Lesser Dip (16th December)

I decided to make up for not being able to twitch the Lesser Scaup the previous day so I took the train up north to what I expected to be a guaranteed tick.  I arrived at a rather desolate lake with only a few Tufted Ducks sat on the water at the far northern end but nothing else of note was immediately obvious.  Seeing someone on the northern bank watching what still looked like Tufties, I decided to head over to check if he was infact on the bird.  From the northern bank, I soon releasing a Great Northern Diver break the surface of the water, it was a real show off, approaching the bank very closely and giving the best views yet that I have had of this species.  2 Fieldfare in the nearby fields were also rather embarrassingly my first for the winter and a female Goldeneye was also kindly pointed out to me but rather frustratingly there was no sign of the Lesser Scaup!  Given that it had remained for several days, if not weeks and was seen only that morning, I was rather surprised that it had so far not been refound.  Infact, I began speculating whether the disturbance caused by the sailing and water skiing may have spooked the bird to fly of to one of the nearby reservoirs but it was already too late to take the bike there and check them, as darkness and rain were both already falling fast.  A female RING-NECKED DUCK was partial compensation as was the very atmospheric surrounding and isolation of the place made even more special by the sight of 200+ Golden Plover circling endlessly over the lake refusing to land.  Rather disappointed to say the least I headed back only to be greeted with  the news at 11pm that night of the Lesser Scaup having been relocated to Dozmary Pool.

Lesser twitch (15th December)

I had big plans for the day and they all worked out fine until about half way through.  I began at Truro station (which required an early morning bike ride to reach from campus).  Next, I continued north east up into Devon by train.  Another short bike ride between St Budeaux and Ernesettle Creek.  I arrived to coincide with the highest tide possible, not quite my intention so I was planning on returning a little later in the day.  A few calling Redshank down river raised my hopes and as they flew in, I suddenly noticed one do a small flourish as it landed on a small island of aquatic vegetation just about protruding above the water level.  I scoped the bird and the features so far looked good for my target bird, only it's legs refused to show.  I waited a while until it suddenly decided to fly and the remaining features soon became apparent,  it was my first LESSER YELLOWLEGS!  Since it was still just about getting light, the digi-scope shots don't reveal many of the features so I've attached a few rough sketches taken in the field whilst watching the bird.  As the tide receded  the Yellowlegs flew to the opposite side of the creek before moving behind some of the overgrown bank out of view, which is where I left it before heading off for my second target bird of the day.

 Lesser Yellowlegs, another admittedly terrible pics but the bird none the less!

 Ernesettle Creek

 some sketches of the Lesser Yellowlegs, taken in the field hence the wobbly hand writing

Other birds of note in the area included 2 Bullfinches, 1 Curlew, 1 Snipe and a Kingfisher.

Portworthy Dam was my next stop and required an eight mile bike ride to reach, a rather mountainous trip through some very scenic woodland at parts.  Most notably Cann Wood, which almost had a feel about it like that of the New Forest with its wide open expanses of ground and scattered pine trees.

Cann Wood

At least 6 Raven were circling overhead and as I passed a clump of pine trees the distinctive calls of Crossbills came from overhead, although I never saw any.  A Marsh Tit was also calling in the wood and at the dam itself, 1 Siskin was also heard.  My search for the reported Green-winged Teal that had been present a few days earlier was nowhere to be seen, despite repeatedly scanning through the Teal flocks numbering up to c.20 birds.  Numerous Herring Gulls, a few Common Gulls and a Great Black-backed Gull were roosting on the water and a Peregrine made a noisy entrance but otherwise nothing.

Flourishes of rain followed and I still had plans to twitch the Lesser Scaup at Siblyback Lake but long delays at the station meant it wasn't worth the effort in the end as it would have been simply too dark.

Staying Local (14th December)

Not much time on my hands as there was a lecture mid-morning and I had to be back on campus by four so only had a brief wander around College Reservoir.  All the same, it still produced some ok birds, although it was an almost exact reflection on the turnout of the past week.  A Bittern was perched on some sallows on the west bank near the bench and the Black-necked Grebe popped up out of the water nearby.

