After what was a rather poor year in the county last year with only one county tick (Purple Heron) and very little in the way of good birds, this year has got off to a flying start. It all started when three Cattle Egrets were found frequenting a pig field near Middleton Stoney. I don't know quite how they were found as it's really not an obvious birding spot but they seemed to like it as they've been around for a while. So on the 9th January and with not much else to do I thought that I'd go and pay my respects. I turned up late morning on a grey though rather mild day and slogged for half a mile along a really muddy footpath to find a few county birders holed up in a gap in the hedge and scoping the neighbouring pig field. Only two of the Egrets were on view when I arrived and one of them soon disappeared over a ridge to a hidden lower part of the field. They were rather distant and in the poor light my digiscoped photos are little more than record shots. Still it was nice that Oxon was finally getting in on the action in what has proved to be a bonanza autumn and winter for this species which has invaded the country in large numbers.
On the way back I decided to make a detour to Marston to catch up with the half a dozen or so Waxwings which had been present since the previous day. I'm always happy to make a bit of an effort for this charismatic species and as these were in Oxford itself, it wasn't too far out of my way at all. They were immediately on view when I arrived and I took a few snaps with my super-zoom camera though the light conditions were appalling. After only a few minutes they flew off again and I took this as my cue to leave as well.
After that little flurry of local activity it was back to wait and see mode in the county. Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long before our esteemed county recorder, Ian Lewington, manage to turn up a Little Bunting in a rather unlikely location in some farmland at Over Norton. This is a real county Mega with the last one having been seen no less than twenty eight years ago! It was found on Sunday afternoon and Badger put out a local "heads up" text though details of the location and access arrangements weren't released until after dark. The next morning the keenest of the county birders were there at first light whereas I decided to play it cool, partly as there was a forecast for thick fog that morning and partially because I had work commitments. Mid morning, after a reassuring "still present" text from Badger, I headed off towards Chipping Norton and parked up "creatively" near the roundabout, before donning every item of clothing that I could wear and still be able to move in order to keep out the bone-chilling cold, and then yomping off along the footpath.
After a few minutes walking I came upon the usual local suspects all staking out a fifty yard stretch of the footpath which apparently had been well seeded by the local farmer and to which birds were regularly coming down. There was a moderate mix of Reed Buntings, Chaffinches and Yellowhammers with one Linnet and on one occasion even a Brambling (the king of finches!). A couple of Ravens were "cronking" away nearby, making a welcome distraction whilst we all waited for the star of the show to make another appearance.
Actually my first Yellowhammer of the year
I was told that the bird had been seen about half a dozen times so far that morning but in the end we had wait for getting on for an hour before someone finally picked it out at the far end of the viewable area of footpath. Thereafter it showed periodically in this distant location, usually for a relatively short period of time before finally putting in a prolonged performance for several minutes.
Well satisfied with my views and having had enough of the cold at that point I decided to head back to the car before driving back to Casa Gnome, basking in the warm glow of a shiny new county tick.
A fantastic photo of a great little bird courtesy of Terry Sherlock (c)
It was time to do another University run up to Durham to take Daughter 1 back. Now astute readers may have noticed that I didn't do a Uni run in December. This was partly that both daughters wanted to come back on the same day and partly that they didn't actually have too much to bring back so in the end they both took the train. This time though, our eldest said that she had too much to take on the train and could I take her in the car? I was rather ambivalent about the prospect until I realised that there was still a Black Scoter up in Northumberland that needed seeing so I agreed to the trip. However in the days leading up to our departure the weather turned pretty horrible with an icy blast and really strong northerly winds and in those conditions I'd pretty much resigned myself to not bothering about the Scoter. Fortunately though this spell of winter passed through the country fairly quickly and the prospect for the weekend was for much more moderate conditions.
