becoming too onerous and also partly for us everything had been spoiled by the illegal campsite that was being run in the field next to us. The latter in particular had soured our whole feeling about the place and so we ended up selling up.
With enough time having passed, I was finding myself missing this beautiful part of the county, not to mention the great birding. Below is a write-up from my main personal blog (see here) about a recent visit down to the county to catch up with the amazing Booted Eagle. I hope to continue to post the occasional report here on subsequent visits down to Cornwall. Indeed, my brother and his wife are in the process of moving down to Penzance, giving me somewhere convenient to stay, so it's quite possible that I will be down here again on a regular basis.
Booted Eagle 8th to 10th February
I'm sure that all UK birders are already well aware of the long-staying pale morph Booted Eagle that has taken up residence just north of Marazion in Cornwall these last few weeks. What was presumably the same bird was first seen in Cornwall in October of last year for a couple of days before disappearing and it wasn't until the 12th January that it was found again over the pines just north of Marazion marsh. This time it was more reliable and has remained faithful to the same location ever since. Now, at over four hours away this was too far for me personally to want to to twitch so it was only going to be if I had some kind of alternate reason for being down in that neck of the woods that I might consider going for it. Sadly, such a reason was supplied with a sudden and tragic death of a family member down in Exeter. With the funeral due on Monday, and less than two hours from there down to Marazion, I had my reasonable excuse. So I decided to make a weekend of it and headed down on the long and familiar slog from Oxford to Cornwall on Saturday morning. The trip was as tedious as ever but had the added frisson of reports of the Eagle "showing well" in the trees from the railway bridge for over a couple of hours. Usually it was only seen circling over the pines or coming into or leaving its roost so to have it sitting in a tree for an extended period of time was most unusual. "Could it stay there until I arrived?", I wondered. In the end it left a good hour before I reached Marazion so I was left wishing I'd headed off at the crack of dawn instead of my more leisurely start.
I should say a bit about viewing locations for this bird. Since January it had remained faithful to roosting in the same set of pine trees, just to the south east of Bowgyheere Farm and just north of the A394 railway bridge. There were two viewing locations for seeing it. One was from the lay-by on the A30 just south of the Ludgvan Leaze turn off where the St Michael's Way footpath meets the A30 and the other was from the railway bridge itself. The former site offered a panoramic albeit distant view of the roosting pines, various farm fields and behind you the ridge where Ludgvan was located. The bird had been seen from this location at various random times of the day as well as when it as it left or came back to the roosting pines. On some days, it would sit in the fields or on a distant branch where it could be seen from the lay-by. On the other hand the railway bridge would only offer views of it leaving or returning to the roost though these views would be much closer. So having it sit out in the open as it had done that morning was most unusual. Fellow county birder NT who was already down there had reported crippling views of the bird for a couple of hours that morning though, as I said previously, it had left a good hour before I arrived.
Armed with all the above information, I had decided that the best chance of my seeing the bird would be from the lay-by. I wasn't so concerned about crippling photos - just a nice tick would do me. For this reason I opted for the lay-by as my viewing location so just after 1pm I pulled up there to find just one other car and a young couple camped out in the lay-by and scanning the area. I wasn't too surprised - with the Eagle having put on such a great performance that morning the only people who would be there would be late arrivals such as myself. We struck up a conversation to while away the time while scanning the vista. Gradually more people joined us in our vigil though it was slow going. One thing about viewing from here was the constant noise. It was deafening! Just occasionally there would be a brief lull in the passing cars and a few moments of blissful silence before it all started again. Scanning every passing bird meant that one soon got tuned into the different jizzes: Gulls, Buzzards and Crows were the main birds with an occasional Heron or Goose thrown in.
This view became etched into my memory. The roosting pines are in the centre
As it started to get dark birder numbers fell again until it was just myself and a family of birders from up in the Merseyside area who seemed as keen as I was to see the bird. At around 4:30pm news came through on RBA of the bird again from the railway bridge and "showing well". Panic ensued and myself and the family party decided to head over there. I opted to walk (well more like run) down the St Michael's Way footpath and along the road whereas they got into their car and sped around to the other location. The trouble was the nearest lay-by to the railway bridge for parking was a good five minutes walk and in the end we arrived at the same time. There was no one else to be seen. A quick scan and I picked up a Buzzard sitting in the trees. Could this have been strung into the Eagle? It was impossible to tell. All we knew was the bird wasn't there and it had got too dark to see. Defeated and disconsolate we went our separate ways, vowing to come back tomorrow to try again.