 Bittern on the west bank

unusual Teal-like bird associated with Teal (right), note abnormally large bill and proportionately small head size (furthest bird to the left, facing right)

I had a reasonable look for the American/Eurasian Wigeon hybrid but without success.  Some gunshots from the southern end of the reservoir soon put all the Teal and Wigeon up into flight before they began circling around and eventually landing.  Interestingly, all the diving ducks felt safer on the water, including 4 Goldeneye, the Tufted Ducks, Pochard and Little Grebes.  4 Snipe also flew past down towards the marshy section of the reservoir and the neighbouring wood held 1 Chiffchaff.  Whilst unlocking my bike to head back, I am 95% sure I heard a Firecrest calling in the holly trees but unfortunately didn't have enough time to check it out.

***PACIFIC*** (13th December)

Thought I'd treat myself to a good bird after finishing the statistics project so I was all set and ready for finally heading of come Wednesday evening.  However, the dreaded news of -ve Pacific Diver was enough to almost make me start to cry (slight over exaggeration).  Anyway, I decided to try my luck and a little bit downcast on yesterdays news, I found myself wandering up and down Marazion Beach at about 8am on Thursday morning.  A lot of gulls about and I attempted a half-hearted search for yesterdays Iceland but to no avail.  I moved on a bit up the beach in the direction of Penzance, where the number of divers gradually increased.  At least 4 Great Northern Divers were hunting relatively close inshore, just beyond the surf but I soon picked out 5 BLACK-THROATED DIVERS just beyond the breaking waves, surprisingly close to the beach.  I checked them thoroughly  given this was my biggest chance to locate the Pacific but they were repeatedly diving and were gradually drifting out to sea so I couldn't get a positive ID on any potential Pacific.

Black-throated Divers

In the meantime, the beach was heaving with life, dozens of Sanderling were sprinting along the shoreline with equally large numbers of Dunlin a little higher up the beach.  Turnstone were also present in good numbers as were several Common Gulls (my first in Cornwall), a raft of a few dozen Common Scoter offshore along with a nice drake Eider.  A few Knot were a nice surprise and 2 Black Redstarts accompanied me on my so far unproductive sea watch.

Sanderling

This is when the social aspect of birding finally kicked in.  I was wandering back to the car park were I met another birder in hope of locating the Pacific  he kindly put me onto one of the Little Gulls he'd just relocated before a phone call came through from a birder up at the opposite end of the beach near the railway bridge, he'd relocated the Pacific (the first kindness for the day for passing on the news)!   No time for further chat, I ran the length back towards the bridge were the birder kindly put me onto a very distant diver, apparently the Pacific (the second kindness for the day).   He was sure of it but unfortunately it was a little too distant for my licking to be able to tick it.  Once again, a little downcast I wandered back towards the car park.  This time I bumped into another birder and together we gave it our best efforts to finally nail the bird.  We headed for the closest shelter out of the wind by an old shack, set up our scopes and began scanning.  It only took a few minutes before Andy got onto the bird, and he too kindly gave me plenty of opportunity to take a look through it (the third kindness for the day) and together we finally confirmed the key features that finally got us our first ever PACIFIC DIVER!!!  We had prolonged views as it rested on the water, behaving very well without taking a single dive.  Between the swells we were able to confirm the lack of an anterior flank patch, comparatively small bill, very dark brown back, as opposed to black and slightly smudged boundary to the pale ear coverts and dark nape (unlike the clear defined boundary of Black-throated).  After having rested for some time it gradually became more buoyant and rose a little higher out of the water exposing the faint beginnings of a pale for-flank, apparently another feature that becomes evident as the bird rises higher above the water level.

 since I forgot to take a photo, here's a drawing to make up for it, all labeled the features were observable in the field, none have been added from ID books.  Drawn up with the use of notes taken in the field whilst watching the diver.

Content with our ID we watched it from a relatively close range for at least 20 minutes before finally deciding to head back to the car park.  At the Redruth River mouth, it only took a minute to pick out the ICELAND GULL before finally calling it a day and taking the bus back to campus.