As usual we headed off shortly after 8 a.m. into relatively light traffic. There was a jack-knifed lorry on the M1 which added half an hour to our journey but somehow we made up for lost time and so it was that at around 12:15 p.m. we arrived in the small and picturesque city of Durham. This year my daughter had a nice room in castle itself that overlooks the cathedral which was all very characterful. We struggled up the hill and up the multitude of stairs to her room with her heavy bags full of text books before saying our goodbyes and I headed off. With another hour and a half of driving ahead of me up to north Northumberland and will only limited daylight I didn't really have time to linger.
The rest of the journey was uneventful and with the Scoter already having come through on RBA that morning whilst we were driving I was cautiously optimistic though my ETA there wasn't until after 2:30 so I wouldn't have much time left before it got dark. The bird had been reported regularly over the last couple of weeks right at the end of a long single track road at Beachcomer House so this is where I headed. I arrived on schedule and found somewhere to park. Then I put on all the clothing I could wear in order to keep out the cold and yomped off towards the sea. It was a lovely sunny afternoon though very cold indeed.
You can see how far away the surf is as well as how it blocks off all the sea behind it.
The problem I encountered was that the surf was a good several hundred yards away. What's more it was really huge surf and looking from my vantage point on top of the dunes, the waves were so large that it was almost impossible to see any of the sea behind the waves. What's more, there was lots of spray coming up to make the visibility rather poor so all in all it seemed an almost impossible task to find a single slightly different Scoter in amongst a large flock of Common Scoters. The subtleties of identification weren't actually the issue for me though - I couldn't see any Scoters at all! I wandered along the shore westwards spotting a large distant flock of Sanderling and Dunlin and finally seeing a couple of Scoter in flight though when they came down on the sea they disappeared completely.
In the end I gave it up as a hopeless task and headed back to the car, stopping to admire a flock of a couple of dozen Curlew in a field. I got back into the warmth of the car and headed off to my B&B for the evening which was fortunately no more than five minutes away. At the time of planning my trip I'd figured that I might well need extra time on Sunday morning to find the Scoter so had looked for a B&B as close as possible to the location. This turned out to be a huge, beautifully furnished house overlooking the Northumbrian countryside. It was full of period features and could easily have fitted into a Jane Austen novel of some sorts - it really was rather special! I spend a couple of hours relaxing in my room and catching up with news during which time I discovered that the RBA message on the Black Scoter today had actually reported the bird further north more or less opposite the golf club house. This could explain the problems that I'd been experiencing - perhaps the sea conditions were such that the flock had had to move location to somewhere calmer. So there might be hope for me tomorrow after all! Cheered by that thought, though rather kicking myself that I'd not checked the messages when I'd first arrived, I went out to get some food at a nearby pub and watched a bit of telly in the pub bar whilst I ate my Red Thai curry with chips on the side. All the dishes on the menu seemed to come with chips whether you wanted them or not but I found that I was more hungry than I thought and managed to eat most of them. Then it was back to my room for the night where I watched a bit more telly and then was asleep by 10:30.
I slept as well as can be expected when staying somewhere away from home for the first night and was awake before seven though it was still dark. I heard a flock of Pink-footed Geese calling in the darkness as I waited for it to get light. At eight I went down for my cooked breakfast and chatted with my hostess. It turned out that she was a hypnotherapist like myself and we talked shop for a while. Finally at a little after 8:45 I'd said my goodbyes, packed my things in the car and was heading once more back to Goswick.
In the light of the report of the bird by the golf club house, this morning I decided to park there first and then to work my way back along the beach towards it's former location, depending on what I found. As I was getting tooled up in the car park, three Pink-foots flew over, calling loudly. The first golfers were already out on the course despite drizzly (though the much milder) weather conditions this morning.
Three Pink-footed Geese flying overhead
I walked briskly along the path across the course and after five minutes I was on the sandy beach. I could immediately see that conditions were much calmer on the sea here and at least I could see the sea behind the waves. What's more, with the tide out the beach sloped much more steeply and by standing on top of the dunes one had a good vantage point. Looking to the south east I could see that the waves were much larger and more violent back where I'd been yesterday so clearly the prevailing conditions meant that for some reason it was too rough there.
