New Year in Cornwall

Another compilation of posts from my sister blog at Pendeen Birding

31st December - Mousehole
We decided as a family to head back down to our beloved Cornwall to see the New Year in and we'd invited my VLW's two brothers to join us as well. As the previous day we all had a family party to attend just over the border in Warwickshire it made sense for them all to come back to our place in Oxford for the night before we all headed off to the South West the next day. Our intention was to leave for Cornwall at 9 a.m. the next day but with the usual inertia that accompanies a large group it wasn't until after 9:30 that we finally left. Mercifully the traffic was light and we made good progress arriving at Penzance in just over four hours as usual. There was some quite heated debate in our car about what to do when we got there. I had pointed out that as we only had two or three hours of daylight left and that we were only down for a few days then it made sense to go and do something first and then get the shopping in once it got dark. I proposed Mousehole as an option, partly as we all like pootling around there and of course partly so that I could get to see the Eastern Black Redstart that had been lingering there the past couple of weeks. Eventually this was agreed and we headed off there, deciding to bite the bullet and park in the Rock Pool café car park to save time. The other car with my two brothers-in-law were only a few minutes behind us so whilst the others waited for them to arrive, I headed down to the shoreline beneath the café to look for the bird with L our ten year old son in tow. I explained to him what I was looking for but initially couldn't see it at all. Suddenly L exclaimed "there it is, there  it is!" and pointed on the beach though as hard as I tried I couldn't see where he was pointing until a small bird flew up and over the low cliff there into a garden. I hadn't really got anything on it as it flew so quizzed L closely as his knowledge of birds is vague to say the least but he seemed convinced. I left him scrambling around on the rocks and headed further along until I reached the boulders along the foot of the harbour car park which I scoured carefully. I knew that the bird had occasionally been seen along the southern quay instead but I didn't have time to check there now and had to hope that it was still somewhere between the north quay and the café though there'd been no report on it on RBA at all today.

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

I was soon called away from my appreciation of this eastern gem by a phone call saying that the others had arrived and that they were all in the café now so I went to join them. Unfortunatley it was rather busy there today so the service was a bit slow and they never actually cleared our table of the previous occupants' stuff but we were thirsty after our long drive down and didn't really mind.

They have cute little milk bottles for your milk at the café

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.

Singing Pendeen Great Tit

Back at base, given the sunny conditions we thought that we'd go for a decent walk today and with  the prevailing wind direction we decided to head to the south coast where we hoped that we would get some shelter. We decided in the end to head to Trevilley and from there walk down to Nanjizal beach and on to Porthgwarra where we hoped that the café might be open, before returning back to where we'd come from via a slightly different route. We stopped off in St Just for some pasties and then parked up just on the entrance road to Trevilley and headed off. With a Little Bunting and some Lapland Buntings having been reported in the stubble fields I kept my eyes open but there was so much cover that it would require many hours of tramping around to uncover anything there and just passing through as I was all I could turn up was a flock of about 100 Linnets and a few Skylarks. Out on the moor iotself there were at least six Stonechats and a few Meadow Pipits but in general it was very quiet. Sadly the café was shut, which we'd half expected anyway and on the return leg we decided to go across the moor and up past Higher Bosistow and along the footpath across the fields back towards Trevilley. Again, not much was seen on the bird front but in the sunshine it was a very pleasant walk indeed.

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.

Pendeen Song Thrush

Rocking it in Stow

I'd more or less mentally shut up shop for the 2016 birding year. It had been a great year and I was starting to think about my end of year review and my bird of the year awards and I certainly wasn't expecting to make any more sorties before the New Year. However, on Tuesday afternoon news broke of a male Blue Rock Thrush in Stow-on-the-Wold - a tantalisingly short distance from Casa Gnome. Initially the news was no more than the fact that someone had posted an ID query on Twitter about a strange bird in their garden and the location hadn't been disclosed. However, when you dangle a carrot such as this before the twitching community it doesn't take much to bring out a twitcher's inner detective and by late afternoon someone had Googled the name of the Twitter poster to get their postcode and then had scoured the area until they'd turned the bird up. There was a bit of controversy on Bird Forum (see here) about the fact that the location had been posted on RBA without any prior consultation but with the genie out of the bottle there wasn't anything to be done except to plan my trip the next day.

The forecast was for fog for much of the county in the morning and also unfortunately for Stow as well which is just over the border in Gloucestershire. With that in mind, and also not wanting to have endure the inevitable dawn hoards I decided to play it cool and to aim to arrive late morning when the sun would have had a chance to burn off the fog and when numbers would have calmed down. After all, since the bird had apparently already been there for more than a week before being identified I wasn't particularly worried about it disappearing. I followed on-line as the dawn arrivals connected and photos on Twitter seemed to reveal a first-light crowd of more than 100 birders, all crammed into a small space so I was thankful to have given that a miss. At around 10 a.m. I started to think about heading over there and began to get my gear packed into the Gnome mobile. I was all set to head off when my VLW pointed out that news had just broken of a fatal accident on the A40, which was the route I was going to take. With the road closed both ways I decided to go via Chipping Norton instead and thanked the stars (and my VLW) for having learnt about the news just in time. So instead I headed off along the misty and frosty Oxfordshire roads, passing a couple of minor accidents along the way, testament to the treacherous conditions. Some three quarters of an hour later I arrived in Stow and tried to get into the closest car par only to find that it was full of twitchers so I headed back to a residential side road that was well away from the twitch area, got tooled up and dressed up in my warm gear to keep out the near zero temperatures and hurried over to Fishers Close, where the bird was located. There was a steady stream of birders coming the other way though numbers weren't too huge. 

