Lovely Cornwall

Not been 'home' for a good while so with a family visit long overdue It was good to get back to Cornwall. I had very little dedicated birding time but it was still good to get a few hours at Penzance, Marazion and Hayle- I had forgotten how easy the birding is down south! ;) A few snaps below with the Black redstart being my bird of the week. Just for the interest of 'locals' I spent a day at the Eden project and recorded a number of birds in the 'biomes' - grey wagtail, blue tit, chaffinch, robin, wren, dunnock, blackbird, chiffchaff etc. Of greater interest was a fleeting glimpse of a chunky green/yellowish warbler with a significant bill that certainly looked like a 'hippo' sp.- worth checking in the 'rain forest' biome if you visit! -I didn't take my bins or camera in ;(

Black redstart- Penzance

Black Redstart

Little Egret, Newlyn 

Stonechat, Marazion.

American Robin- South Uist

I have had a good spell of time in the field over the past couple of weeks. As per usual my local patches have produced nothing outrageous, but I have had some fun putting together a number of BTO bird track lists. Great northern divers, woodcock and a merlin have been the nicest birds locally. Slightly further afield I went on a mini twitch to Findhorn in order to see little egret and green sandpiper. Although not great rarities these are difficult species to catch up with in the north of Scotland and indeed both of these birds were 'ticks' for my fledgling 'Scottish list'.

On a similar note, although I saw an American robin a decade ago at Godrevy, Cornwall, the chance to get one on my Scottish list required a trip to the outer hebrides. This is rather arduous at this time of the year with short days, poor light generally and the need to undertake an overnight stay due to the infrequent ferry crossings. Anyway, if birding was too easy I would have seen every species by now and probably feel totally bored with the whole twitching scene!

Having teamed up with fellow Ullapool birder Richard Rafe and BTO (Scotland) atlas guru Bob Swann, we undertook the drive to Uig, Isle of Skye for the ferry to Loch Maddy, North Uist.

American robin on a very dull day.

I got onto two late Leach's petrels on the way over which was rather surprising and we had good views of a white-tailed eagle at Loch Maddy. An hour later we were fortunate to pick up the American robin from the car as we pulled up at the site! We then enjoyed good views of the bird before it was flushed by a kestrel. With an hour of 'daylight' left, we moved over to Ardvule point for good views of sanderling, another white-tailed eagle, peregrine, snipe, turnstone and 60 or so purple sandpipers. 

The following morning after a night in b n b, we had a look for the female lesser scaup at Ard Mhor. Again the light was poor and the bird was rather distant but we eventually got the key ID features sorted as it fed with a flock of tufted duck and widgeon. With only another 90 minutes or so before the return ferry crossing we quickly covered a few more coastal sites and picked up long-tailed duck, grey plover, gadwall, pintail and several great northern divers. After boarding the ferry we were treated to a very unseasonal manx shearwater and on our approach to Uig another pair of white-tailed eagles were seen interacting below a large cliff face. Now it is bag packing time again as I head off for my next bout of sea time. 

lesser scaup- honestly!

Bob and Richard enjoying a very uncrowded American robin twitch!!

Cornwall (mostly)

Family visits in Cornwall entailed a flight down to Bristol and a weeks worth of hire car. To ease the sense of despair concerning my dwindling bank account it seemed only fair and reasonable that to optimise my return I should undertake a bit of twitching and general birding whilst being in the vicinity of some good birds! 

16/05 Within an hour of touchdown I had driven to Woodford lodge at Chew valley lake, purchased my 'birding permit' driven on to Blagdon and got my scope on the wonderful squacco heron! (admittedly a fellow birder put me onto the bird and probably saved me a stressful hour or two combing the wet meadow!). Although the bird was only partially on view and rather distant, it was a great bird to see and a worthy addition to my UK life list!

Squacco heron

Two hours later I stopped off on the Charlton road bridge at west moor in Somerset, walked across a field and practically tripped over the white stork that had been reported in the area for a couple of days- my birding break (sorry- family visit!) was off to a flyer! I opted for the scope instead of the camera for this bird, which with hindsight, was the wrong choice. I even put 3 other birders onto the bird as you could walk right past it, if you didn't look through the right gap in the hedge- nice to help fellow birders after my assist on the squacco! :)

A few hours later and I was in Helston playing the part of the dutiful son, whilst at the same time secretly wishing that some more twitchable goodies would merit an sms message alert!

17/05 Mid morning I found myself back at one of my favourite birding locations- Marazion marsh. It was a cold day for May and birds were scarce but I picked up the likes of Cettis, reed and sedge warbler as well as little egret. An otter eating an eel on the surface of long rock pool was a pleasant bonus. Moving on to the Hayle estuary and then Gwithian produced only a grey plover and a couple of peregrines.  

sedge warbler

grey heron

18/05 Took a walk along the coast path at Predannack on the Lizard in the hope of finding my own good birds but everywhere was quiet. Had reasonable views of peregrine again, also singing whitethroat, but worryingly no sign of any dartford warblers.

whitethroat

dunlin

shags

fulmar

peregrine

A quick return to Marazion turned up some splendid whimbrel on the beach which were briefly joined by a grey plover.

whimbrel

sanderling, grey plover, dunlin

grey plover

The next couple of days were desperately quiet at Hayle, Marazion, Helston Looe pool and there was nothing to twitch. The only birds of note were green woodpecker, more little egrets and a couple of very smart stonechats. 

little egret- Ryans field, Hayle

I narrowly missed a roseate tern in Mounts bay, spent over two hours looking for another at Dawlish warren on the way home and then dipped out on one of my worst ever twitches when I went for the great reed warbler in Somerset- in fact it was so traumatic I can't bare to write about it!

All in all a great week looking at some great birds and pushing the year list up to 145. (and of course happy families well and truly played) :).