You can actually see the sea here
A quick scan soon found me my first Scoters on the water so I could start my search for the elusive Black Scoter. More Scoter came in until I had a flock of about 500 right in front of me, a smaller flock of about 100 a bit further south east and another flock of about 100 several hundred yards further north west from where I was. I experimented with different vantage points: up on the dunes you have the best height but you were further away whereas on the beach you could get much closer but then the birds were hidden in the troughs for longer. I was just scoping away when a lady with a dog came up and asked me if I'd found the Black Scoter yet. It turned that she was there with her husband and their son and that they were looking from the top of the dunes a couple of hundred yards away. I went over to chat with them to see how they were getting on. It turned out that they'd been here yesterday too but hadn't had a confirmed view of it. We scoped the two nearest flocks for a while but as I'd already grilled these reasonably well I soon decided to go and try out the flock that was further north from where we were and so I set off. As I walked some news came in on the pager of a Black-throated Thrush near Old Moor RSPB in Yorkshire. That was most interesting! It would be pretty much on the way back home and given that it was five and a half hours to get back to Oxford I'd been thinking that I would need to stop off somewhere for a break. This could be the perfect opportunity.
Back to matters in hand and I eventually reached the other flock and climbed up the dunes to get a good look. I started working my way through the flock but in the rather gloomy light it was very hard to make out the yellow on the drake birds' bills. A Red-breasted Merganser next to the flock made a welcome distraction as I was grilling the flock. One drake caught my eye, partially as it was a little way away from the flock but also partially that there was something a bit different about it. I eventually realised that the reason why it stood out was that it had a much stockier neck than the other birds and then I remembered that this was indeed an identifying feature of the Black Scoter. Could this be it? I scoped the bill carefully, it turned its head and the light caught it just enough to make out a big round orange ball on its beak. This wasn't the narrow orange strip that you see on a head-on Common, this was the real deal. Bingo - I'd done it! I was so relieved to have found it! However, given that time was marching on I decided not to linger any longer but at once started to head back down the beach: at the very least I had to tell the others where to look. When I got back to where they'd been I discovered that they were now hundreds of yards along the beach in the opposite direction and walking further away. So I submitted the news to RBA which I presumed they'd eventually get and was just about to turn off along the path when in the distance they turned around. So I waved my arms and pointed north along the beach. They seemed to get the message because they started to come back and five minutes later I was able to tell them what I'd found. They were suitably grateful and headed off to see it whilst I headed back to the car.
Back in the comfort of my car I started to get to grips with the Black-throated Thrush situation. This would make a spectacular bonus bird if this were to come off but I'd never been to Old Moor RSPB before so wouldn't know where to go. The bird turned out to be at somewhere called Adwick upon Dearne near Doncaster and there was a postcode on RBA so with nothing more to go on I put it in the Sat Nav just in case. I decided that I would wait to see how much more news there was of the bird as I drove southwards though as I needed to stop somewhere anyway it would have to be pretty negative for me not to try for it. With the plan made, I made a mental note of which junction I needed to turn off the A1(M). Then I fired up the Gnome mobile and headed back on the long slog southwards.
The journey back down the country was uneventful. The Black Scoter came up on RBA as still present at the same location that I'd seen it so my companions on the beach had clearly managed to find it. This was also an added confirmation of my ID though I was confident about what I'd seen this morning. As I drove news came through regularly about the Thrush so it looked like it was game-on on that front. As I got closer to my turn-off the news started to dry up though with about twenty minutes to go until the exit it came through again and so I headed off the motorway at junction 37 and fired up the Sat Nav at the first traffic light. It seemed a rather tortuous trip through various housing estates and then back out into open fields. I was just starting to doubt the Sat Nav's abilities when, fifteen minutes after turning off the motorway, suddenly I was turning off into Harlington Road where apparently I needed to look out for a car park by the River Dearne. However, I'd gone no more than 250 yards along the road when, with no river in sight I came upon the exciting sight of a line of twitchers all peering over a hedge and looking intently through their scopes.
This must be the spot!