I trudged back to the A30 lay-by and drove down to Marazion beach to stare at the sea and drink some now cold tea from my flask and to have a bite to eat. Then I drove to Sainsbury's to pick up some food for the evening and the headed off to my Air BnB for the night. This was located just the other side of Marazion at Plain-an-Gwarry. It turned out be a very nice modern apartment annex in a wonderfully quiet rural location. With a small kitchen and lounge as well as a bedrooom it was perfect for my two night stay. I settled in for the evening, very tired after a long and fruitless day. I turned in early, hoping that I would be able to connect with this frustrating Eagle at some point tomorrow.
The next morning I was up and out the door early and back at the lay-by just before 8am. The Merseyside family were there already though the weather was dark and gloomy and it was hard to see anything. We set about our vigil once more though the gloom and the chilly breeze made it difficult and uncomfortable. A Curlew in the field and three Canada Geese flying past were the only points of interest. After a little while another birder turned up who had been at the railway bridge that morning. He reported that he had seen the Eagle leave the roost from the trees at around 8am. Apparently it had been on view for all of five seconds and only 3 out of the 6 birders present had managed to see it. The birding family then reported that they had seen something fly out low from the trees at around that time being mobbed heavily but it had been too dark for them to make it out. It must have been the bird! Guttingly, I had only arrived then and was still getting ready so I'd been too late. How frustrating! Incidentally, I'd been told from various other people that a bird of prey being heavily mobbed was a good indication of it being the target bird as apparently, the corvids largely ignore the local Buzzards.
Gradually other birders arrived and joined us. Chatting with the birding family they were equally frustrated. They'd probably seen it but views just hadn't been good enough. What's more they had to leave late morning to head back up north and it seemed that the bird had now headed out for the day. In the end they decided to head over to Hayle to try to connect with some of the local birds of interests there and I decided to join them. To be honest, by this point I'd had enough of the lay-by and of not seeing the Eagle and wanted to do something else and a nice bit of gulling would be the perfect antidote. They told me that they had inside gen that the Ring-billed Gull would hang out with the flock of Common Gulls at Lelant Station. Now, I was familiar with Lelant Saltings but had never been to the Station so I followed them in the car up towards St Ives and then down the aptly named Station Hill to a cute little station tucked in some trees by the bend in the river. From the platform there were some reasonable close gulls to look through and it was quiet (no noisy traffic!) and out of the wind. What a nice contrast!
The others found the Spoonbill a bit further up the river towards the Saltings and I managed to find the Ring-billed Gull, more or less in front of us with the Common Gulls. It had been a few years since I'd seen a Ring-billed Gull so it was nice to catch up with one. Also on show was a Red-breasted Merganser, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a couple of Shelduck and the usual loafing larger gulls. Unfortunately the Glaucous Gull that had been around wasn't on show.
The adult Ring-billed Gull
After a while I'd had my fill and bade farewell to my northern friends and wished them a safe journey back. I couldn't face more time at the lay-by and anyway, it was going to be late afternoon that was going to be the prime opportunity to connect as the bird came into the roost so I wanted to do something else for a while. So I headed over to Pendeen to take a look at my old cottage there. Seeing it again brought up a weird mixture of nostalgia for past times and relief at no longer being responsible for the constant maintenance of the place. The scenery was just as stunning as before but I had a feeling that it all belonged to my past now. I decided to have a bit of a wander around to get a bit of exercise - I'd been standing around for far too long at the lay-by and it felt good to be on the move again. However, I didn't want to linger by Pendeen, partly because of the chilly wind so I headed over towards Kenidjack. Giving the wind direction, instead of going down the valley I decided to walk the other way up Tregeseal just to explore. I wandered all the way up to the moor there and back down again, finding a smart male Black Redstart on the roof of one of the houses for my troubles. By now the sun had come out and it was almost starting to feel pleasantly warm.