Iceland Gull

What a day!  Many thanks Andy for helping jointly getting a positive ID on the Pacific.  Unfortunately, in the excitement of getting the bird I forgot to take any digi-scope shots, all the same still a great bird!  I'll do my best in future not to forget.

 St Michael's Mount

looking NW over the bay towards the diver

Bittern still at College (6th December)

A very brief trip down to College with some friends to stake out the Bitterns and do some photography.  I ended up only birding and left the photography to the others.  We eventually bumped into the Bittern on the west side but we approached it unaware and only saw it in flight as we had accidentally flushed it near the path on the west side of the reservoir.  I managed to refind it briefly, after scrambling through the undergrowth and muddy edge to the reservoir but it only popped its head out before disappearing again.  There were plenty of Snipe about too and at least 1 female Goldeneye.  I think I found the American/Eurasian Wigeon hybrid but it was too distant for a certain ID as I connected with it from the north bank, right at the opposite end of the reservoir as to where it was hanging around with the rest of the Wigeon. Still a reasonable amount of activity and would still highly recommend local birding at the moment around the Falmouth area, it's really hotting up! Well done to all those local birders who have got out there in the past couple of days and found some of the good birds I've been twitching, much appreciated!

Death by Dusky (5th December)

Its been nearly 2 weeks since the Dusky was first seen in Swanvale and only a handful of selected birders have been lucky enough to see it, not including myself obviously!  I spent the day wandering around staring at a bunch of sallows from dawn till dusk hoping to see the little brown job but had to call it a day after another gutting dip.  Anyway, on the brighter side there were a few highlights including several Firecrest working their way through the low canopy, anywhere between 2-4 individuals, a Water Rail running around in the mud and a Robin feeding out of my hand!

Robin on the hand, always nice to be a dude once in a while

again......

and again.......

and even again......... It was literally never full

I was also pleased to eventually set eyes on the Siberian tristis Chiffchaff that also been seen on and off in the past week.  Probably one of the best highlights of the day, however, were 3 WAXWING which I picked out flying overhead in a westerly direction whilst at Swanvale with Dan.  As a break from staring blankly at the trees, Dan and I moved on around Swanpool to the beach.  Not much of note to be honest except 1 Guillemot off Castle Beach, 2 Stonechats, a Black Redstart and a Song Thrush nearly colliding with a hotel window.

Black Redstart and Stonechat at Castle Beach

The day ended as it started with another long stake out for the Dusky.  A few extra eyes on the scene but still none of us could get any positive ID on any of the potential birds.

Finally, I heard a female Tawny Owl calling on campus on my ride back.

Also woke up a few days back to the call of a flyover Curlew whilst on campus.

PS. Sorry about the multiple videos!

College gets better! (4th December)

As a treat for handing in two major essays today, I went down to College Reservoir in search of the recently arrived Bittern.  From the north end of the causeway, I picked out 5 female Goldeneye but nothing else unfortunately.  It definitely improved when I got round to the western side of the res. where I soon picked out not one but 2 BITTERNS (a very welcome Cornish tick).

 a little on the blustery side, otherwise it was very nice and sunny

 Bittern, distant but showing

 Bittern A chasing Bittern B

 Snipe, doing there best to hide

Both showing well in the open on the trampled down reeds at the southern end of the reservoir and stalking one another in a rather aggressive way!  Later I caught up with the win. Black-necked Grebe which popped up from a dive very close infront of me.  Definitely a treat to see one so well after such a long time, think the last one I saw was back in Herts last winter!

 win. plumaged Black-necked Grebe

Anyway, other species of note included 3 Snipe resting in the aquatic vegetation on the west side of the reservoir, a flock of 100+ Starling in the fields over the back (on the east side of the res.) a Raven cronking somewhere in the background and a few stunning male Bullfinches.  Not a bad turn out for a 2 hour stint around the local patch!

do you know who this might belong to? I'm hoping otter.  It was about a meter from the edge of the reservoir