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.

Mediterranean Mandarin.

Currently embarked to a vessel operated by a Chinese company with 94% Chinese crew- very helpful and friendly but certainly an experience! I'm one of only 3 'westerners' onboard. Aside from getting used to the menu, trying to use chop sticks in heavy seas and the obvious language challenges, my only gripe is the appalling internet connection- so bad I can only load my gmail in HTML format! Have been trying to update this blog for days but the pages keep dropping out - adding photos. is a real challenge......but here goes...

A trickle of vis. mig. is still ongoing with pied wagtail, robin, black redstart, and song thrush all recorded on deck. A brief encounter with a large, dark-headed sylvia warbler on the deck (could have been an  Orphean) was the highlight bird- unfortunately my 10 second view did not offer much scope for a firm ID. Rather surprisingly I have also recorded a number of flocks of cormorants all flying due south- I had not realised that this species undertakes such obvious migrations- unless these flocks are merely undertaking localised movements?

Sea birds have been largely restricted to a few of the larus sp. gulls including lbb, yellow-legged and herring. A few gannets have also been counted and a single bonxie this morning was a bonus. 20 or so Med. gulls have been the real star birds thus far- even in their winter plumage the adults look very smart.

Black sea- vis. mig. portraits

Wow!- busy, busy!, with lots of migrants on the move over the last few days and with the following species recorded on the deck (not in any particular order) :- pied wagtail(12+), black redstart (1), blackcap (1), redstart (20+), willow warbler (20+), chiffchaff (30+), red-breasted flycatcher (10+), spotted flycatcher (3), robin (8+), wren (1), blackbird (2), song thrush (6), chaffinch (12+), meadow pipit (1), lesser whitethroat (2), red-backed shrike (1) and flying past- lots more of the same and scores of swallows and a dozen or so skylarks! Also had visits from sparrow hawk and two red-footed falcons.

Here's a selection of some portrait shots:-

red-breasted flycatcher

red-breasted flycatcher

black redstart

lesser whitethroat

redstart (male)

red-backed shrike

spotted flycatcher