The Black Redstart on the roof of "The Meadows"
Sometime after 2 o'clock I headed back towards Penzance and nipped in at Battery Rocks by Jubilee Pool to year tick Purple Sandpiper. There were about forty of them sitting out the high tide on the rocks there. Always a delight to see! Then I girded my loins and headed back to the lay-by for another session. Hopefully this time it would prove fruitful.
Roosting Purple Sandpipers
At the lay-by it was back to the same as before. Chatting with the birders, checking out any passing large bird that we could spot and hoping the Eagle would come by and give us all what we wanted. The birder from this morning who'd seen it at the railway bridge was there and we got talking. He spotted some Egrets in a very distant cattle field and we decided that they were probably Cattle Egrets.
Above and below, lay-by birders
Some time after 4pm I got the sense that some people at the other end of the line (there were about ten of us) were onto something - they were looking very intently through their scopes. My companion next to me also called out the Eagle but the noise of the traffic was such that it was very hard to hear instructions. It was all over in a few seconds anyway. Three people had managed to see it as it had come in and I'd got a glimpse of something that could well have been it but it had all been too quick and now it was over. How frustrating! Those of us who had missed it decided to head over to the railway bridge on the off chance that it was still on view there. We arrived to find triumphant birders who'd been stationed there all starting to leave having had great views as it had come in, circled a couple of times and then gone into the trees to roost. It was not on view now and once again I'd missed it.
There was nothing I could do and I was stoical enough. Anyway, it was getting late and I was hungry so I headed back to Sainsbury's only to remember that it was Sunday and it was closed. Hah! I remembered this problem from before and knew that the Tesco's Express in town would be open so I nipped over there. There was a nice Starling murmuration of quite a resonable size over the main car park as I walked up the hill into Penzance. I found something suitable for dinner and then headed back to the AirBnB for the night. After having eaten I felt better and thought through my plans for the next day. The funeral was up in Exeter at 1:30pm and it was about a two hour drive. This would give me a bit of time for a last try for the Eagle tomorrow morning. With my accumulated experience over the last couple of days I decided that the lay-by was not the best site for my final attempt. In fact over the weekend the railway bridge site had consistently out performed the lay-by. On reflection, from what I now knew, my recommended tactics would be railway bridge for the departure and arrival from roosting and lay-by only during the day once it had left. In any event, I simply couldn't face the lay-by any more and the change of scenery would be a welcome relief if nothing else. Also, I'd learned the hard way that I had to be there earlier than I thought so I made plans to be there in good time tomorrow. Very tired from my efforts of the day, I turned in early and was soon asleep.
The next morning I was up and out the door by 7:15am. I parked up at a lay-by near the Marazion roundabout and walked back to the railway bridge ready for my last attempt. I was somewhat surprised to find that I was the only person there. Having multiple pairs of eyes would have been helpful. I kept my eyes peeled on the pines in case the Eagle should break cover. As I watched I heard a Firecrest calling in the valley beneath the bridge. A male and female birding couple arrived whom I recognised from yesterday afternoon as having been there. Just as they walked up he started scanning the trees and said "there it is!".
"Huh???"
He was right! It was perched up in one of the deciduous trees out in plain view. I realise that in my keeness not to miss the bird as it came out of the pines I'd not actually scanned through the trees at all and had missed it sitting out in plain view - Doh! Anyway, there it was in all its Eagle glory, sitting there and no doubt wondering how it had managed to get so lost and find itself in cold England in the middle of winter. I took some video and basked in the relief of finally having connected. All the frustration and tension of the weekend melted away and I could relax. I couldn't believe how good the views of the Eagle were: instead of the distant speck over the pines, here it was close up and just sitting there nonchalantly. I put the word out on various channels and took some video. From the
bridge its head was partly obscured but by walking up the road a bit it
was possible to find a gap in the trees where it could be viewed without
obstruction (thanks to NT for that tip!).