I screeched to a halt, and joined the line which was surprisingly small, consisting of only a dozen or so birders. It turned out that the bird was in a field of Rape that sloped down for about 250 yards to a line of trees.
I was trying to work out whether anyone was actually on the bird when someone called out directions to a flock of thrushes in a tree at the far end of the field. I found the tree and there was the bird, half way up the left-hand side, distant but clearly distinguishable from the accompanying Redwings. I was just reaching for my digiscoping gear when it flew down into the far end of the field whereupon it proceeded to work its way across the ground, feeding away on hidden invertebrates. Although it was a good 200 yards away I managed some digiscoped record shots.
Being a female, it was a remarkably non-descript bird. Whilst the heavy streaking of its front together with the pale markings around its throat reminded me of the Beeley Dusky Thrush, it lacked the prominent supercilium of that species and its back was a dull grey brown colour. I watched it work its way back and forth for about ten minutes, thanking my stars that it had all been so easy. Later back home and going through the RBA message I realised that the last preceding message had actually said that it's had flown off so I guess that this relatively small party had been looking for it and had just managed to find it in this new location when I'd rocked up. My timing couldn't have been better!
With the Thrush in the bag and more twitchers coming up the hill all the time to try and see the bird I decided not to linger. As an added incentive my VLW had texted me asking me to pick up a few provisions so I headed back to the Gnome mobile and on the way back to the motorway I stopped at a supermarket for the shopping. Then it was back onto the motorway for the final two and a half hours slog back to Oxford. The traffic got progressively heavier as the day progressed and was quite busy on the M40 so I took it easy and eventually at around 5:30 I was pulling into the drive of Casa Gnome, a tired but very happy bunny. I had my usual celebratory cup of tea and as I caught up on the news from the family I reflected that it had been a very successful day. I'd managed to find my difficult Scoter and had lucked-in on a wonderful bonus thrush. Especially given the run-around that the North Wales bird had apparently been giving people I considered myself really lucky to have rocked up at the perfect time for an instant tick - it's great when birding works out like that! So that was 2017 off to a great start - I wonder what will be next.
So it's that time of year once again, time to look back over the last year of Gnome Birding and to reflect on the highs and lows. Certainly by all measures nationally it was a pretty amazing year with a record-breaking number of species seen in the country and with a whole heap of national firsts, including some rather contentious firsts for the country such as the Dalmation Pelican, the Purple Swamphen and the Lammergeir. For this personal review as usual I will divide things up into three categories: Patch birding on Port Meadow, county birding (Oxon and Cornwall) and national birding.
Port Meadow Patch Birding
As far Port Meadow is concerned it was a good solid year. I've written a comprehensive review here but to summarise, we had a reasonable year list total of 133 and the highlight birds were a Spoonbill (seen as a fly-over by one person), a Yellow-browed Warbler (also seen by just one person), a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that I enjoyed excellent views of for about five minutes and a Sandwich Tern which roosted one evening on the Meadow. This last species is only the second ever record on the Meadow, with the last one being back in 1995. There was also an epic fall of waders in May with 66 birds of 9 species all brought down by drizzly weather conditions - it really was spectacular! On the Port Meadow blog I awarded the Bird of the Year award to the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
This was far rarer than either Spoonbill or Yellow-browed Warbler on the patch
Oxon County Birding
It was I think a rather mediocre year in Oxon county birding. The year list total was 211 which was a bit down on previous years and personally I only had one county tick which was the long-staying Purple Heron. There were some frustrating near misses such as the Golden Oriel seen at dawn at the Wittenham Clumps by a lucky few observers though sadly was nowhere to be found when all the county birders turned up. So the Purple Heron was definitely the highlight of the Oxon birding year for me as it was also a personal lifer as well. As usual I did a photo montage of the county birding year set to inappropriately heavy music. For those who haven't seen it yet, here it is again.