I arrived at the Close to find no more than a dozen or so birders all scoping something which of course turned out to be the Blue Rock Thrush itself, conveniently perching on the top of a chimney pot of a more distant house. I quickly got my scope out and enjoyed my first views of this Mega rarity. 

Blue Rock Thrush on a chimney pot

After a few minutes it flew down into the garden behind the house and I could relax and go and explore a bit. I soon found the area which overlooked the original finder's garden and which I recognised from the photos that morning. Judging from the RBA reports and what I'd read on Bird Forum I had been expecting only occasional views but from talking to people who were already there it seemed that the bird was often on view and that one never had to wait more than fifteen or twenty minutes for a sighting and this did in fact prove to be the case. 

I'd been a bit surprised at the location this normally mountain-dwelling species had chosen, namely a residential housing estate.  On doing a bit of reading it turned out that it liked what seemed to be similar habitat to Black Redstarts and apparently it wasn't too unusual for them to be seen in villages though of course they should be much further south and east than this one was. It certainly treated the surrounding houses like some cliffs, often perching on them to survey the scene before nipping down to lower levels to feed. It seemed to have a bit of a circuit which included the original garden as well as quite a few rooftops on the surrounding houses. This made for nice easy viewing though in the bright sunlight it did make for difficult photography. In fact the best views of it were when it was low down in the deep shade in the garden. Then one could appreciate the deep indigo blue colour and make out the vermiculations on the plumage that I naively thought marked it out as a first winter male though apparently it's actually an adult (see here). The rest of the time against a bright sky it appeared almost black though with a very distinctive jizz that immediately marked it out as something special.

In the shade it was possible to appreciate the subtle plumage details

It's more usual roof-top pose

Over the course of about an hour and a half I took a number of photos as it appeared and disappeared though much of them ended up being the same silhouette on a roof top which only has limited photographic appeal. The number of twitchers ebbed and flowed though there were never more than about forty during the time that I was there.

Twitch Shot

Given the rarity of the bird and it's close proximity to God's Own County I was very much expecting to bump into other Oxon birders and sure enough I met up with Peter Law, Wayne and Julie Bull and also Keith and Shirley Clack. Given how well the bird was performing there was a nice relaxed atmosphere and much chatting was had.

Birders selfie: from left to right: Wayne, Julie, Peter and myself

Eventually I felt that I'd had my fill and wandered back to the Gnome mobile, de-tooled, had a celebratory mince pie to keep my energy up and then headed back home to Oxford for a late lunch. What a nice finale to what has been a special birding year.

Dusky Delights in Derbyshire

A little over a month ago there was quite a kerfuffle when a non birder in Northumberland photographed a bird that he didn't recognise and posted it on an internet forum to be identified. Amazingly it turned out to be an Eyebrowed Thrush, a quite extraordinary bird to just chance upon though sadly it was never seen again. A month later on Sunday Rachel Jones innocently posted pictures of three birds that she'd photographed in her Derbyshire garden and didn't recognise. To put things in perspective, two of the species were Starling and Blackbird so she was very much a beginner but amazingly the third bird turned out to be a Dusky Thrush, a massive UK rarity. In due course the location was revealed to be the small village of Beeley near Chesterfield in Derbyshire and so next morning the vanguard of keenest twitchers were there and duly managed to find the bird which was then reported throughout the rest of Monday. Being only some two and a half hours away, this bird was very much on my twitching radar and having missed the only other proper twitchable one at Margate a few years back I was keen to go and pay my respects. It was being reported fairly regularly throughout the day though by all accounts was rather mobile, moving between a number of different sites in the village so a certain amount of persistence and luck were going to be necessary. I had mentally pencilled in later in the week to go but on Tuesday I hit a quiet patch at work and was all set to head off when some family duties came up and I had to postpone my trip. So instead I elected to go on news on Wednesday morning when as an added bonus the weather would be much milder than the the rather chilly snap we were presently enduring.

Wednesday morning, before it was even properly light, the bird was reported again on Twitter as still being present so it was that a little after 8 a.m. I set off. According to the RAC web-site there were two routes which took the same amount of time: either M6 Toll and A38/A6 or up the M1 and then across at Chesterfield (where the famous Crag Martin had been located). In the end I opted for the first route and duly set off. The weather was rather murky and gloomy though the car thermometer reported a balmy 10 degrees outside as I negotiated the tail end of the commuter traffic whilst circumnavigating Birmingham. After Derby, the roads were slower and I was forced to crawl along at 40 mph along the Derwent river valley though regular views of old mill buildings gave a nice historic context to the region. Finally after about two and a half hours of travelling I turned off the main road and was soon pulling up at Beeley, a very picturesque village just into the Peak District National Park.

