Thursday 16 February 2012

Thursday 16th February: St. Clements & Portscatho

We're still very much in family holiday mode so birding has to be snatched whereever we happen to decide to visit. Today we chose to explore somewhere different for a change and as we know the Penwith peninsula pretty well we decided to go "up county" for this. I suggested to the rest of the family a visit to St. Clements near Truro for a walk along the river as I knew this area from previous visits. There were plenty of the usual curlew, redshank, teal and shelduck as well as 9 black-tailed godwits, at least 3 greenshank and a couple of spotted redshank. Unfortunately the recently-reported avocets were once again nowhere to be seen.

Waders on the Tresillian River at St. Clements

Next it was on to the Roseland peninsula, first to St. Mawes where there was not much to report apart from a large flock of gulls hanging around a fishing boat waiting for scraps to be tossed overboard. At Portscatho there were some waders to be found on the beach: 2 bar-tailed godwits, 2 ringed plover and a flock of about 40 dunlin. At the beach hut I got chatting to the lady there whom I'd seen on TV on "Cornwall with Caroline Quentin" - naturally I wasn't the first person to mention that I'd seen her and her husband on the telly.

Gulls at St. Mawes

Portscatho birds

To round off what had been a pleasant if somewhat low key day out, on the way back home at dusk a woodock flew low over the road between Newbridge and Pendeen.

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