A phone-scoped phto of the bird loafing in the trees
A couple of other birders arrived on the back of my RBA submission whom I recognised as having dipped yesterday afternoon from the lay-by. They too were most relieved finally to connect like this. As I had seen the bird so quickly (it was just before 8am that it was first found) I decided that I had plenty of time and would wait to see it fly. After a while it did so but only to a nearly tree so it was still on view albeit a bit more distant and more obscured. Still, it was enough for me and I decided to head off to Exeter in good time. So it was back to the car, then after a brief nip back to Sainsbury's to fuel up I headed off on the long slog north towards Exeter.
The journey northwards was long and uneventful. Because I had plenty of time I had decided on a last birding effort. RSPB Labrador Bay was only half an hour from Exeter and apparently offered views of Cirl Buntings from the car park. "What's not to like?", I thought, delighting at the prospect of eating my lunch while watching these colourful Buntings. In the event, things didn't quite go according to plan. There was a howling gale blowing directly in off the sea up towards the car park hedge and no self respecting Bunting was going to be anywhere near those hedges. So I got tooled up and had a wander around. I met a birding lady from Somerset who was also looking and we teamed up. A quick phone call to NT who'd been the previous day in similar weather conditions gave me some guidance on where to look but to no avail. In the end I spent far too long searching and had to rush back to the car, change into my funeral clothes in the back of the car and then rush back to Exeter. I got there just in time and hurriedly wolfed down some lunch in the car park before joining the proceedings. The funderal and wake were as good as these things can be. At least it was a chance to catch up with some family members.
At around 4pm I headed off on the final leg of my journey back home to Oxford. This last leg was very tiring with rain, the dark and the narrow windy roads of the A40 and the glare of on-coming cars making for difficult driving conditions and I didn't arrive back at Casa Gnome until after 7pm. Still, I'd got back safely and had had a great long weekend away with a stonking first lifer of the year under my belt. Despite the hard work involved, it had been a great trip away.
Over half term we had a family trip down to Cornwall again. With two out of three children in tow we headed off on Tuesday for the rest of the week.
The birding down there seemed to have peaked on the Sunday before we
arrived with loads of goodies (Golden Oriel, Woodchat Shrike, Red-backed Shrike and Black Stork) all being seen on the same day. However,
since then it was more like a typical June with not much at all on
offer. The first couple of days I spent some time failing to track down the lingering but elusive Black Stork that was being seen occasionally at Rosewall Hill (Buttermilk Hill as the locals know it). Despite putting in a quite a few hours in the end, I never got to see it.
A distant Cuckoo on Rosewall Hill was scant compensation for not seeing the Black Stork
Hill top Painted Lady
This Grey Gorse Piercer (Cydia ulicetana) was actually a moth lifer. It was plentiful on the gorse flowers on the summit.
Our stay at Pendeen followed the usual pattern of DIY in the morning and then doing something in the afternoon. We had a family trip to Trewidden gardens and a walk down Kenidjack, around Cape Cornwall and back via Carn Gloose which was nice but offered nothing out of the ordinary in terms of sightings. Still, May and early June are beautiful times of the year down in Cornwall and it was enough just to enjoy the wonderful scenery and what had turned out to be a great week of weather.
Pendeen Whitethroat
Garden Goldfinch
Beautiful Demoiselle at Kenidjack
Towards the end of the week it turned very foggy at Pendeen and putting the outside porch ("moth light") on brought in quite a few species.
Cream Spot Tiger
Fox Moth
Spectacle
On Saturday some of the family wanted to head into Mousehole for a while to explore the shops and have some tea. After dropping them off I elected instead first to head to Newlyn to see if the long-staying American Herring Gull was around. However despite searching all the usual spots I could not find it at all. At this point I got confirmation from P&H that a Rose-coloured Starling was still present at St Buryan after having first been reported the previous night so I cut short my gull search and sped over there instead. It was very misty at St Buryan when I arrived and parked up in the side road where it had been seen. Still after less than ten minutes of wandering around it turned up, stting first on a telegraph pole and then on a roof-top - classic views! Despite the mist I managed some photos.
Rose-coloured Starling at St Buryan
That afternoon we were due to visit my VLW's niece up county a bit but the weather turned rather bad and I started to feel unwell (I was fighting off a nasty cold that our son has had all week) so we headed back to the cottage to start packing up instead.
