Easter Family Holiday

We decided on a last minute family holiday to Cornwall this Easter. It is a location which we often visit and we always go down to the Penwith peninsula which is the furthest south-west you can go. There the coastal scenery is stunning, the beaches are great and there are plenty of walks to go on. In addition to all this it also just happens to be one of the top birding locations in the country for vagrants and also has some of the top sea watching locations in the shape of Porthgwarra, Pendeen and St. Ives. As I mentioned previously, some research had indicated that actually April was rather a quiet time down there and it more comes into its own in the autumn but even so there was always going to be something of interest to see. To add some motivation, a male woodchat shrike had been down there at Church Cove, near the southern tip of the Lizard peninsula for over a week and I was really hoping that it might stay until we got down there.

The drive down there was uneventful; we stopped off at Tintagel en route where nesting fulmars were noted, a dozen razorbills were loafing out at sea and a peregrine was seen soaring high over the town. We were staying in a converted mill house in Penberth, which is the first of the series of valleys around Lands End. The other valleys read like a roll call of famous birding locations: Porthcurno, Porthgwarra, Nanjizal, Land's End, Nanquidno and Cot Valley all within a short drive of where we were staying. I'd changed my Bird Guides subscription to pick up just Cornwall and I didn't even want to know what I might be missing back home whilst I was away as otherwise the gripp-off would spoil the holiday. Friday evening I walked up the hill to where I could get a phone signal (it was that remote) and sure enough the woodchat shrike had still been there that day. So the next morning I got up at 5:45am and was out the door just before 6am. It was just starting to get light as I headed off and I saw a tawny owl fly over the road ahead of me, presumably heading back to roost for the day. I arrived at Church Cove at around 6:50am and was in position just before 7am, staring at the patch of gorse where the shrike had been hanging out. After a short period I noticed the bird, actually in a small tree very close by and I managed a quick bit of video at very close range. The bird soon disappeared and I waited patiently for another view. During this time I was joined by another birder and a short while later it re-appeared in the same tree before flying out to the gorse bushes opposite us where it would show from time to time. After a while I headed back to Penberth but en route I got a text that a hoopoe had been seen the previous day at Polgigga, which was just a few minutes further on from Penberth. I headed over there where I happened to bump into a local birder whose patch Polgigga was and who'd found the bird the day before. Apparently it had been seen in the lane that heads out to the moor but was rather elusive. When we got to the appropriate spot there turned out to be several other birders about and the hoopoe was nowhere to be seen so I turned around and headed back to the cottage.

Woodchat Shrike. These shots were by far the best of the bunch. They are videograbs of a few seconds worth of footage when the bird was very close in the tree.

Apart from that one twitch, there was nothing else of particular note around in the area whilst we were there. The hoopoe was seen once more a few days later and I made another attempt on it without any joy. A great white egret was seen a couple of times at Marazion Marsh though I didn't bother trying for it. With nothing specific to go for, I would get up early and get in a couple of hours birding in the morning before we headed out for the day. I went to Porthgwarra one morning to look around and I managed a short time sea-watching from the famous Gwennap Head. I also did a couple of walks along the coast from Penberth to see what was about. On a typical coastal walk one would see linnets, dunnocks and chaffinches and corvids as the stock birds. Where it was moorland terrain then wheatears and meadow pipits were to be encountered. Interestingly I only once saw a stonechat the whole time I was there which was very unusual.

There were lots of linnets about on the moorland

Even the meadow pipits look rather colourful at this time of year

Buzzards were to be seen everywhere, here's one at Porthgwarra

During the day I'd always have my bins with me and it was a question of taking advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. When we went to St. Ives for the day, my VLW and the girls wanted to go shopping so I took L around to the island where there was a rather stiff breeze blowing towards the shore. We found a sheltered spot and L soon fell asleep whilst I passed a very pleasant hour and a half sea-watching. I only had my bins but the birds were coming in rather close and several times there was a flock of around fifty manx shearwaters close to where I was sitting, diving away for fish. Another time my eldest daughter wanted to buy something that she'd seen from a shop in Marazion so I dropped her off and found somewhere to park overlooking the bay. During the twenty minutes we were waiting I managed to find a great northern diver which was fishing quite close in to the shore. Yet another time my VLW and the girls wanted to shop in Penzance so I said I'd take L to look at the ships in the harbour. As it was high tide we first of all stopped off by Jubilee Pool where purple sandpipers were known to roost at high tide. Sure enough there they were, just a few yards away on the rocks. By leaning over the sea wall I managed to find quite a few more which were actually roosting in the cracks in the wall and I reckoned that there were at least 35 in total together with a similar number of turnstones.

The turnstones and purple sandpipers roosting on the rocks

Purple Sandpiper. This shot was digiscoped but because of the angle
involved I had to hold the scope in my hand rather than on the tripod.

This colourful littoralis rock pipit on Portheras Beach came close enough for me to take a reasonable shot with my P&S camera.

