Porthgwarra

As promised...

My desperation to see a UK Cory's Shearwater was only heightened by missing the Seaton ones, and then highetened even more by missing an excellent sea watching day off south Cornwall on Saturday just gone.  The weather for Monday morning wasn't ideal, but I thought Porthgwarra was worth a shout, so at 3:20 I left Seaton.  I would have got there sooner but there was a horrific diversion in place at night on the A30, but still I was at PG scope up sea watching by 06:40.

I was on my own until about 07:40 - quite stressful when there's birds passing at all distances!

My totals for 06:40-10:10 were;

4 Cory's Shearwater
9 Sooty Shearwater
41 Balearic Shearwater
4 Storm Petrel
2 Great Skua
3 Sandwich Tern
1 Ocean Sunfish

So yes - I did it!  Cory's in the bag :-)  The whole reason I wanted to get there for first light was because a weather front came through the night before, and I thought my best chance for big Shears would be early on - and I was right!  All Cory's were singles, the first was the best, at 06:58 and came through with two Manxies, then there were two more singles at the same distance (just beyond Runnel Stone) within the next 15 minutes. A fourth went west at 08:35 but boy was it distant, way beyond the Runnel Stone!   Aren't they great birds, so so relaxed and lazy looking, hugging the waves as they soar past.  Have to say, I also think they are bloody hard to spot - despite their size! I think it's because they fly so low to the sea, hardly flap, and always seem to be slightly changing direction.  

All the Shearwater action was great. I reckon my Balearic count was about 10-15 short of how many actually flew past, they were coming through with the Manxies right below the watch point so were easy to overlook.  The Sooties were great as they always are - I love their wing and body shape!

Seven Balearic and a Manx Shearwater (bottom left)

Gannets were streaming past

The Runnel Stone, a very helpful marker about one mile out.

As ever with here, sea watching with the sight and sounds of Chough around you is never a hardship...

Saw four in all

And towards the end of my watch, it was good to see the Scillonian come past...

Wonder if anyone on there has now seen a Cliff Swallow!?

I thought I'd use it to show off the capabilities of the Nikon P900. I think it passes PG at a distance of about 1.5 miles, and this is what happens when you crank the P900 zoom right up...

Hello!

After PG, and after some time with the best wader in the world, on the way home considering how many rare waders had been appearing, I thought Davidstow was worth a look at. This was my first ever visit here and my god does it look good. It was drizzly, foggy and felt so so rare...

Davidstow

Sadly didn't find anything rare, but saw;

10+ Ringed Plover
3 Dunlin
3 Snipe
1 Green Sandpiper
10 Wheatear


It's such a great place that even the common waders here look rare!...

A rare Ringed Plover

A rare Dunlin!

I will certainly be coming back here again, it's only an hour and a half drive from home.

So that's my Cornish Cory's jaunt all done and told.  So back to the patch now, and today has been a pretty good morning. The highlight being a Dipper than flew over me at Stafford Marsh - my first one on patch this year (they've gone really rare).  Also seen 35+ Yellow Wags, three Whinchat and a Wheatear on Seaton Marshes and five Sedge Warblers and a modest selection of waders on Black Hole Marsh.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper Marazion Beach

Today I had the chance to get down to Cornwall for some sea watching, having missed out on an excellent weekend of large Shearwater action down there.  I will cover the sea watching in another blog post (I left home at 03:20am so have run out of steam now!), but I must just share this stunning bird with you...

This ladies and gentlemen is one of the finest waders in the world, in its finest plumage. It is a juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper and has been on Marazion Beach for the past few days.

It's spending all its time feeding on this patch of weed near St. Michaels Mount...

And is allowing pretty close approach...

Which means even hopeless idiots like me can get semi-decent pics of it...

Just look at that. Look at that!!!! The colour of it, those beautiful silver edged mantle feathers giving it a scalloped appearance, that big black puppy-dog eye, the teeny tiny bill and that gentle head shape. And as for those vivid yellow legs.... Oh yes.....  And add to all of this, it's smaller than a Turnstone! A work of ornithological art.

And here's some (rather shaky - it was windy!) video of it...

This small patch of weed on a very busy beach was amazing, with several hundred waders feeding on it...

Mostly Dunlin and Ringed Plover, several Turnstone, a few Sanderling and singles of Little Stint and Curlew Sand. This Curlew Sand...

Check back tomorrow for the sea watching news from my Cornish jaunt (unless there's loads of birds about on patch!).  Talking of the patch, an Osprey was seen over the Axe at 16:30 today, and I had two juvenile Bar-tailed Godwits on the river this evening.