On Sunday we decided to head back home via Glastonbury (which we'd been meaning to visit for many years) which just happened to be close to Ham Wall RSPB where a certain River Warbler was by coincidence currently on territory. The traffic was heavy all the way up on the A30 and also on the M5 up to our turn off. With a sign warning of hour long delays up ahead we were grateful finally to turn off and head for Glastonbury. I dropped the others off in the city centre and then hurried back to Ham Wall. I was very much aware that I had limited amount of time and as it was now afternoon and getting rather hot, it was possible that the bird (which is known to sing in the night) might well take a siesta. So I hurried along the familiar track towards the twitch spot.
Ham Wall is one of my favourite reserves. This was my fifth visit but each previous time it had delivered in the form of a new personal UK tick. I had this site to thank for Pied-billed Grebe, Hudsonian Godwit, Little Bittern and Collard Pratincole - could I add River Warbler to this list? After a brisk 10 minute walk I crossed the first footbridge over the drain and hurried to join about a dozen or so other birders. The twitch arena turned out to be a length of about 30 yards long, facing towards a reedbed across an area of srub and reeds. I asked about when it was last seen and was told about half an hour ago. I set up my gear and settled down to wait.
Fellow Twitchers waiting for the bird to show
The reedbed in which the River Warbler was hiding
There was plenty of other birds to see and hear. With several Cetti's Warblers singing within earshot, a hawking Hobby and regular sightings of Marsh Harriers and Great White Egrets it was a lovely place to be waiting. The only issue was that I knew I was on a tight schedule. After three quarters of waiting with no sighting I was starting to get worried. I knew that the patience of the rest of the family was distinctly finite and I started to contemplate the nightmare scenario of getting "that phone call" from them saying they were fed up and wanted to be picked up, before I'd seen the bird. I had just started to think about when I could come back again when the shout went up that it was flying low down in front of us. I managed to see a large dark brown blob fly towards a clump of reeds with some bare twigs in and a short time later it popped up briefly and started to sing it's weird pulsating whirring song. Just at that moment I got the phone call enquiring how I was getting on. I explained that the bird had just started to show and I would be another three quarters of an hour if that was OK. They agreed and I set about trying to get some photos. The bird was more or less on show constantly at this point, preening in a Hawthorn bush for a while before having another burst of song. The trouble was my auto-focus was really struggling to pick it out in amonst all the reeds and I got shot after shot of blurriness. After a while it moved even closer and sat on an exposed stem, in fact so close the autofocus was registering the reeds behind it. Eventually I zoomed all the way in and managed to fluke a couple of shots that turned out OK.
Showing well at last
When it disappeared again I decided to head off back to the family. Having snatched victory from the jaws of defeat it was in an elated mood that I retraced my steps back to the car and then drove back for the rendezvous. The others had very much felt that they'd "done" Glastonbury which turned out to be very alternative with all the shops being New Agey of some description. All very well as far as it goes but after wandering around for a bit the others felt that it was rather samey.
With a couple of hours on the road still ahead of us, we chose a scenic route back home that avoided the rest of the M5 and the rest of the journey passed uneventfully. It has been a nice change of scenery down in Cornwall and whilst the birding had been quiet I'd managed to get a nice bird on the way back home which more than made up for it.
Because of Covid restrictions we had not been able to get down to Cornwall at all since last summer. We were presently in two minds about whether to let it out again for what would no doubt be a summer of high demand or in fact to sell the place given the extremely buoyant property market in the South West. In either case I needed to get down to sort the place out from its winter storm battering. There just so happened to be some good birds down in the South West, namely the Norther Mockingbird at Exmouth and the American Herring Gull as Newlyn. So it was, after rather a restless night in anticipation of finally getting out and seeing some birds again, that I was on the road shortly after 8 a.m. along the familiar route to the South West. News of the Mockingbird had already dropped on RBA so I was in a relaxed frame of mind as I steered the Gnome-mobile on her course. The traffic was light and I made excellent time down to the Exmouth turn-off when some ten minutes later I was parking up in Iona Avenue and getting tooled up. I had done a fair bit of pre trip research in order fully to acquaint myself with the location - for this particular site, knowing all the viewing angles from the different sides was more important than usual due to social distancing considerations and also due to rather strained relationship with some of the neighbours who had got fed up with birders climbing their walls and breaking their fences. So I had carefully read up all the gen on the BirdForum thread on the bird.