The village was quite a sight to behold with birders to be seen absolutely everywhere. Many were heading back down the hill, relaxing and chatting after having seen the bird whereas others who'd yet to see it were hurrying up the road, driven on by a mixture of the same excitement and anxiety that I was feeling. A car was leaving just as I arrived so I nipped into their parking spot just outside the pub, got tooled up and headed off up the hill after the other yet-to-see-its. I'd only gone a few yards when I saw the familiar faces of Ewan and Clackers, looking contentedly over their photos on the back of their cameras and clearly about to call it a day. They showed me some suitably gripping BOC shots and told me that the best tactic was to wait at the orchard by Dukes Barn rather than running around after every reported sighting. With the bird yet to be seen by myself I didn't linger but said goodbye and hurried on.

The whole village was absolutely heaving with birders, they were everywhere you looked. Twitching with big crowds is very much not my cup of tea but I did my best to ignore the hoards and to focus on the task in hand, namely locating a rather small bird somewhere in a fair sized village with lots of hiding places. As usual I'd done as much pre-trip research as possible and so knew where many of the locations were where it was often seen. The key spots seemed to be: the gardens and hedges next to the small playing field off Chapel Hill, the small orchard in the centre of the village next to the Dukes Barn activity centre and another orchard a bit further down School Lane. From what I'd read it was generally understood that the best location was the Dukes Barn orchard and as Ewan and Keith had backed this up that's where I headed. The orchard turned out to be a rather modest affair with just a few apple trees in it and a couple of rather cramped viewing points, either side of an adjoining building. I chose to stand at the first gap near the entrance whereas others were standing at the second gap by the rear car park where a number of canoes seemed to be stacked. Fortunately, some people in front of me decided to leave after a while as they'd already seen the bird so I was able to get a front row spot as we waited. There were lots of thrushes flying around overhead, mostly Redwings, and a Blackbird would pop down into the orchard periodically. A Nuthatch and a Coal Tit were two other regular visitors to the orchard but that was about it. Still, the weather was nice and mild and there wasn't too much inane conversation going on as we waited in quiet expectation for an appearance by the star bird.

The Duke's Barn orchard

After about three quarters of an hour of waiting I looked over to the other orchard watching group and noticed a certain change in demeanour. There was clearly something going on with people excitedly looking through the hedge behind the wall there. Could they be on the bird? Somehow the way the people were behaving didn't seem to suggest that they could actually see it though something was certainly afoot. Suddenly, without anyone actually saying anything, there seemed to be a determined movement away from the orchard area and off own the road. Without quite knowing what was going on I decided to follow and hastily gathered together my gear and hurried off down the road. The direction of travel was through the village and down Pig Lane where at the end I found a gathering of birders all focusing on a field in front of them. Someone was saying that he had the bird in his scope and I quickly took my turn at having a peak through it so I could finally see it and relax somewhat. Yes, there it was sitting in a Hawthorn bush on the far side of the field though the scope was slightly out of focus for me so it wasn't a great view. More and more people were arriving all the time and it was becoming quite crowded so I looked around and realised that there was a nice vantage point in a field next to the path where a few other birders had already gone. I made my way through the crowd and over into this field where I was able to set up with an unobstructed view of the hedgerow on the other side. I soon had the bird in my scope and was able to take it in in all its thrushy loveliness.

The bird was a bit larger than the accompanying Redwings and without the rakish jizz of that species. A mid brown colour on the back with reddish tones in the flight feathers, a striking white supercilium that flared out wider beyond the eye, a large white throat area and strong black speckling on the breast over a whitish ground colour, it really was a lovely looking thrush. I busied myself with my digiscoping, alternating between photos and video for all of the twenty minutes that it was on view.

Some video footage of the Dusky Thrush

Thinking about it, the location that it had chosen was actually a pretty good one from the point of view of accommodating the hoards of birders as there was enough room so that everyone (I estimated that there were about 400 people there) could watch it in relative comfort without getting in each others' way. Eventually it took off and flew back towards the village and that was my cue (and everyone else's there) to leave.

Just some of the twitchers all watching the Dusky Thrush

I felt that I'd had good enough views of the bird to start thinking about heading back home now but first I went back to the Dukes Barn area for a celebratory cup of tea and a chance to make a donation in their collection bucket. The Dukes Barn is an outdoor activity centre that relies entirely on donations and I felt that it was a good idea for sake of the reputation of the twitching community that they should be supported for offering their car park and grounds up for the use of visiting birders. I had a quick tour around the rest of the village just so that I could see the other favoured sites for myself. I'd already explored the village on Streetview as part of my preparations so felt that I knew it quite well already but it was good to see these sites in the flesh.