Cornwall County Listing
These days I also have my Cornish list to contend with. Whereas with Oxon I'm there almost all the time, with Kernow I'm only there a few weeks a year. Nevertheless my Cornish list surpassed my Oxfordshire one several years ago and continues to move ahead. This year I managed five Cornish ticks: Barnacle Goose, Dalmation Pelican, Hudsonian Whimbrel, Cattle Egret and Franklin's Gull. The Cornish Bird of the Year has to be the Cattle Egret as it was a great self-found on my Pendeen Patch.
The Pendeen Cattle Egret
National Birding
I've been chipping away at my national life list with excursions regularly throughout the year. As usual my twitching distance has been fairly limited though my old rule of two hours has long since fallen by the wayside. My Uni runs up to Durham brought a few good sightings this year though they're starting to tail off now as my eldest daughter sometimes uses the train these days. Apart from these long university trips, I still don't like going too far for a bird unless there's a really good chance of seeing it. In passing, during the year I amassed a year list total of 198 without making any effort on it at all.
Kicking off in January on a Durham run I managed finally to tick a personal sea watching bogey bird with Little Auk though the views were all too brief. The long boring month of February was enlivened by the Wiltshire Hooded Merganser which I went for as a bit of an insurance tick, having the dodgy Radipole bird already on my list. This Corsham bird was duly accepted by the powers that be so it was worth the trip. Talking of listing authorities I'm increasingly inclined to move away from the standard authorities and instead to making my own mind up on what I'm going to count. I'm aware that if one wants to do comparative listing then you need a single standard but I generally only list for myself so the Gnome Rarities Committee (GRC) tends to make a few decisions that rather go against the grain of conventional thinking. As an aside, I'm also increasingly attracted to sub-species (which seem to be being split quite rapidly anyway) and for example am thinking of splitting the likes of Eastern Black Redstart and American Black Tern.
The Corsham Hooded Merganser
On my March Durham run, amongst other things I managed to see the Demoiselle Crane up in the Lake District. This species has yet to make it onto any official lists due to the high number of captive birds and even the GRC is still thinking about this one. That same trip also got me a nice over-wintering Hoopoe, some Hartlepool Shorelarks and a Penduline Tit in Cleveland.
Penuline Tit at Saltholme in Cleveland
After that it got rather quiet for a couple of months. I horribly dipped the Broad-billed Sandpiper at the Goldcliff pools near Newport in April, going there "en route" from a trip up to Durham. That trip was very stressful for all sorts of reasons. June was a better month with a successful twitch of the Titchwell Great Knot and then a revenge trip back to Goldcliff where I managed to get the Broad-billed Sandpiper on my list. I also had another Durham trip which was successful on the butterfly front (see later) but where I managed to dip a whole host of birds that I'd lined up including Roseate Tern, King Eider and Woodchat Strike and in the end only connecting with a Bonaparte's Gull at the end of the day. Fortunately none of those birds were lifers but it can be very frustrating when nothing really works out.
The Titchwell Great Knot actually showed far better than this photo suggests
July brought me another long-overdue tick when I caught up with the Collard Pratincole at Ham Wall in Somerset. August was a productive month with a mad dash over to Suffolk for the Western Purple Swamphen (GRC-accepted already) where I managed to get it at last light on the Friday night before it disappeared overnight. That was incredibly lucky as it would have been horrible to have arrived too late to see it and to then have dipped the next morning.
August also saw a family holiday in Cornwall where I finally caught up with the controversial Dalmation Pelican (also GRC-accepted) as well as adding the Hudsonian Whimbrel to my Cornish list.
It took a number of attempts to get the Hudsonian Whimbrel
September was very quiet with no major excursions but the start of October was another Durham trip to Spurn where I finally managed to get another sea watching bogye bird, namely Long-tailed Skua on my list. I also had a failed trip to Norfolk where I dipped Radde's Warbler though had a Great Grey Shrike and Olive-backed Pipit as compensation. After that was a trip back to Spurn to pay homage to the amazing Siberian Accentor that was part of an unprecedented invasion in this country. I was really lucky when a bonus Isabelline Wheatear was found right next door the same day.
