I'm sure that all UK birders are already well aware of the long-staying pale morph Booted Eagle that has taken up residence just north of Marazion in Cornwall these last few weeks. What was presumably the same bird was first seen in Cornwall in October of last year for a couple of days before disappearing and it wasn't until the 12th January that it was found again over the pines just north of Marazion marsh. This time it was more reliable and has remained faithful to the same location ever since. Now, at over four hours away this was too far for me personally to want to to twitch so it was only going to be if I had some kind of alternate reason for being down in that neck of the woods that I might consider going for it. Sadly, such a reason was supplied with a sudden and tragic death of a family member down in Exeter. With the funeral due on Monday, and less than two hours from there down to Marazion, I had my reasonable excuse. So I decided to make a weekend of it and headed down on the long and familiar slog from Oxford to Cornwall on Saturday morning. The trip was as tedious as ever but had the added frisson of reports of the Eagle "showing well" in the trees from the railway bridge for over a couple of hours. Usually it was only seen circling over the pines or coming into or leaving its roost so to have it sitting in a tree for an extended period of time was most unusual. "Could it stay there until I arrived?", I wondered. In the end it left a good hour before I reached Marazion so I was left wishing I'd headed off at the crack of dawn instead of my more leisurely start.
I should say a bit about viewing locations for this bird. Since January it had remained faithful to roosting in the same set of pine trees, just to the south east of Bowgyheere Farm and just north of the A394 railway bridge. There were two viewing locations for seeing it. One was from the lay-by on the A30 just south of the Ludgvan Leaze turn off where the St Michael's Way footpath meets the A30 and the other was from the railway bridge itself. The former site offered a panoramic albeit distant view of the roosting pines, various farm fields and behind you the ridge where Ludgvan was located. The bird had been seen from this location at various random times of the day as well as when it as it left or came back to the roosting pines. On some days, it would sit in the fields or on a distant branch where it could be seen from the lay-by. On the other hand the railway bridge would only offer views of it leaving or returning to the roost though these views would be much closer. So having it sit out in the open as it had done that morning was most unusual. Fellow county birder NT who was already down there had reported crippling views of the bird for a couple of hours that morning though, as I said previously, it had left a good hour before I arrived.
Armed with all the above information, I had decided that the best chance of my seeing the bird would be from the lay-by. I wasn't so concerned about crippling photos - just a nice tick would do me. For this reason I opted for the lay-by as my viewing location so just after 1pm I pulled up there to find just one other car and a young couple camped out in the lay-by and scanning the area. I wasn't too surprised - with the Eagle having put on such a great performance that morning the only people who would be there would be late arrivals such as myself. We struck up a conversation to while away the time while scanning the vista. Gradually more people joined us in our vigil though it was slow going. One thing about viewing from here was the constant noise. It was deafening! Just occasionally there would be a brief lull in the passing cars and a few moments of blissful silence before it all started again. Scanning every passing bird meant that one soon got tuned into the different jizzes: Gulls, Buzzards and Crows were the main birds with an occasional Heron or Goose thrown in.
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| This view became etched into my memory. The roosting pines are in the centre |
As it started to get dark birder numbers fell again until it was just myself and a family of birders from up in the Merseyside area who seemed as keen as I was to see the bird. At around 4:30pm news came through on RBA of the bird again from the railway bridge and "showing well". Panic ensued and myself and the family party decided to head over there. I opted to walk (well more like run) down the St Michael's Way footpath and along the road whereas they got into their car and sped around to the other location. The trouble was the nearest lay-by to the railway bridge for parking was a good five minutes walk and in the end we arrived at the same time. There was no one else to be seen. A quick scan and I picked up a Buzzard sitting in the trees. Could this have been strung into the Eagle? It was impossible to tell. All we knew was the bird wasn't there and it had got too dark to see. Defeated and disconsolate we went our separate ways, vowing to come back tomorrow to try again.
I trudged back to the A30 lay-by and drove down to Marazion beach to stare at the sea and drink some now cold tea from my flask and to have a bite to eat. Then I drove to Sainsbury's to pick up some food for the evening and the headed off to my Air BnB for the night. This was located just the other side of Marazion at Plain-an-Gwarry. It turned out be a very nice modern apartment annex in a wonderfully quiet rural location. With a small kitchen and lounge as well as a bedrooom it was perfect for my two night stay. I settled in for the evening, very tired after a long and fruitless day. I turned in early, hoping that I would be able to connect with this frustrating Eagle at some point tomorrow.