The second orchard site - at the bottom of School Lane

The playing field site off Chapel Hill

Finally it was back to the car where I had my packed lunch and then fired up the Gnome mobile. I decided to head back via the alternative route on the M1 just for a bit of variety. The journey back was uneventful but with the absence of a dangling new tick carrot to keep me excited, I felt more tired and had to concentrate to keep awake. Back home I had my usual celebratory cup of tea and the chance to bask in the warm glow yet another mega rare tick in what has been a truly memorable birding year.

Cornwall in October

Once more a compilation of posts from my Pendeen Birding blog.


Saturday 23rd October - Back Down
Finally I'm back down in my beloved Cornwall. Usually I would have come down much earlier in the month so this is unusual for me. However, I was watching events unfold in the birding world, keeping an eye on how things were progressing in Cornwall as well as marvelling at the autumn that the North East was having. Pendeen seemed to be doing OK with a Little Bunting seen on the road, several Lapland Buntings by the lighthouse and a Hooded Crow at Manor Farm. When my chum and bird finding machine Ian Kendall came down he managed to winkle out a Richard's Pipit as well as what he was pretty sure (but not certain) was an Olive-backed Pipit though it flew behind the coastguard cottages and wasn't seen again. Ian did mention that he was finding things rather hard work down here and my impression is that it's been a rather low key October down here so far. In discussions with my VLW, we decided that we would definitely be coming down at the end of October for half term anyway so in the end I decided that rather than coming down twice, instead I would do a few day sorties eastwards from Oxford and then just come down the once en famille at the end of the month. So I made a trip to Norfolk and one to Easington to catch up with the Siberian Accentor and so finally here I am. Of course I've missed the PG Red-eyed Vireo and this week the Isabelline Wheatear and the Siberian Stonechat which would have all been Cornish ticks for me. In fact the Vireo would have been a lifer (as would the Wheatear up until a week ago when I jammed in on one whilst twitching the Accentor). Still, I'm very much hoping that the fact that the Wheatear and the Stonechat arrived this week is portentous of good things to come for this week. We shall see.

Anyway, with nothing vitally pressing on the bird front to warrant an early start (I figured that the Cape Cornwall Stonechat which was around yesterday afternoon would either have gone or it would be around all day and sadly it was the former) we departed from Oxford at around 10 a.m. There was moderately heavy traffic on the M5 south of the M4 junction but nothing too serious. However the Bodmin roadworks on the A30 were as terrible as ever and in the end the whole journey took a gruelling five and a half hours instead of the usual four. We finally arrived mid afternoon for our customary cup of tea in the Sainsbury's café before doing our shopping and heading over to the cottage. As I was unpacking some movement caught my eye and I looked up to see a lovely Black Redstart feeding away quietly, using the surrounding buildings as a surveillance perch as they are wont to do. After it played run around with me for a while, eventually I was able to get a passable photo of it. I do love this species and really hopes that it sticks around for a while.

The Black Redstart

Later on my VLW and I had a wander down to the lighthouse to get some fresh air. Down by the Old Count House I heard a bird singing which I really couldn't place. It had a very rhythmic simple song that had me thinking of some New World Sparrow and I got terribly excited. After an agonising five minutes it seemed to move around to behind the garage and when I went round to look I saw it. It was a Robin - I couldn't believe it! I've never heard a Robin sing in such a way before, most unusual and really had me fooled. 

Anyway, after that excitement we headed back to the cottage where we ate and got settled back in. Despite the rather clear conditions I decided to put out the month trap and had a couple of Angled Shades come to investigate almost immediately. I'm still not expecting much in the trap tomorrow morning, we shall see. After watching a movie we nipped outside to look at the Orionids meteor shower which is reaching its peak this weekend. Fortunately it was very clear and we got good views of several though the wind was picking up and it was rather cold so we didn't stay out too long. Soon it was time to turn in for the night. It was good to be back.

Sunday 24th October - Pendeen

It was a very quiet day today. The forecast was for strong easterly winds and this was indeed what we awoke to so, with no overnight bird news that I needed to respond to, I decided to have a decent lie in today as I had a bit of a sleep deficit to make up from the last few days. Eventually at around 9:30 I got up and decided to do the Pendeen rounds though in the strong winds it was tough going and sadly there was no sign of yesterday's Black Redstart around the cottages at all. Down by the Old Count House I bumped into another visiting birder who'd just arrived for the week so we got chatting and exchanged mobile numbers in case either of us should find something good. I birded the patch diligently but with precious little reward with the highlights being 1 Redwing, 2 Chough, 1 Raven and 1 Peregrine. I worked my way down the western coastal path as far as the stream where it was mercifully more sheltered but I still couldn't find anything apart from a single Stonechat. In the end I gave up and came back to the cottage.

Next I decided to inspect the moth trap. I wasn't expecting much after the cold clear night but in the event I was pleasantly surprised as I had a trap full of Feathered Ranunculus with several dozen of them. Apart from that it was just singles of Angled Shades, Large Yellow Underwing, Lunar Underwing and a Setaceous Hebrew Character.