This obliging chiffchaff at Polgigga was very docile - perhaps it had just flown in and was exhausted

On a walk along the coast from Penberth to Porthcurno I heard a familiar call and looked round to find a chough flying close to us along the cliff. A short while later a pair of them appeared again though they moved on before I could get a record shot. On a walk down to Nanjizal beach we got great views of a female merlin which flew up from the gorse and headed up the valley. Whilst hanging around on Marazion beach a flock of waders flew in which turned out to consist of dunlin, sanderling and some ringed plover. A pair of ravens were frequently to be seen flying overhead in Penberth Valley. Chiffchaffs, willow warblers and blackcaps were the only warblers that had arrived yet but were to be found in reasonable numbers in the appropriate locations. All in all I managed to see some nice birds whilst doing family stuff.

Autumn Family Holiday to Cornwall

This week saw the family off down to the furthest reaches of Cornwall for a half-term holiday. We've been going to the end of Cornwall (i.e. around the Penzance area) for family holidays for several years now but it's only towards the end of last year when I took up birding again that I realised what a hot spot it is from the birding point of view. It was therefore with great keenest that I headed down there once more to take in the fantastic coastal scenery and hopefully some good birds too. As it was the last week in October it was getting rather late for some of the passing birds and a lot of the good stuff had already been and gone. The start of the month had seen several wrynecks, a buff-breasted sandpiper and several rose-coloured starling in the area as well as an American Wigeon and a red-eyed vireo. In fact the latter had even been discovered in the garden of the cottage that we were to stay in, in Trevilley, just a couple of minutes from Land's End and the famous Alder Flycatcher had also been discovered a few minutes walk from the cottage. Unfortunately all these birds had departed by the time that we were due to get down there but there were still some sightings of yellow-browed warblers and firecrests around in the valleys around there and these two birds, together with some brent geese and a couple of pink-footed geese which were in the area were my target birds for the trip. In addition, the area is well know for attracting rare passage birds and vagrants so anything could turn up. In particular there are a few key sights right near where we were staying which were know hot spots for rarities: Penberth, Porthcurno, Porthgwarra, Trevilley Farm & Nanjizal Valley, Land's End, Nanquidno Valley and Cot Valley were all within a few minutes drive. To make sure that I was going to know what was going on without the benefit of the internet I signed up for the Bird Guides text alert service, customised it to Cornwall only and headed off on Friday afternoon for the south-west.

The journey started off ok but we hit traffic as we joined the M5 southwards and so crawled along for an hour. We had just started moving again and entered Somerset which reminded my of my recent trip to Brownsea Island. There, on the ferry over, I'd met with a Somerset birder who was consulting for the BBC Autumn Watch program. He'd said that cattle egrets, having bred there, were very much still around. As I was just mulling this over I saw a couple of birds flying over the motorway in front of me. The time was 18:05 (I looked afterwards) and whilst it was getting dark the sun was clear of the clouds and shining quite brightly. These two birds were clearly egrets but were rather small and what's more both had yellow beaks and pale legs! There was no doubting them as cattle egrets and even though I only saw them for a few seconds before I had driven past it was a fantastic way to start the holiday. In particular I was most pleased to have connected with this species as I'd dipped out a couple of times earlier in the year in Sussex and with the large number of sightings in various parts of the country I was left feeling that I must be about the only birder left not to have seen one this year.

The next day was, from a birding point of view, one of misses and dips. Once we'd arrived at the cottage I'd received a Bird Guides text that a Richard's pipit had been seen in Sennen, not five minutes from where we were. I went out to look, meeting up with a local birder there, but the bird was no where to be seen. There was also a report of a blue throat at Land's End so on the way to Penzance to do some shopping we stopped off there briefly but the weather was atrocious and all I could find was a bunch of other birders all looking cold and not having seen anything. With a car full of children with a low boredom threshold, I didn't hang about long. Whilst in Penzance, we nipped over to Mount Bay to see if we could see the geese but again no luck. In the afternoon we went to the Cot valley to shelter from the wind. There I saw some goldcrests and a chiffchaff but no yellow-browed warblers nor any firecrests. Not a very good start to the week but I was expecting that it wouldn't be easy, especially for the yellow-browed and the firecrests which can be hard to pick out.

