Good in the Garden

A quick drive down to Ryan's Field yesterday at 19.05hrs secured Little ringed Plover on the yearlist, but the RB Gull had gone out with the tide. Faired better today tho' when the alarm calls of a Herring Gull alerted me to an Osprey flying east over the house. I quickly grabbed my camera (the auto focus is still broken on the 500mm lens!!) and managed two record shots. Once i'd blown these up you can see the bird is actually carrying a large fish! This is the second Osprey Ive seen from the garden.
A Common Buzzard with an unusually pale rump grabbed my attention and while looking through the bins at it, a Swift flew past it. Another garden year tick! Shame the weather is going to change this weekend.

A superb sunny morning spent at St Gothian Sands with endless blue skies tempting at least four Buzzards and two Kestrels into soaring around. Dunlins had increased to six birds on the unfenced Pool with a Ringed Plover in tow. It wasn't long before an inconsiderate dog walker had flushed them all onto the gated pools. Thank God for fencing!!


Hirundine numbers were lower today but this was compensated for by the first Swift of the year, which flew south. A drake Gadwall was on the main pool and five 'singing' Whimbrel alighted there briefly before flying off towards the beach. Six House Sparrows were in bushes around the main pool opposite Sandsifter and a Sedge Warbler was singing from the Red River ditch. Suprisingly, not a single Wheatear was seen, considering the numbers there two days ago.
 
The cornwall yearlist now stands at 123! I decided to tot up my Gwithian List and concentrate on that again this year, so it stands at 73 species as of today, with Sedge Warbler, Swift ,Whimbrel, Gadwall and House Sparrow added today!

'Scruffy' the Blue Tit

This is the apptly named (by my daughter!) Scruffy the Blue Tit. How he ever managed to survive the cold winter we've had with that amount of feathers. I'll never know. He's still a regular visitor to the feeders despite being bullied by the other Blue Tits.

Good Ol Marazion!

A lucky half hour at Marazion a few weeks ago saw me county ticking the Great-white Egret, at last! And it was third time lucky with the singing Savi's Warbler at the same site this morning! Very, very brief glimpse tho. An early morning walk at Rosewall Hill, St Ives on 17th April produced a nice male Ring Ouzel and yesterday morning at Land's End and Marazion saw Reed and Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and House Martin added to the meagre year list. House Martin was also an addition to the Garden list yesterday, which now stands at 53 species.