Siberian Accentor at Easington
My annual October Cornwall trip was rather a low key affair with the Cattle Egret and a Franklin's Gull the highlights. There was nothing of note in November at all but December really came up with the goods with a couple of Mega thrushes. The first was the Dusky Thrush at Beeley in Derbyshire which I managed good views of though the huge crowd somewhat spoilt the experience.
The Beeley Dusky Thrush
Then in the last few days of the year an amazing Blue Rock Thrush was
found at Stow-on-the-Wold just over the county border in Goucestershire.
There seems to be some debate on the provenance of this bird though the
GRC are happy to accept it.
The Blue Rock Thrush
Finally, on the last day of the year with just a few hours of daylight left, I managed to see the Mousehole Eastern Black Redstart, a lovely bird and a great way to end the year.
Mousehole Eastern Black Redstart, soon to be split?
So there you are, a pretty good national year. The coveted national bird of the year award has to go to the Siberian Accentor because it just summed up what an amazing birding year 2016 was.
Insects
Regular readers will know that I while away the summer months with plants and insects and this year was no exception. This year I was determined to finish off my UK butterfly list which had been languishing near the finish line for some years now. With a concerted effort I managed Swallowtail at Strumpshaw Fen, Mountain Ringlet at Irton Fell, Heath Fritillary and East Blean Woods, and finally Lulworth Skipper at Durlston CP, thereby completing the set.
Swallowtail
Mountain Ringlet
Heath Fritillary
Lulworth Skipper
I also made a real effort with my Odonata list and nearly got there, at least as far as non-Scottish ones are concerned. I made trips for Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, Southern Migrant Hawker and Scarce Emerald (though in the end I'm not sure that I got the latter so I'm not counting it), Common Hawker and finally Willow Emerald. Just left on my list now are a confirmed sighting of Scarce Emerald, Southern Emerald and the two Scottish ones, namely Azure Hawker and Northern Blue Damselfly.
Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly
Southern Migrant Hawker
Common Hawker
Willow Emerald
My mothing this year was rather low key and half-hearted. I always have problems with my rather urban garden setting and with the poor weather this year was worse than usual so I more or less gave up by the early autumn. That's not to say that I'm not going to carry on for next year but it will perhaps be more in the background than before.
I did go and twitch this Clepsis dumicolana - a new immigrant from abroad that had formed a colony outside a house in Longwick Bucks
Plants
As my mothing interest has waned so my interest in plants has grown. Looking out for interesting plants has become a regular part of any outing that I go on, especially in the summer months and I expect to do more of this next year as well as going on dedicated botanising trips rather than just doing it en passant.
I enjoyed finding this Alpine Lady's Mantle on top of a 3000 foot mountain in Scotland
Looking Ahead
So there you have it, a good year of chasing after birds, insects and plants and then blogging about it. For 2017 expect more of the same though with less butterflies (as I've done them now). In my sights I now have 400 for my BOU UK list (with some GRC additions) though if I decide to split loads more things then I'm already there. Finally I'd like to wish a belated Happy New Year to all my readers and here's to a bird-filled 2017!
Having drawn a blank on the outward journey I turned at the harbour wall and started to head back. I'd just left the car park when something small, and reddish with a quivering red tail flew down onto the path right in front of me. It was the bird of course which showed remarkably well down to a few metres though in the horribly gloomy weather it was hard to get the camera to focus at all. It soon went back to feeding on the rocks and along the strand line and I eventually managed to get some shots off. It was truly a delightful bird - one that I've been coveting from afar for some time now, what with the one at Cleveland and then the one at Tewkesbury Abbey that I would have gone for had it stayed one more day. In fact I do wonder if this is not the same bird as the Gloucestershire one which has moved as far down south as it was able to go and finding a nice sheltered beach spot has elected to stay. I showed a photo to L who assured me that that had been the bird that he'd seen so there's some hope for his birding prowess after all.