One of many Feathered Ranunculus

We didn't have any real plans for today so in the end we decided to do some light chorage about the cottage and packed away our garden furniture for the winter as well as bringing in a wooden bench from the shed which needed painting. After that we had lunch and then eventually decided on doing one of our classic local walks, namely down to Geevor tin mine, then up to the main road and stopping in at Heathers café for refreshments before returning along the road to the cottage. It was a pleasant enough walk and there were even a few flowers still out despite the lateness in the season. In the café we chanced upon Dave C, a fellow regular visiting birder to this area. He and his wife had also only just come down and given the windy weather had also decided to have a lazy day. We checked that our mobile numbers were up to date and both hoped that we'd see each other again later in the week at "the big one".

Apple-of-Peru

After our tea and walk back we mooched about the cottage doing nothing in particular. Our  eldest daughter who's currently at Durham University rang for a chat which was nice. Early evening the rain came in which put the kaibosh on any meteor spotting or mothing so we had a quiet night in. There'd been almost no RBA Cornish news today to shape any plans for tomorrow so all in all a very quiet day.

Monday 24th October- Pendeen & Polgigga

The weather was rather unleasant when we awoke this morning so my VLW and I stayed in bed for some time, sipping our tea and putting the world to rights. Eventually the rain passed and the wind abated and I decided to venture forth on the Pendeen rounds. Despite the improved conditions it was still hard work with not a great deal to see with 2 Raven, 2 Chough and 2 Redwing the best I could muster. Back at the cottage, given the still rather mediocre weather we decided to head over to Cape Cornwall for a swim. We'd learnt that the Boswedden Hotel has a small pool that you can hire out for an hour for a modest rate so we thought that we'd give it a try. We arrived just as the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour. Eventually it abated and we hurried inside to find a nice small pool in which we spent an enjoyable hour splashing around. We shall certainly use this facility again next time the weather isn't that great. Our plan afterwards was to go for a walk around the Polgigga area but it turned out that my VLW had left her walking boots back at the cottage so in the end we picked up a couple of pasties from St. Just and headed back home for lunch. 

When the weather is half decent I love standing outside our cottage and staring over the fields towards the lighthouse with a cup of tea in the (usually forlorn) hope of hearing or seeing something good fly over. I was doing just this whilst I waited for the other two to get ready when I spotted a white Egret flying low over the fields in front of me. Quick as a flash I put down my tea and lifted up my bins (which I always keep close by for  just such a contingency). No yellow feet and a stubby yellow bill meant Cattle Egret - get in! I ran around the back of the cottage to keep track of it as it flew out of my sight. I soon picked it up again as it headed over to Manor Farm where it landed on a wall and surveyed the scene for a while before it flew over to the few cattle which were in the field and started walking about in amongst them. 

The Cattle Egret in flight

Standing on the wall at Manor Farm...

...and settling down in amongst the cattle

A neighbour, who'd seen me running around the back came over to see what was going on and I had to try and juggle having a coversation with him whilst sending out some texts to various local and visiting birders as well as getting the news out to RBA. Whilst Cattle Egret isn't a mega rarity, apparently it's still a description bird in Cornwall and it was certainly a Cornish tick for me as well as a very nice self-found bird. All the same I did my best to contain my excitment in front of the non-birder neighbour. He eventually went back inside and I headed back into the cottage to see if the other two were ready which they now were. So we got back into the car and headed south west once more though this time going through St. Just and on down to Polgigga.

The reason for going here was because a Barnacle Goose had been reported here yesterday, the last Goose that I still needed for my as yet modest Cornish list. The other two didn't really mind where we went and as a wild Goose chase wouldn't involve standing around for ages waiting for something to show it was decided that we could conveniently combine the search with a walk around the general area. We parked up carefully in Polgigga and headed off down the lane towards Bosistow Farm. Many years ago when we were still getting to know the area we'd stayed as a family at Faraway Cottage so there was a certain nostalgia in heading down this road again. As we walked down the road a very noisy gang of young children on bikes came bombing past with the youngest and wildest child nearly hitting us in his enthusiasm. Evantually they reached the end of the road and turned around heading back past us so that finally we were left in peace.

There were some small birds flitting in amongst the Sallows as we walked down the lane but our son L was himself intent on making so much noise that in the end I gave up trying to see what they were and instead concentrated on scanning the fields. There were quite a few Skylarks flying overhead and the usual Linnets buzzing about as well as some Mipits. Down by Faraway cottage there was a large grassy field containing lots of Gulls. In amongst them I eventually found the target Goose which posed nicely for a photo.

The Barnacle Goose

Pleased at having found the bird we carried on with our walk, deciding to head out to the coast and then down to Nanjizal. On the way I spotted a lovely corner field which had loads of really interesting arable plants in. I could have spent ages rummaging about through them all though the other two were getting impatient and started to carry on so I quickly took some snaps and then hurried to catch up. 