To start with I went to the main road where I found a couple of birders peering through a gap in someone's fence into the neighbouring gardens where the favoured Holly bush and Palm trees could be seen. A quick enquiry revealed that they had not yet seen the bird in the twenty minutes that they had been there. I decided to do a quick tour and found the infamous alleyway which was very narrow indeed and no place for any social distancing so I decided to steer clear of there. Down Cauleston Close there was a narrow gap between the houses where the Holly tree could be viewed but it was hardly ideal and felt rather intrusive on the locals. Back on the main road the two birders told me that the neighbour whose fence gap they were looking through was getting very cross and kept putting up barriers to try to block the view. In the end it was obvious to me that the best viewing point was on the opposite side of the road where you had perfectly good scope views of relevant trees without having to intrude on any of the neighbours' privacy. Having duly set up it wasn't long before the Mockingbird appeared in it's favoured tree again. In colouring it very much reminded me of a Thrush sized Barred Warbler though with it's long tail and bill that was as far as the comparison went. It would sit still for long periods of time so there was no issue with tracking it or taking photos. It seemed relaxed and content and indeed during the entire time I was there I only saw it fly into the neighbouring Palm trees in order to feed on two occasions so I guess that it had already done much of its feeding for the day. I spent some time digiscoping it and some of them came out OK.
There were not many birders on site: during my time there I saw a total of six others. With the "stay local" restrictions having been eased at the end of last month most people who were going to come to see this bird had already done so. Most of the time the bird was on view, sitting in the tree and doing not very much. The original pair had gone down the alleyway to try their luck but the rest of us stuck to the far side of the road. After about an hour I decided that I had had my fill and headed back to the car. Having now got my head around the geography of the place I realised that, near where I'd parked, there was a narrow gap between the houses on Iona Avenue where one of the Palms could be seen. Just as I took a look the Mockingbird flew up into it and gave me what were the closest views of the entire time while it fed briefly before heading back to the Holly Tree (which was hidden from this vantage point).
This was a great finale for my visit and well satisfied but with much still to do ahead of my I fired up the Gnome Mobile and headed back onto the road. There had been no news on the American Herring Gull so far that day but an hour from Penzance the reassurring "still present" message came on my RBA app and I
could relax for the rest of the trip. Arriving in Penzance I navigated my way straight around to Newlyn Harbour. I had intended to park at Sandy Cove, an area of hard-standing near the shore just as you leave Newlyn but there were loads of "Private Land" message showing everywhere so I guess that this was no longer possible. As I headed back I noticed a parked car on a single yellow line just above the beach where the gull was located. Remembering that it was a bank holiday I realised that I could park right on site and duly did so.
I got out of the car, to be greeted by a stiff northerly breeze. From my vantage point I could look right down on the beach which I recognised from various on-line photos of the bird and which I knew well from many past visits. There were only half a dozen gulls loafing on the beach and none was the bird I was after. Somewhat deflated I suddenly realised how tired I was. Was I going to have to come back later to see it? I stared disconsolately out at the harbour. A few gulls had noticed me lingering and flew closer to investigate - on the off-chance that I might feed them, I guess. One of them immediately stood out in flight as having very dark tail coverts. Even in flight I could also pick out the paler head and the "Glauc" like pink bill with a dark tip. Bingo - I had my bird! Rejuvenated by my success I decided to take my packed lunch and flask of tea down to the beach and to enjoy the company of the bird.