The Human Hoover

On the day 2013 begun, Jess was keen that we started eating a bit more sensibly after the four tonne of chocolate and mince pies we devoured over the festive period. She was right to point out though how hard that is to do when there's still chocolate dotted about the house. I took this as a hint, and as a moment that as the man of the house I had to step up to the mark. In the following half hour I went round and ate the lot. The Quality Streets that are always left at the bottom of the tin, half a tray of Milk Tray, a few Thornton's, the bottom half of a Lindt Bear, a whole bowl of Twiglets and even the handful of popcorn left in the packet of Butterkist. I am proud of how I helped our new year start healthier - although I must admit eating all this just an hour before dinner wasn't the best timing.

So, how's the birding and year list going? Well I've spent most of the last few days surveying in Cornwall, which has given me some nice sights. Namely two Spoonbill today, and a cracking pair of Scaup yesterday. The drake was as stunning as they always are.
 
I have still managed a bit patch birding though, whenever I've had the chance. And I've decided that during January I'm going to concentrate on the sea - this has already produced the goods. Best being a fine drake Red-breasted Merganser and a lone Brent Goose, both of which flew west. There's good numbers of birds out there too, lots of auks (Black Guille and Little Auk are certainly on the radar at the moment), plenty of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Red-throated Divers and a few Common Scoter (29 on the morning of the 2nd). Frustratingly I've had two single larger Divers fly west, but both too distant to be sure of.

Away from the sea, year ticks have been a bit sparse. Although I have caught up with the wintering Bar-tailed Godwit and Blackcap made it not just on to the year list, but the house list too!

I see a few people this year are doing photography year lists, including our very own Karen on patch. On her blog she states "I'm not going to count blurry record shots and distant specks. The photos must be easily recognisable". I think that's a great idea, and I know we are going to see some amazing photos. Its such a good idea that I thought I'd give it a go too, but with a slight difference...

I'm only going to count blurry record shots and distant specks. The photos must be barely/unrecognisable.

Here's my first two... 

Black Redstart - I saw this bird on 1st and 2nd

Passing Red-throated Divers

I'm pleased with my start...

A Cornish Surprise

Not many updates on here of late, again - but I haven't seen anything!  I have tried my best to get Waxwing on my patch list, I've gone out whenever I've had the chance. Many hours of searching though haven't produced the goods. Yet... (I hope!).

So why this update - well today I have seen something of note, although it wasn't on patch.

This is my third month of bird surveying and monitoring at a site on the Tamar Estuary (the Cornwall side), and on the way back from my survey site there's a wonderful looking area called St John's Creek, which always screams RARE at me.  There's always Teal here, last month I saw well over a hundred, and I always make an effort to go through them. Today it was quite easy, because there were only about 25 of them. c24 Eurasion Teal. And....

Just what I wanted!!

  

I couldn't believe it!  A bloody Green-winged Teal!  Yes it would have been a lot sweeter had it been on the Axe (hopefully this will happen), but I was still thrilled with this find!  

At first I was slightly concerned about an apparent buffish tinge to the edge of the green head stripe going up from the bill, but when the light got a bit better this disappeared and the difference between the Green-winged's head and the Eurasion's head was actually quite obvious.  

All the photos of it are rubbish (I just had the Lumix super-zoom with me), and none as rubbish as what I am about to post. It does though just about show the difference in head pattern between the yank and two common cousins...

Note the golden line around the green eye flash, or not when it comes to the vertical-striped fella :-)

I got the news out as quick as possible (god love twitter), and hope others get to see it.  The Teal can be bloody elusive here though, as there are lots of deep channels, I reckon on a falling or rising tide would be best.

Hopefully this has fired me up to find something rare on patch...

A Late Late Night Update

Yet again, many apologies for the lack of updates. I have been a busy bee - but also have spent a little time away.

Last weekend we were at a wedding in Cornwall, with the evening reception in St. Ives - very nice indeed! I managed to 'smuggle' my bins with me too - didn't see much - although from Lelant Saltings railway platform there were several Med Gulls, four Blackwits and a Whimbrel on the Hayle.

A rather surprise find in St. Ives on the Friday evening was Bun, he was there for a pelagic trip the following morning! The only place where we could sit down to eat was at this trendy 'surfer-dude' bar/club place. The burger was nice, but having to order chips as a side is a no no - burgers and chips are like Ant and Dec, they should not be without each other. Yes, the 'healthy eating regime' is going well...

Anyway, here's a few pics from the weekend...

From the top; St Ives looking towards Carbis Bay, Copperhouse Creek (have seen American Wigeon here - a nice drake, and a White-billed Diver just down the road!), Lelant Salting (the site of my only UK Lesser Yellowlegs), me in 'holiday birding mode' on Lelant Saltings Platform, the four Blackwits and the pigs at our B and B!

I must mention our B and B - Rowan Barns. Everything about it was brilliant - the accommodation, location, owners, food, price - all very good indeed. Everywhere is easy to get to from it too - Hayle, Helston, Penzanze, Marazion, etc..

I was hoping to update all on the few birds I've seen on patch since my last blog post, and of the pretty impressive moth haul from last Friday, but I am literally falling asleep on my laptop so you'll have to check back for all this excitement another day...