Cultivated Flax

Corn Spurrey

Field Woundwort

Out on the moors I found a couple of Stonechat for my troubles and then we headed down the steep path to Nanjizal. There I sat on a rock and surveyed the scenery whilst the other two went down onto the beach itself though as the tide was in there wasn't much to it. A couple of Chough came down and I busied myself with taking a few snaps.

Nanjizal Chough

Eventually the other two came back and we headed back up the Nanjizal path towards Bosistow Lane, thereby going around to the other side of the Goose field. I had a good look for the Goose but couldn't see it any more so it clearly has other locations that it also goes to. My VLW picked some blackberries for a crumble as we headed back to the car. By the time we got back to the car it was 6 o'clock already - far later than we planned as I had a meeting that night with some of the admin team for the CBWPS web-site who wanted to learn about my experience with running the Oxon birding site. We arrived back at the cottage at around 6:30, I hurriedly wolfed down some dinner and was out the door again in 10 minutes. The meeting, over in Marazion, was an enjoyable and productive affair and didn't go on too long as I was starting to feel rather tired now after what had been a long day. I stopped off at Sainsbury's for a quick shop on the way back and was back at the cottage by 10 p.m. After a chat and a glass of wine I tumbled into bed and was soon fast asleep, dreaming of my two shiny new Cornish ticks.

As we headed off up the hill I thought I saw bird-finding legend Lewis Thomson photographing something. It turned out that he'd been nearby and managed to jam in on the Cattle Egret on the back of my RBA message. What's more he got a superb shot of it as you can see here - far better than my puny efforts. (c) Lewis Thomson

Tuesday 25th October - Pendeen

I awoke this morning to a typical Pendeen fog that so often accompanies calm weather in this region. No point in doing the rounds in that I thought and boiled up a cup of tea and turned the computer on in order to catch up with my blogging. I just glanced out of the window a few minutes later and miraculously the fog had completely lifted. So I gave my freshly made tea to my VLW instead who was just herself waking up, and I quickly got dressed and headed out to see what was about.

In the calmer conditions there were noticeably more birds about with plenty of Robins, Wrens and Dunnocks to be seen. What's more the actual birding was so much easier without the wind to contend with. There wasn't much in the way of overhead movement however, with just the odd Chaffinch, a couple of Skylarks and a few Mipits passing over. In the event it was pretty much a case of the usual suspects with the two resident Ravens and the two Chough still about as well as a few Stonechats and the local Buzzard. Five Snipe flew over which was quite unusual for here. Up at Calartha Copse in the calm and now sunny conditions I soon managed to find Lewis T's Yellow-browed Warbler from yesterday and I spent some time enjoying one of my favourite species even though their currency has been somewhat debased of late by the vast hoards hitting this country this autumn.

With rarer Accentors stealing the birding headlines nationally at the moment, it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the humble Dunnock

Back at the cottage we weren't really sure what to do today and with no news at all on RBA to help us in this decision we hummed and hawed for some time before eventually deciding, given how lovely the weather was, that we would take a picnic down to our local beach at Portheras Cove. There were quite a few other people there all enjoying the wonderful conditions. Our son when for a paddle whilst I enjoyed a bit of a nap on the beach. There wasn't a great deal of activity on the bird front though a Grey Heron did come "in-off", two Rock Pipits were buzzing around the cliffs and a Little Egret flew overhead towards the lighthouse.

This seal seemed to have a huge grin on its face, obviously enjoying the sunny weather

On the way back we met some of our neighbours as well as a bride and groom treading gingerly along the muddy track in all their finery in order to have a wedding ceremony on the beach itself.

You couldn't ask for a better location to get married

Back at the cottage we pootled around for the rest of the day and vegged out in front of the telly in the evening before going to sleep quite early, tired out from all the fresh air that we'd enjoyed.

Given the exciting rare Wheatears that are hitting the country natiowide at present I've been looking out for them this week, though this one is sadly just a Northern Wheatear

Wednesday 26th October - Pendeen & Hayle

Whereas yesterday had been sunny and calm, I awoke today to find it much more cloudy and more breezy. Whilst the wind wasn't too unmanageable, it had shifted around to a more southerly direction and it just felt a little more exposed when doing the rounds this morning. It was hard work again today with very little reward for my efforts. Sure, there were the two Raven and two Chough and I managed to get Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk today as well as a few Stonechat and Mipits but it just felt difficult and the birds weren't at all showy. Up at Calartha Copse I'd almost given up on the Yellow-browed Warbler when I spotted it flitting about in the bushes of a neighbouring garden briefly. In the end it was a relief to get back inside the cottage to warm up and have some breakfast.