The next morning I was up and out the door early and back at the lay-by just before 8am. The Merseyside family were there already though the weather was dark and gloomy and it was hard to see anything. We set about our vigil once more though the gloom and the chilly breeze made it difficult and uncomfortable. A Curlew in the field and three Canada Geese flying past were the only points of interest. After a little while another birder turned up who had been at the railway bridge that morning. He reported that he had seen the Eagle leave the roost from the trees at around 8am. Apparently it had been on view for all of five seconds and only 3 out of the 6 birders present had managed to see it. The birding family then reported that they had seen something fly out low from the trees at around that time being mobbed heavily but it had been too dark for them to make it out. It must have been the bird! Guttingly, I had only arrived then and was still getting ready so I'd been too late. How frustrating! Incidentally, I'd been told from various other people that a bird of prey being heavily mobbed was a good indication of it being the target bird as apparently, the corvids largely ignore the local Buzzards.
Gradually other birders arrived and joined us. Chatting with the birding family they were equally frustrated. They'd probably seen it but views just hadn't been good enough. What's more they had to leave late morning to head back up north and it seemed that the bird had now headed out for the day. In the end they decided to head over to Hayle to try to connect with some of the local birds of interests there and I decided to join them. To be honest, by this point I'd had enough of the lay-by and of not seeing the Eagle and wanted to do something else and a nice bit of gulling would be the perfect antidote. They told me that they had inside gen that the Ring-billed Gull would hang out with the flock of Common Gulls at Lelant Station. Now, I was familiar with Lelant Saltings but had never been to the Station so I followed them in the car up towards St Ives and then down the aptly named Station Hill to a cute little station tucked in some trees by the bend in the river. From the platform there were some reasonable close gulls to look through and it was quiet (no noisy traffic!) and out of the wind. What a nice contrast!
The others found the Spoonbill a bit further up the river towards the Saltings and I managed to find the Ring-billed Gull, more or less in front of us with the Common Gulls. It had been a few years since I'd seen a Ring-billed Gull so it was nice to catch up with one. Also on show was a Red-breasted Merganser, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a couple of Shelduck and the usual loafing larger gulls. Unfortunately the Glaucous Gull that had been around wasn't on show.
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| The adult Ring-billed Gull |
After a while I'd had my fill and bade farewell to my northern friends and wished them a safe journey back. I couldn't face more time at the lay-by and anyway, it was going to be late afternoon that was going to be the prime opportunity to connect as the bird came into the roost so I wanted to do something else for a while. So I headed over to Pendeen to take a look at my old cottage there. Seeing it again brought up a weird mixture of nostalgia for past times and relief at no longer being responsible for the constant maintenance of the place. The scenery was just as stunning as before but I had a feeling that it all belonged to my past now. I decided to have a bit of a wander around to get a bit of exercise - I'd been standing around for far too long at the lay-by and it felt good to be on the move again. However, I didn't want to linger by Pendeen, partly because of the chilly wind so I headed over towards Kenidjack. Giving the wind direction, instead of going down the valley I decided to walk the other way up Tregeseal just to explore. I wandered all the way up to the moor there and back down again, finding a smart male Black Redstart on the roof of one of the houses for my troubles. By now the sun had come out and it was almost starting to feel pleasantly warm.
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| The Black Redstart on the roof of "The Meadows" |
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| Roosting Purple Sandpipers |
At the lay-by it was back to the same as before. Chatting with the birders, checking out any passing large bird that we could spot and hoping the Eagle would come by and give us all what we wanted. The birder from this morning who'd seen it at the railway bridge was there and we got talking. He spotted some Egrets in a very distant cattle field and we decided that they were probably Cattle Egrets.
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| Above and below, lay-by birders |
Some time after 4pm I got the sense that some people at the other end of the line (there were about ten of us) were onto something - they were looking very intently through their scopes. My companion next to me also called out the Eagle but the noise of the traffic was such that it was very hard to hear instructions. It was all over in a few seconds anyway. Three people had managed to see it as it had come in and I'd got a glimpse of something that could well have been it but it had all been too quick and now it was over. How frustrating! Those of us who had missed it decided to head over to the railway bridge on the off chance that it was still on view there. We arrived to find triumphant birders who'd been stationed there all starting to leave having had great views as it had come in, circled a couple of times and then gone into the trees to roost. It was not on view now and once again I'd missed it.