The following day we were lounging around in the cottage and I was wondering where to go out for a morning trip with L, my two-year old son, when a text came in saying that the blue throat was still at Land's End and was showing well! That decided it and within literally 5 minutes of having received the text I was pulling up in the car park. I decided to leave L in the car whilst I did a quick reccy and as I was getting ready I met a birder coming back who said that the bird was only about 40m away and was showing well out in the open. He directed me to a group of four other birds who were standing around and I hurried over. On arrival, a quick enquiry revealed that it was in a clump of scrub about 20m in front of us but had just nipped round the back so that we couldn't at present see it. A minute or so later it hopped back round the front in clear view. It showed well for several minutes before going off into a larger clump of scrub. I went back to the car to find that L had fallen asleep so I figured that I had a bit more time to see if I could take a photo and I went back to where the bird currently was. Unfortunately it was deep within the scrub again and it was starting to rain. I waited a short while to see if it would re-emerge but the weather was going to be difficult for digiscoping anyway and I didn't want to leave L too long so I made my way back to the car and the cottage. Below is a photo taken by Steve Rogers who has a great blog of Cornish birding at SW Optics Photos

The Land's End blue throat. Photo © Steve Rogers

When I got back to the cottage, L was still asleep so I decided to leave him there. I was just getting out of the car when I heard a crest calling. What's more the glimpse that I got of the bird seemed to show an eye stripe so frantically tried to follow it as it moved around the small trees and shrubs of the cottage garden. After a minute or so I got a clear view and it was definitely a firecrest! I watched it for several minutes during which at one point it came so close that it was literally less than 2m from me, giving a crippling view of the wonderful firey crest and the elaborate markings around it's eyes and heads. What a fantastic view and in the cottage back garden too!.

Later that afternoon, after a walk down Nanjizal valley to the cove and back (no interesting sightings apart from a feeding gannet in the cove), a glance out of the kitchen window reveal to my delight a wonderful pair of black redstarts on the roof of the out building behind the house. Last year I'd seen quite a few black redstarts in the area so I was expecting them but it was great to see them so close to the cottage. I did look out for a suitable opportunity to take a photo but unfortunately one never arose. To round off the day we went back to Penzance for a wander along the beach. To my delight the pale-bellied brent geese were back in the bay and were feeding about 100m from the shore line so I managed some digiscoped shots of them. There were also a flock of 15 turnstones along the shore with 2 juvenile sanderling in amongst them.

Some of the pale-bellied brent geese at Mount Bay, Marazion.

All in all an excellent Sunday with two of my target birds (firecrest and brent goose) and a wonderful bonus in the shape of the bluethroat as well as the black redstarts which, although not year ticks, are always nice to see.

The next day, before the first outing and whilst staring out the door at the garden to see if there were any rarities present, I had a flyover which I am pretty sure was a lapland bunting. I only saw and heard it for a split second and I only know the call from a recording but it seemed to tick all the boxes. It's only that fact that my view was so brief and I'm not that familiar with them which leads me to leave it as a probable rather than a definite tick. In the morning I took L to Penberth to see if I could connect with any more firecrests or any yellow-browed warblers. Penberth is a lovely sheltered valley with a stream running down it and lots of trees and scrub leading down to a sheltered cove. There were quite a few birds around calling and I saw a female black cap, lots of tits, goldcrests and a flock of siskins. Towards the end, as L was getting restless I saw in the distance amongst the tits, a greenish bird with a long eye stripe. It took a while for my brain to engage, and I was thinking firecrest for a while until I remember the elaborate layers of black, white and gold/orange that go to make up a firecrests head colourings and this was a simple long eye stripe and therefore more than likely a yellow-browed warbler. It wasn't an altogether satisfactory ID so I decided to come back that afternoon with the rest of the family for another look. That afternoon, when we returned, having eaten our picnic lunch in the car as the weather was a bit dodgy, we set off for the cove once more. I'd only gone a few steps when I heard a very distinctive call which I immediately knew from my pre-holiday homework to be a yellow-browed. A minute or so of scanning in the canopy revealed the bird, which moved clearly into view, showing off it's two wing bars and elongated supercilium. I watched it for a few minutes before it moved away. A great view of a fantastic bird.

After that, the holiday started to go rather pear-shaped. First L, then my eldest daughter and then myself all came down with a bug that left us vomiting for a day or so. As bugs go it was rather mild but it rather put the dampers on the holiday. We did manage a couple of trips to stare at the sea from a car park - the it was too windy to get out for long though I did manage about 15 minutes of see watching: loads of auks, kittiwakes, gannets, fulmars and a manx shearwater. We also saw a pod of dolphins at Cape Cornwall which was great.

From a birding perspective there was little else to report on the holiday apart from on the day we were going home when I persuaded the family that it would be a good idea to stop off at Leylant Saltings Station for a few minutes whilst I scanned the Hayle estuary. This is a well known birding location and often home to vagrant green-winged teal and american wigeon. None of these were currently known to be around but there were supposed to be two pick-footed geese around which I was keen to see. I set up my scope and started a quick scan so not really checking the gulls for Meds. for example. There were loads of wigeon, some shelduck, a few ringed plover, a single bar-tailed godwit and plenty of redshank and oystercatchers, herring and black-headed gulls with a few lesser and greated black-backed thrown in. On the goose front there were a couple of dozen grey lags, a single dark-bellied brent, a few canada and also the two pink footed though they were half hidden in the channel and only showed relatively briefly. The estuary looked great and I would really have wanted to have spent much longer there but the family would no doubt be getting restless so reluctantly I headed back. Still I'd seen my target geese which was a great way to end the holiday.