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.

Seawatching Unsuccessfully

16th May 2009 is a date that has always stuck with me - it remains the most gripped I have ever been by missing a patch bird. Ian Mc was watching a decent passage of Manxies from Beer when out of nowhere a Cory's Shearwater came gliding through with them!  We soon learnt this bird was first seen in Chesil Cove (by Brett) and later Exmouth - so was just one random bird that had got mixed up with the usual Manxies. So gripping, and a first for the patch.

Well I have been gripped again - big time!  

From early last week it was pretty clear Birdfair weekend was going to be a good one for birding, finally a decent Atlantic blow was coming in and I was going to completely miss it.  Despite seeing plenty abroad, I am yet to see Cory's in the UK - the last couple of years I've been desperate to get down to PG but the weather and the timing of the fronts just haven't been kind to me. On Saturday I was expecting to be miss a decent passage of these brutes at PG, but had no idea I was going to miss several seen from Seaton! Large Shearwaters are just SO rare this far into Lyme Bay and this far up the English Channel, so to hear of groups of four and a count of up to 12 is just so mind boggling! And devastating.

Even local photographer Tim White who is a complete newbie to sea watching rocked up and saw two, one of which passed by just a couple of hundred meters offshore! This is probably closer than any Shearwater I've ever seen in 12 years of sea watching here!!!

It wasn't just me that missed out mind. Bun was even further away, in Mexico! James Mc spent a lot of time sea watching on Saturday from Lyme and Seaton, but missed the lot. Dan J who is a very keen sea watching in Sidmouth didn't get a whiff of a large Shearwater despite several watches during the day. And poor Tim Wright, he was sea watching from the thatched shelter when both of Tim White's birds went through, but came away with nothing. It was a bad day for quite a few of us! 

What was odd is how they were behaving, not passing by here and then being seen off other sites to the west of us, they were just here!   It was clearly a small group of displaced feeding birds that probably spent most of their time just over the horizon, but now and then circled into and then out of Seaton Bay. Although 12 were counted, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number of birds was lower, possibly 6-8 maybe? A big well done though to Brendan Sheils who saw the first two on Friday evening, and then the Chard boys who picked up the numbers on Saturday morning, if it wasn't for them this phenomenal event would have probably gone by completely undetected! 

I did try, despite a 17 hour day on Saturday (including eight hours of driving!), I got myself up at 05:30 on Sunday and sea watched 05:50 - 08:30, and again 17:00-19:00. I didn't see any large Shears, but did see;

1 Common Scoter

7 Balearic Shearwater 

95+ Manx Shearwater

11 Kittiwake (mostly juvs)

1 Sandwich Tern

1 Ringed Plover

1 Dunlin

Not a bad Seaton haul really, but very unsatisfactory given the circumstances.

Looking at the forecast, looks like my UK Cory's chance is blown for another year, and probably another 15 years for the patch!!!  Thursday is looking interesting though with a chance of a passerine fall and maybe some more waders?  On the sunny days this week, Osprey has got to be a good bet, most juveniles have now left their nests now with the adults well on their way south already.