There was nothing I could do and I was stoical enough. Anyway, it was getting late and I was hungry so I headed back to Sainsbury's only to remember that it was Sunday and it was closed. Hah! I remembered this problem from before and knew that the Tesco's Express in town would be open so I nipped over there. There was a nice Starling murmuration of quite a resonable size over the main car park as I walked up the hill into Penzance. I found something suitable for dinner and then headed back to the AirBnB for the night. After having eaten I felt better and thought through my plans for the next day. The funeral was up in Exeter at 1:30pm and it was about a two hour drive. This would give me a bit of time for a last try for the Eagle tomorrow morning. With my accumulated experience over the last couple of days I decided that the lay-by was not the best site for my final attempt. In fact over the weekend the railway bridge site had consistently out performed the lay-by. On reflection, from what I now knew, my recommended tactics would be railway bridge for the departure and arrival from roosting and lay-by only during the day once it had left. In any event, I simply couldn't face the lay-by any more and the change of scenery would be a welcome relief if nothing else. Also, I'd learned the hard way that I had to be there earlier than I thought so I made plans to be there in good time tomorrow. Very tired from my efforts of the day, I turned in early and was soon asleep.
The next morning I was up and out the door by 7:15am. I parked up at a lay-by near the Marazion roundabout and walked back to the railway bridge ready for my last attempt. I was somewhat surprised to find that I was the only person there. Having multiple pairs of eyes would have been helpful. I kept my eyes peeled on the pines in case the Eagle should break cover. As I watched I heard a Firecrest calling in the valley beneath the bridge. A male and female birding couple arrived whom I recognised from yesterday afternoon as having been there. Just as they walked up he started scanning the trees and said "there it is!".
"Huh???"
He was right! It was perched up in one of the deciduous trees out in plain view. I realise that in my keeness not to miss the bird as it came out of the pines I'd not actually scanned through the trees at all and had missed it sitting out in plain view - Doh! Anyway, there it was in all its Eagle glory, sitting there and no doubt wondering how it had managed to get so lost and find itself in cold England in the middle of winter. I took some video and basked in the relief of finally having connected. All the frustration and tension of the weekend melted away and I could relax. I couldn't believe how good the views of the Eagle were: instead of the distant speck over the pines, here it was close up and just sitting there nonchalantly. I put the word out on various channels and took some video. From the bridge its head was partly obscured but by walking up the road a bit it was possible to find a gap in the trees where it could be viewed without obstruction (thanks to NT for that tip!).
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| A phone-scoped phto of the bird loafing in the trees |
A couple of other birders arrived on the back of my RBA submission whom I recognised as having dipped yesterday afternoon from the lay-by. They too were most relieved finally to connect like this. As I had seen the bird so quickly (it was just before 8am that it was first found) I decided that I had plenty of time and would wait to see it fly. After a while it did so but only to a nearly tree so it was still on view albeit a bit more distant and more obscured. Still, it was enough for me and I decided to head off to Exeter in good time. So it was back to the car, then after a brief nip back to Sainsbury's to fuel up I headed off on the long slog north towards Exeter.
The journey northwards was long and uneventful. Because I had plenty of time I had decided on a last birding effort. RSPB Labrador Bay was only half an hour from Exeter and apparently offered views of Cirl Buntings from the car park. "What's not to like?", I thought, delighting at the prospect of eating my lunch while watching these colourful Buntings. In the event, things didn't quite go according to plan. There was a howling gale blowing directly in off the sea up towards the car park hedge and no self respecting Bunting was going to be anywhere near those hedges. So I got tooled up and had a wander around. I met a birding lady from Somerset who was also looking and we teamed up. A quick phone call to NT who'd been the previous day in similar weather conditions gave me some guidance on where to look but to no avail. In the end I spent far too long searching and had to rush back to the car, change into my funeral clothes in the back of the car and then rush back to Exeter. I got there just in time and hurriedly wolfed down some lunch in the car park before joining the proceedings. The funderal and wake were as good as these things can be. At least it was a chance to catch up with some family members.
At around 4pm I headed off on the final leg of my journey back home to Oxford. This last leg was very tiring with rain, the dark and the narrow windy roads of the A40 and the glare of on-coming cars making for difficult driving conditions and I didn't arrive back at Casa Gnome until after 7pm. Still, I'd got back safely and had had a great long weekend away with a stonking first lifer of the year under my belt. Despite the hard work involved, it had been a great trip away.