In the end the only photos that came out were when it was perching on a favoured rock
After our refreshment we headed back down to the footpath and walked along to the harbour. I tried to show them the bird but there was no sign of it as we walked past its favoured spot. In the town we wandered around peering in the shops and the children all bought tiny pewter mice from a little shop on the southern side. We noticed that the harbour itself was closed with a series of wooden planks along the narrow harbour entrance keeping it all clear of boats so that their Christmas light display could be installed. It all looked very impressive so as it got to dusk we hung around to see if they would light it up but in the end it got rather dark and started to get cold without any sign of the lights so we reluctantly headed back to the car. This time the bird was back on display and I showed it to the others though the light was pretty terrible by now.
Mousehole cat, asleep in a shop
Our next stop was over to Sainsburys for our shopping. Whilst the others went inside I took L over to Marazion beach for some reconnaisance work. The previous time that we'd been down we'd seen in the New Year there on the beach but I'd read that loads of spratts had been washed up on the beach (creating a bit of a gull feeding frenzy in the process) so we were a bit worried that it might be rather smelly. L and I wandered around on the beach a bit but we couldn't actually find any spratts so I guess that the gulls had cleaned it all up though there was a distinct fishy aroma which wasn't normally there. Just as I got back to the car four Grey Herons flew over us and then westwards along the beach. We headed back to Sainsburys where I filled the car up with petrol and then we picked the others up before heading over the hill towards Pendeen to open up the cottage. It's always with some nervousness that I first approach the cottage each time as in past visits sometimes something has gone wrong, either the heating or the electrics or something. This time the only issue was our outside light which seemed to have been knocked off the wall. Thinking about it later, it was probably our neighbour who'd helpfully put up some tower scaffolding there and the blowing wind had probably done the rest. Anyway, the cottage was looking fine and we busied ourselves with unpacking and getting a meal together.
After dinner we had to plan what to do and once more there was a certain amount of inertia involved. Eventaully we agreed on driving over to Mousehole again to see the harbour lights before heading back to the cottage to see in the New Year, perhaps with a glass of champagne down on the beach at Boat Cove if we felt adventurous enough. The Mousehole lights turned out to be pretty impressive and we wandered around admiring them for some time. The others went into the Ship Inn to sample some of the local ale though L wasn't keen to go in (there was a rather loud band playing) so in the end I stayed outside with him whilst he played on the beach. The others soon came out again suitably refreshed and we headed back to the car and home to the cottage.
The Mousehole Christmas lights
Arriving back, the wind had strengthened notably and in the end the lure of the warm cottage proved too much and our beach plans were shelved. We saw in the New Year watching Jules Holland on the TV whilst sipping champagne before heading to bed.
1st January - Marazion & St Ives
Firstly a Happy New Year to all my readers!
After our late night yesterday seeing the year in we were in no hurry to get up. Eventually we'd all surfaced and found that unfortunately the weather was, as forecast, drizzly and extremely windy. With no prospect of it changing all day, in the end we decided to head over to Marazion. This is often our go-to location choice in bad weather and as one member of our party had never
been over to St Michael's Mount before, it seemed like a good idea. For my own part I was keen to catch up with all the gull action that I'd read about on the beach there: over the last few days at Marazion there'd been a first winter Ring-billed Gull, an adult Iceland Gull, a first winter Caspian Gull as well as a possible American Herring Gull all frequenting the beach. However, from what I'd read there were so many gulls swirling about mopping up the stranded sprats that it was rather hard work to find things in amongst the maelstrom. The Caspian Gull was the real prize for me as this is a really rare bird down in Cornwall, far more so than Ring-billed Gull for example, and what's more it would be a personal Cornish tick. It's rather strange that they're so rare in Cornwall as back in Oxford I regularly find them in amongst the gull roost on my patch and indeed found half a dozen or so just in December in what was a particularly good month for them locally.
We arrived at the Station Inn car park to find that the near gale-force north easterly wind was almost as strong on this side of the peninsula as it had been back at Pendeen. I spotted three birders scoping the gulls from the car park, doing their best to shelter in amongst the cars so whilst the others got ready to head off on their walk I headed over to enquire as to what they'd found. The trio turned out to be MA, JR and another birder whom I didn't recognise. They reported that there'd been no sign of the Ring-billed nor the Iceland Gull but fortunately one of them had the Caspian Gull in his scope and I was able to score an easy and much appreciated tick thanks to a quick peek. I headed back to the car to see the others off and to get my gear together but in that time the entire gull flock went up and once I started scanning the Caspian was no where to be found.
