Short Excursion to Falmouth (28th-30th June)

Went down to Falmouth for three days to move my stuff into a new house, the megabus only brought me as far as Plymouth so had to change my mode of transport to train.  A couple hours at Tinside Lido for a scan around the large open harbour and sea (overlooking Drake's Island) revealed 2 Common Scoter, 3 Mediterranean Gulls, 2 Sandwich Terns, a couple Manx Shearwaters going westwards and 27+ Little Egrets littering Drake's Island.

The Falmouth just the one Mediterranean Gull on my first day (although I was so tired on arrival I nearly fell off the bench a couple times whilst trying to seawatch).

By the 29th I was a little more awake and after a full day of moving, Dan and I squeezed in a visit to Porthgwarra for the Red-footed Falcon.  Unfortunately we dipped miserably, despite investing a considerable amount of effort, but with such a wide open expanse of moorland to cover it proved an unsuccessful task.  After several hours we diverted our attention to the sea and were almost instantly rewarded with pods of both Bottlenose Dolphins and Common Dolphins.  Manx Shearwaters were moving past in their hundreds but auks seemed to be far less obvious.  2 Choughs also eased the pain of dipping, as did another butterfly tick, Silver-studded Blue!!

Silver-studded Blue

My final day on the Falmouth patch produced a total of 1 Kittiwake, 2 Sandwich Terns and 8 Mediterranean Gulls (5 ad., 2 2nd sum. and a 1st sum.).