There's always a Stonechat to photograph somewhere around Pendeen

Our plan for today was to do a spot of DIY first of all. Sadly, it seems impossible to come down to stay in our cottage without having to do some general maintenance of some kind and this time it was the exterior windows which were in desperate need of our attention. My VLW and I worked away at them whilst our son binge-watched some children's TV serial until around lunch time when finally some bird news came through on RBA: "adult winter Franklin's Gull at Hayle estuary from the causeway". Whilst this was defintely something interesting, it was reported a full hour and a half ago so the bird could be long gone by now. Still with nothing else to go for when it came to planning our afternoon excursion I suggested that we might do something which incorporated an attempt at seeing this bird. My VLW was quite keen to explore the shops at Hayle, which she'd not really looked at before so in the end we headed off with this as the plan. We'd just got to about half way to Penzance when "no further sign of Fanklin's Gull" came through on RBA. Hmmm, we started to think about some alternatives to our plan and had just decided to go there anyway for want of anything better to do when "still present in a field viewable from the causeway though distant" came through. Game on again!

Some fifteen minutes later we arrived at the causeway and I parked up and hurried to the small crowd of assembled birders whilst my VLW and our son headed off along the road towards Hayle. The tide was right in at the moment and the birds were all huddled up at the southern end of the estuary near where we were standing with the immature Spoonbill the pick of the bunch in a very brief scan. It turned out that the Gull had been seen right in the far distance on a hillside where there were a relatively modest number of Black-headed Gulls picking their way over a field. I later measured the distance on a map and it was a good 2 km away. Alex M, Brian D and Linton P were there - the latter had it in his scope and let me take a quick peek where the dark mantle colour and half-hood really stood out from the Black-headed's even at that distance. I tried to find it in my scope and had it briefly though it soon moved out of sight below the line of trees that were partly blocking the view.

At that moment I got a call from Dave Parker saying that some people were watching the Gull from the side of the road on the way up to Carbis Bay. I relayed this information to everyone else there and we all hurried back to our cars and set off in convoy. The traffic was painful but we eventually arrived at the obvious twitch spot with cars piled up on the verge everywhere and a dozen or so birders all scoping the distant hillside. Here, the distance was a little less that 1km and the whole field could be viewed with the Franklin's relatively easy to pick out. I had an attempt at digiscoping it though at that distance and given the rather sunny conditions my results fall firmly in the record shot camp.

The photos aren't too bad given the large distance

To get an idea of the context, the bird was in the large trapezium-shaped field in the centre of the picture.

It was good to catch up with everyone else there with P&H, Dave C, Tony M all in attendance as well as Dave P and various local birders were arriving all the time. Having seen the bird decently enough (it's a good thing a Franklin's is  relatively easy to pick out even at that distance - imagine if it had been a Bonaparte's!) and with no prospect of the views getting better, I didn't linger but instead headed back to the car where I drove the short distance back to Hayle to rendezvous with the others. They apparently had had a good time and even had a couple of purchases to show off. We next headed over to M&S to make use of the café and to do a spot of shopping before returning to the cottage for the evening. After a nice evening meal courtesy of my VLW we settled down to watch the Great British Bake Off final, then to play cards for a while before turning in for the night. It had been a good day in the end with Franklin's Gull being yet another Cornish tick for me.

Thursday 27th October - Pendeen

I awoke far too early this morning, something  that sadly I'm rather prone to do down here for some reason. Eventually I got up though the tiredness hung over me all morning. The weather was rather cloudy once more with a moderate breeze which once again made for a chilly feel in this exposed location. I dutifully did my morning rounds though it's starting to feel more like a chore now. Once more I turned up the same resident birds with very little overhead movement and seemingly nothing fresh in. Up at Calartha even the Yellow-browed Warbler had abandoned me and given the end of the easterly winds across the country, following things on RBA it seemed like over the last few days there's been a clear-out nationally.

Having started doing some DIY yesterday we had to follow through with this so spent the whole morning renovating our exterior windows some more. Naturally I always had my bins and camera close at hand should something fly over but nothing did. The only Cornish bird news of note all morning was the Franklin's Gull at Hayle still which had been showing much better from the estuary this morning and there were some gripping photos on the CBWPS site in the evening.

Sun Spurge

The delightfully-named Weasel Snout

We had our evening meal at lunch time today with some nice lamb chops then, after a quick walk down to the lighthouse to help with my digestion I went back to bed to catch up on my sleep. Feeling better after a good long nap we followed up on the DIY before I went with our son for a long walk up to the Pendeen stores and back for some shopping. That evening we watched telly and played cards. All in all a very quiet day.

Friday 28th October - Pendeen, Nanquido & Penzance

With the DIY bit now firmly between our teeth, after our ritual morning cup of tea in bed it was straight on with working on the windows. With my VLW and I working as a team we made good progress and by late morning we'd done our allotted taskage for the day. Whilst my VLW rested for a bit I did a shortened version of the Pendeen rounds (basically missing out the walk up to Calartha copse and back). It was basically still the usual birds though a couple of large flocks of several hundred Chaffinch passed high overhead which was a bit different. Whilst I'd been working around the cottage I'd seen a couple of Warblers in the form of a juvenile Willow Warbler and a female Blackcap, which made a nice change from just the usual resident birds.

