Barnies and Sooties............

After driving hundreds of miles at night at work I would have hoped to have seen a Barn Owl by now (this year), but no. Not until July 20th that is when I get called to a farm at St Erth to see to an abandoned car. The farmer was very obliging and showed me an old water tank complete with youngsters being fed by adults!! Year tick number 195 (the pacific goldie was 194). The following Sunday saw my first seawatch of the year at PG with Monty and Mark. About 3000+ Manx Shears passed close inshore in two hrs until the fog roled in and finished our morning. Before that we were treated to a very close Sooty Shearwater (196), a Balearic Shear and two Puffins (197). Two of this year Choughs gave extremely close views nearby and a family of Northern Wheatear were on the slopes below us.

Still playing catch up.........

Finally caught up with a few more species, some of which were harder than others! Balearic Shearwater (130) in Carbis Bay was one of the easier ones on 11th Jan, followed by a small flock of Linnet (131) on Copperhouse Pool. Still no sign of the Little Gull so another crack at Carbis Bay on the 15th in the hope of catching up on it proved fruitful with a Red-necked Grebe (132) close inshore. A Knot (133) was on the hayle estuary during the afternoon. On my return to St Ives the pager alerted me to a Glaucous Gull off Porthgwidden Beach. On my arrival there were very few larger gulls offshore but within a few minutes there were about 1000 Herring Gulls feeding in a frenzie on sprats. I was just thinking, "How the hell am i going to see a Glauc in amongst that lot?" when they all settled onto the water and the most right hand bird was the 2w Glaucous! (134). Typical, no camera!

The following day I eventually caught up with the Little Gull (135) in Carbis Bay (with thanks to Mark Halliday and Monty!).

With building work about to start at home, it may be a while before I get out again!!