Falmouth Patch (3rd June)

Back patching the coastal stretch again for the afternoon after a morning of mothing.

5 Great Northern Divers (including 2 sum plums) still hanging around in the bay along with a distant diver sp, 2 Sandwich Terns and 34 Manx Shearwaters flowing westwards.  c.50 Linnets were also flying about in the fields approaching the point and 10 Fulmar were back on the cliff which is good news.

Seawatching produced the greatest surprise in the form of a pod of c.10 Common Dolphin speeding past Pennance Point at a good pace.  Despite them being distant, they still showed well by leaping and clearing the water entirely and were soon followed by what I think may have been a separate pod of c.5 Common Dolphins heading in the same westward direction about five minutes later!!  I haven't seen a lot of Common Dolphins from land on patch as Bottlenose tend to be the far more common species so this was a bonus treat.

I admit, you can barely see it but the fluke and peduncle can just be seen entering the water again on this Common Dolphin

Ross's tick!! (30th May)

Back on the bike and an early start for the Ross's up in Devon.  Despite getting the earliest train possible I only arrived in Exeter at 11:40am!  This was then followed by a tense cycle ride eventually arriving on site shortly after midday and the bird's departure, sigh...

I got pointed in the direction it had flown so decided to cycle down the perimeter cycle path towards the military training area.  Together with one other bloke we invested a considerable amount of effort trying to locate it on the extensive mudflats.  It was a near hopeless task but despite the gruelling effort there was no way I was going to give up and dip!  A Whimbrel, 1 Mediterranean Gull and the 1st sum Little Gull were partial consolation as was my first Small Copper of the year.

The agonising wait was punctuated by a distant white-winged tern sp., very possibly one of the Roseates that've been kicking about the area.  As the tide finally began to turn, I headed back towards the military training area where I hoped it would pass by on its way back to the reserve.  I was running out of time fast, as the last train of the day wasn't going to wait for me.  Then BOOM!!!  There it was, the ROSS'S GULL!!  Sat calmly on the mud exactly where I had hoped it would arrive.  Almost as soon as I got on it, it flew towards me where it proceeded to wander around on the mud before flying down towards the reserve yet again!  I was so exhilarated after bagging it that I stayed a little longer cycling down to the marsh and located it on the mudflat just beyond the seawall shortly before it's traditional to the marsh at high tide.

Ross's Gull!!

...causing all the fuss

Barnacle Goose on Bowling Green Marsh, probably not gen

...and the Little Gull

Bostraze Moor, West Penwith (25th May)

Helped out with a recorders day at Bostraze Moor on West Penwith to help establish the natural diversity present on site.  Along with the company of many county recorders and learned Cornish naturalists we invested a full day determining exactly which species exist on site.  The weather was dire and took a turn for the worse but we kept going before putting forward our findings and recommended future management ideas for the site owners.

On the bird front, I was rather pleased to see 2 Cuckoos squabbling with each other, a valuable bird of note for the area which in itself warrants the area some attention.  I also found a singing Grasshopper Warbler along with Sedge Warbler and the occasional Skylark, Whitethroat, Reed Bunting and Meadow Pipit.  A Spotted Flycatcher was also on show, an additional bonus record for the area as none have been noted in the area for several years!  My first Heath Spotted-orchid of the year was also in flower!

male Cuckoo

Heath Spotted-orchid

Spotted Flycatcher

Bostraze Moor

I headed down to patch almost as soon as I got back home and with the wind picking up I was hoping for a passage Pom.  It was only at the back of my mind and on sitting down at Swanpool Point for the seawatch it was quite evident at first that I wasn't going to see much given that only the occasional Gannet was moving.  2 Great Northern Divers (including 1 sum plum), 2 Sandwich Terns and 3 Guillemots were about all I could muster at first. Things did pick up later and I was extremely taken aback when I saw a skua sp. pelting across the sea in the typical powerful rowing action resembling a Pomarine!  This was to be a patch and year tick if I could nail it!!  I could hardly hold it in when it disappeared behind a boat and even after it had re-emerged I still wasn't fully satisfied with how distant it was for a certain ID.  Jizz nonetheless would have categorised it as an almost certainly Pom.  A short while later I was treated to almost the same situation, this time a batch of 3 skua sp.s with the typical Pom flight jizz came across the bay even more distant than the last at over 6-7km range (a fair distance beyond the wave hub that sits at 5.8km out to sea).  It was even more frustrated to hear that evening that better seawatching headland further west on the West Penwith penisnula had recorded high numbers of Poms in their double figures but barely any Arctic.  Very nearly another tick...  Ah well.