The other three birders had had enough of the biting wind and headed off and I was left to try and find a sheltered vantage point from which to view the birds. In the end I went down below the car park to the bottom of the wall where it was much calmer and more sheltered. There were loads of gulls on the beach in several large flocks with hundreds if not thousands more dotted about on the various rocks in the bay. With the large numbers of people out for their New Years Day walks on the beach the gulls were continually being put up so it was a case of rapidly scanning the flocks each time they formed before they went up again.
Gulls on the beach...
...before being put up by a dog
My first Med Gull of the year
I managed to find a first winter Mediterranean Gull in amongst the
Black-headed Gulls - it's always nice to see them and made for a nice year tick. Another birder came
over who turned out to be a local that I didn't know and who was keen to
see the Caspian though he didn't have a scope with him so he was giving
himself a pretty hard task. We worked the flocks together and after a
while I managed to turn up a second winter Yellow-legged Gull. Now back home in Oxford these are really common and on a typical evening grilling the patch gull roost at this time of year I would expect to find several of these but down here in Cornwall they're much rarer. In fact I've only seen this species once before today so I was pleased to turn one up. Predictably it didn't hang around too long before the flock went up again but I was able to get some video footage of it.
Some rather wind-shaken footage of the Yellow-legged Gull
After a while I had had enough of grilling the gulls and went back to the car to warm up. Shortly after I got a phone call from the other party saying that they would very much appreciate a lift back from Marazion as on the return leg they were now walking into the wind and they were all feeling cold. Having already scored my Cornish tick I was happy to oblige and headed off to pick them up.
Our next stop, given the dodgy weather, was to be St Ives where some members of the party wanted to indulge in a spot of shopping. Now I'm not a great fan of shopping personally so after we'd arrived and got some pasties for lunch I headed over to the island to take a look at the sea. With a north easterly wind the waves were quite spectacular and I spent some time revelling in the excitement of it all. I did spot a pod of ten or so cetaceans which I think are Porpoises though I am happy to be corrected on this.
The Porpoises - you may wish to turn down your volume to avoid the wind noise
In due course I rendezvous'd back with the others and we headed back to the car and home to a hearty stew supper that we'd left cooking in our slow cooker back at the cottage - just what you need on a windy January day! Then we passed the evening watching TV and chatting before heading off to bed. Given the poor weather and the fact that I'd only had a limited time to do some birding I was more than pleased with today's results.
Winter Heliotrope in flower on the path down to the town from the leisure centre car park
2nd January - Trevilley to Porthgwarra
The forecast for today was for bright sunshine though still a reasonably brisk north easterly wind and this was indeed what we awoke to. In the improved conditions I did actually have a brief wander around the Pendeen area first thing and came up with a Raven, one or more heard-only Chough, a few Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Auks moving on the sea and best of all a Merlin which whizzed down the coast path and landed on a distant wall.
There were plenty of Corn Marigolds in the fields near Trevilley
3rd January - Back Home
It was time to leave already. Frustratingly the weather this morning was absolutely divine with bright sunshine and not a breath of wind. I must admit that I tarried a while as I carried stuff out to the car just in order to enjoy the weather and scenery. There was the usual Raven and I saw a couple of Chough this morning as well as a couple of Buzzards.
I usually take photos of the Raven which likes to sit on this wall but today there was a Buzzard there
My two brothers-in-law were up and off reasonably early but as usual it took our family
some time to get sorted and so we didn't finally leave until after
midday. Then we had some recycling to drop off, petrol to buy and
sandwiches for the journey. Finally at after 1 p.m. were were properly
on the way and after a long but uneventful journey were back home late
afternoon to say hello two our two cats which were both very pleased to
see us again.