The Blackcap was nice and showy

After our lunch we decided on our outing for the day. The other two wanted to play tennis in Penzance so I dropped them off by the free courts at the bottom of Alexandra Road and then headed over to Nanquidno valley where I wanted to look for some Woodlark that had been reported in the fields around Boscregan Farm a couple of times this week. I still needed this delightful Lark for my Cornish list and with nothing else of particular note to tempt me I thought that I might as well take a look. Nanquidno is one of my favourite of the Cornish valleys and is often a very populate spot with birders but it was amazing just how quiet it was and indeed I didn't meet a single other birder whilst I was there. I parked up in the usual spot and headed on down the valley towards Boscregan Farm. Whilst I wasn't giving the valley the usual attention that it warrants I still saw hardly any birds at all en route. 

Boscregan Farm

In the "rushy" area at the bottom I flushed a couple of Snipe as I headed over to the farm itself and started to wander around the fields which were covered either with weeds or with stubble. The weedy fields turned out to be a bit of a treasure trove of arable plants and I soon got distracted from my Lark-finding task by all the great plants there. There were plenty of Viper's Bugloss, Scentless Mayweed and Corn Marigolds and I turned up lots of other interesting things as I rummaged around but sadly there were remarkably few birds to be seen at all with just 8 Linnet and a couple of Stonechats for my troubles with 1 Chough and a couple of Skylark seen flying over. 

Corn Marigold

Field Madder

Field Pansy

Viper's Bugloss

Western Ramping Fumitory (I think!)

Time was marching on and with no Woodlarks to show for my efforts I headed back up the valley and then drove over towards Penzance to rendezvous with the other two by the bus station. Whilst I waited I had a scan of the sea there and turned up a drake Eider and a Guillemot, the latter looking somewhat sorry for itself as it bobbed about close in to shore. The others two had enjoyed a good game and had also slipped in a nice café trip as well so I had a bit of tea envy to contend with there. We headed back to the cottage for our evening meal, then did some preliminary packing for tomorrow's departure before turning in for the night.

Saturday 29th October - Homeward Bound

So it was time to depart already. First thing I had some last minute DIY to finish off, doing a bit of re-pointing on our garden shed which is letting in water. Fortunately a bag of ready-mix mortar did the trick and it all looks weather-proof now. As usual I kept my ears and eye open whilst I was outside but apart from a single Chiffchaff and a nice flock of Linnets there was little of note. Packing up and tidying up seemed to take a really long time this time though finally we were all done and heading off. We stopped off in Penzance so my VLW could nip into the shops to buy a present for our cat-sitting neighbour back home in Oxford and whilst she did this I had a quick scan from the PZ bus station again. The drake Eider was still there as well as a couple of Grey Herons and a Little Egret but there was no sign of the Guillemot today.

The smart drake Eider

The journey back was relatively traffic free to start with. Since we were leaving so late most holiday makers would have already been long gone and even the Bodmin A30 roadworks were fine. However, on the M5 at junction 26 the traffic ground to a complete halt and was completely stationary for a good three quarters of an hour, apparently due to an accident up ahead. We listened to the radio and I took the opportunity to rest a bit and eventually things started moving again. We finally got home after a total of five and a half hours on the road, tired but pleased to be back in our Oxford home.

1st November - Looking Back

Reflecting on the week, it was a reasonable enough one. However,I realise that I need to recalibrate my expectations somewhat for coming down to Cornwall in October. When I first started, I had a very modest life list and lots of the birds that I'd see down here were new for me. However, as a wise relative of mine once pointed out: "listing is a law of diminishing returns" and these days I've now seen many of the birds that in the past would have been "champagne birds" (UK lifers which I'd celebrate by buying a bottle of champagne). At least I can still get my "tick kicks" with my Cornish list, which is sufficiently small that there is still plenty of scope for getting something new. Indeed, I had three Cornish ticks this week with Cattle Egret, Barnacle Goose and Franklin's Gull all new for the county. Given these diminishing returns, I'm also starting to understand why many of the visitors who come down to Cornwall each autumn are focusing so much on finding birds for themselves and in fact this week I did concentrate far more on trying to find birds on my Pendeen patch. Indeed I had a modest amount of success on that front with a Black Redstart and a Cattle Egret both found on the patch. In between it was rather tough going however, with several days of slogging around the same bushes and fields and seeing nothing at all. That is of course patch birding for you and I'm more than used to it back on Port Meadow in Oxford. 

This week, the mothing was really at the end of the season with just Feathered Ranunculus to fill the trap. There were of course plenty of nice arable plants that I saw on this trip - there's always something of interest to see. So with three Cornish ticks and a few new plants, all in all it was a modestly successful trip down. I'm already looking forward to my next visit!

One of the resident Ravens on its usual perch. I realise that Pendeen can pretty much count on the entire set of corvids with Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Rook, Raven, Magpie and Chough all see every day. A Hooded Crow was seen within the last month or so and I'm sure I've seen a Jay at some point - so the complete set!