Fields and Res's (24th May)

Helped Dan out in his fields before deciding to walk back home via Argal and College Res. En route, I heard 3 Garden Warblers singing in the immediate area.  I'd only just left when I started walking down the public footpath through a cow field.  On seeing me, some of the cows got in a right frenzy and started charging towards me flailing their heads, kicking and running towards me!  It's safe to say I was a little intimidated but with not enough time to sprint to the closest gate I had no option but to dive into the Cornish hedgerow next to me!!  My brain told me it was safer not to go back in the field so I scrambled through the massive mixture of brambles, blackthorn, gorse and even a barbed wire fence only to stumble back into Dan's field (apologies for trespassing). The experience was nothing short of hilarious!! (see picture)

not easy climbing through this I can promise you!



Anyway, back to the birds:

Argal Reservoir:

50+ Swallows, half a dozen House Martins, 5+ Great Crested Grebes (one sitting on a nest perhaps brooding eggs), Willow Warbler, Chiffchaffs, 2 Mute Swans and 7+ Mallard.  Also accidentally flushed a Fox from the side of the path.

College Reservoir:

Herring Gulls (c.31 adults, 2 2nd summers, 3 1st summers), 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (2nd sum), 2 Great Black-backed Gulls (both adults), Swallows, 3+ Grey Herons, 1 Great Crested Grebe sitting on a nest, 1 Willow Warbler, singing Chiffchaffs and wet socks.

Penryn River, Gorrangorras:

almost nothing, only 4 Linnets and 4 Mute Swans.

All in all rather dull but I did take plenty of flower pics to trawl through and ID for later!

Porthcurno (23rd May)

Hitched a lift with Dan down to Porthcurno where his brother was helping set up an exhibition about the underwater cables connecting the UK to the world, quite an impressive story.  A quick nip around the museum whilst they were setting up was quite educational but Dan and I preferred getting outside for some birding so we headed of fairly soon after arriving.  The Minack Theatre wasn't too far and since it was a new site for the both of us we decided to head towards Porthgwarra for a brief seawatch bypassing the site en route.

Although the theatre wasn't fully visible from the coastal footpath it was still a decent walk with a brief seawatch every now and then as we made our way along the coast.  Dan was borrowing my scope at the time so I couldn't quite ID the diver sp. that flew past but other than that it was a pleasure to see a mass of Manx Shearwaters milling around out to sea.  2 Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries on the coastal footpath were a bonus as were our first Common Blue and Large Skipper of the year.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

still had the camera on an extremely high ISO without knowing

Large Skipper

Lackey caterpillar

Lizard... again (22nd May)

Didn't do all that much birding and the heavy rain soon drove Dan and I back home but whilst we staked it out at the point for a while for the seawatch I did manage to pick out 2 possible Storm Petrels briefly along with a flyby diver sp. (probably a Great Northern).  Manx Sheawaters were also flowing through in decent numbers.  I was very surprised not to see the Whooper Swan at Helston boating lake on a brief walk around the site as it has been present for over a year or so!  Mounts bay was a little more active with 5 Great Northern Divers including 2 summer plumaged birds showing at close range,  4 Sanderling on the beach and 5 Sandwich Terns hawking around in the bay.



sum plum Great Northern Divers

I did a brief seawatch from Pendennis Point when I got back which produced 3 Great Northern Diver (1 sum plum heading west and 2 more on the sea).  A trickle of Manx Shearwaters and Kittiwakes were also moving through the bay.

Lizard (21st May)

 I was helping a friend and his brother with moving some stuff down to the Lizard for an outdoor course on Wednesday.  Beginning at the fields below Argal Res, we spent most of the day filling the trailer whilst listening to 2 Garden Warblers singing from the hedgerows (still a year tick for me).

Once at Kestle Barton, on the north end of the Lizard, we started unloading all the branches, tools and tarpaulin from the trailer.  It was at this point that I picked out a small dot above the horizon circling ever closer towards us.  My bins were on the back seat of the car so grabbed them quickly.  I was still bewildered as to what it could be but on circling even closer the obvious tail prong, primary flash and typical skua shape revealed it to be no less than an adult pale phase Arctic Skua!! What was most bizarre was the fact it was a good 3km from the sea and crossing a random bit of farmland in the sweltering heat!