My first view of the American Herring Gull, looking down from where I had parked the car
Down on the beach near the tiny memorial chapel there were a couple walking their dog and throwing sticks for the dog all along the beach. I went over towards the gulls and decided to chuck in a few pieces of bread, as much to try and disuade the dog walkers from encroaching in this area as attracting the gulls. Fortunately, the dog people got the message and kept their activities to the far end and with my bread throwing I had got the attention of all the local gulls, numbering some three dozen or so gulls in total. Most were first winter birds, mostly Herring with a few Great Black-backed in amongst them and of course our Neartic interloper as well. From the numerous photos on the internet of this bird, I already knew how striking it was but it did really stand out from the crowd. To my mind it had almost a Glauc feel to it, with it's pale coffee wash to it, it's chunky size and of course the pink bill with the dark tip. The head was pale and it had a nice milky-coffee wash to the breast. The upper and lower tail coverts were strikingly dark and it had the pale bases to the greater coverts, at least on the outer edge of the wing. One thing that really struck me what the head shape which was noticeably
different from the other Herring gulls, with a more rounded shape to
it. All in all a pretty classic "smithy". I say all this with all the assurance of someone with only text book knowledge of them and who'd never actually seen one in the field before. It was great though that my first should be such a classic bird and one that was showing so well.
I particularly like this photo which nicely shows just how stand-out the AHG was compared to the local birds
The obligatory UTC shot
I sat and munched my lunch, sharing bits of it with the assembled throng. The AHG actually hung back from trying to fight for scraps and merely watched from a distance. Still it was close enough that I could shoot some video by balancing my superzoom camera on my knees.
Between myself and the gulls we soon managed to polish off my lunch and after a couple of reviving cups of tea from my flask it was time to get on.
My first stop was just down the road a Jubilee Pool in order to see if there were any roosting Purple Sandpipers. Sadly the tide was too far out but I did manage to see a few on the small rocky island opposite the monument next to the pool. Then it was on to Sainsbury's in order to pick up some food for my stay before heading over to open up the cottage. With lots to do in a short space of time I cracked on with making a start on the preparations until I was too tired to work any more and so I turned in, dreaming of Mockingbirds and Gulls.
I woke up early the next day with much to do. I won't bore readers with a blow by blow account of all my DIY preparatations - after all this is a birding blog rather than anything else. I did manage to get out briefly in the morning with one of the Pendeen locals who showed me an aberrant Chiffchaff singing in a nearby plantation. So most chiffchaffs go: "jit ja ja jit..." etc. Iberian chiffies go: "jit ja ja jit, weet weet, cha cha cha cha" (as we all learnt to our cost in Oxon with a weird aberrant bird a few years ago). Well, this bird was going "weet, weet, jit ja ja jit" - a sort of backward half Iberian. It also never once dipped its tail which was most unusual. Not sure exactly what it was then but it seemed to have some Iberian influences. You can listen to a recording here.
Later that afternoon I went up the carn behind Pendeen village to look for a female Ring Ouzel that had been seen there but in the strong wind I could not find it. Once again I worked until I was too tired before turning in for the night.
Pendeen Stonechat
The obligatory Chough photo
I had intended to leave promptly the next morning but in the end I had things to finish off so it wasn't until midday that I finally left. I decided that after such an intense DIY-filled visit I would take a rather leisurely approach to the return journey as a reward for all my efforts. My first stop was at Drozmary Pool near Bolventor on Bodmin Moor where I soon had distant views of the long-staying female Ring-necked Duck and the adult male Scaup. The only other birds there were a female Tufted Duck and a Gadwall.
I also stopped at a service station to eat my lunch and to have a cup of tea before heading on for my third stop at Frampton-upon-Severn Sailing Lake for the long-staying 1w Bonaparte's Gull. This turned out to be a lovely site. After the harshness of the Cornish landscape everything was "soft" and more spring-like. There were hirundines everywhere hawking over the lake with singing Willow Warblers in the bushes. Unfortunately the gulls were all right in the far corner and despite grilling them all very carefully a number of times there was no sign of the Bonaparte's. In the end I gave up and headed on for home, arriving back feeling very tired after an intense few days away. Still I'd managed to see a couple of new birds and things were ready to move ahead with the cottage.
Addendum
The Mockingbird did its credentials no harm by leaving a few days after I saw it. Amazingly, it was picked up in Pulborough, Sussex where it spent one day before moving on. My sketchy understanding is that the eastern subspecies is largely resident whereas the western ones do undergo a migration of some sorts so this could be one of those that has somehow (perhaps with the aid of a ship) made it to our shores. In any event it was a great bird to see.
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