New Look and long update!!

The Blog has had a bit of a re-vamp as you can see and I hope you like the new design! As for birding, 2011 has been a superb year and Scilly was well above average on our week birding holiday there at the end of october. Im currently on 249 species for the year with some goodies like Northern Waterthrush, Upland Sandpiper, Scarlet Tanager (three lifers in one day!), Olive backed Pipits, Red-eyed Vireo, Pallas' and Dusky Warbler, Glossy Ibis, White-rumped Sandpiper and Wilson's Snipe at the end of October. Before that Black Kite in Cornwall, Common Crane in Yorkshire as well as an awsome viz mig day at Spurn, Red-backed Shrikes in Devon then back to Cornwall for Baird's, Buff-breasted, Semipalmated and Pectoral sandpipers, Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs and a Bee-eater on The Scillies. A superb seawatch off St Ives on September the 18th produced all the Skua's, Leach's Petrels, Sabs Gulls by the dozen, Black Tern and Red-necked and Grey Phalaropes! One more bird for 250 and I can retire for the year! I'll keep you posted.

Rare and Scarce Birds 2010 now Available!

The Report is ready and we have managed to keep the cost to £10 (£12 inc p&p). Please use the Contacts and Submissions page on Cornwall Birding to purchase a copy NOW!! It comprises 112 pages of Species accounts, finders reports and 74 colour photos (and more....).

Readers say: " Excellent Glossy report, almost rivals the Scilly one!" BD

"Well done, great report, obviously lots of work gone into this" JD

"At last, a decent report on Cornwall's birds, well done Conrwall Birding!" PM

"Thanks for a fantastic report and a great website, we live out of county but use it daily to see what we are missing! MC

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.

Another Tundra Plover Dilema!

Working night shifts often provide me with oportunity to do a bit of birding either before or after. So I left home early on Tuesday 19th July in order to call at Ryan's Field RSPB before work. The tide was high and there were good numbers Curlew and BH gulls but apart from a few Common Sands, very little else of interest. I scoped the far bank from the hide and a summer plumaged adult Golden Plover came into view from one of the ditches at the back of the field. Alarm bells immediately started ringing. The white 'snake' from the supercilium to the upper flanks was bold and didnt appear go past the forewing as you would expect in European GP. So I'd got an American or a Pacific. I was aware that time was moving on and light was fading fast. I didnt have my camera and I didnt want to go round to the road to get a closer view in case it flew. Plus I had ten minutes before I had to go to work. I immediately phoned Mark Halliday and Ash Hugo and told them to view the bird from the road side and of course get some photos! While I waited for them to arrive I looked through some literature and photos I had on my phone and made a sketch and nbote in my notebook. Everything pointed towards Pacific but a combination of distance, poor light and sporadic views meant I could'nt rule out American 100%. I saw the others arrive and made a quick phonecall to Ash to make sure they got plenty of photos. Unfortunatley I then had to leave for work, leaving Mark and Ash to clinch the ID. At about 2200hrs I got the call from Mark to say they'd seen the bird in flight, got plenty of photos and after much deliberation and scouring the literature were convinced it was Pacific Golden Plover. Excellent, only the fifth record for Cornwall and the first since 1999! I immediatley phoned the news out to RBA and Ash put it on the website.
The following morning, straight from my night shift, I returned to Ryan's Field but the bird was nowhere to be seen. It was now raining heavily and the tide was on its way in, so I tried my luck on the main estuary. The bird was still there, showing well from the causway bridge. I was joined by Monty Curtis and Ash and a little later Dave Parker. The bird performed well being driven closer by the incoming tide and allowing for some more photos to be taken, this time in better light. At about 0800hrs, the bird began calling, a distinct two sylable, 'two-ee, two-ee' then flew straight towards us before circling high above Ryan's Field and heading North, still high up, over Harvey's Towans and out of sight, giving good views of the dark underwing in flight.
Despite searching the surrounding areas of the estuary, Copperhouse Creek and St Gothian Sands, the bird could not be relocated and was not seen again. A report of it seen at about 1340hrs in the mouth of the estuary was thought be eronneous.

Pacific Golden Plover is an extreme rarity to the county. The previous four records were:

1999 - At Culdrose on 19th October - 22nd November
1998 - At Bosanket, between Sennen and St Buryan on May 3rd and 4th.
1994 - At Hayle, an adult moulting from summer plumage on Aug 26th.
1978 - At Stithians, a first cal year on 7th November

For photos of this bird see: http://www.cornwall-birding.co.uk/recent-sightings/wednesday-20th-july-2011-cornwall-bird-reports/

Quality Rarities in Abundance!

What a superb spring we're having! Since the Bonapartes Gull, the decent yearticks have not stopped! A Reed Warbler (174) at Marazion on Apr 16th was followed the next day by an elusive PURPLE HERON (175) at the same location. It was well spotted by Mark Halliday hiding amongst the reeds at the west end of the reserve. A trip to Goonhilly Downs the same morning did not bring us the Montagu's Harrier we had hoped for but a male Dartford Warbler (176) and a Cuckoo (177) were obliging all the same. My 1Km square count around Godrevy Head on 19th April saw Little Ringed Plover (178), Yellow Wagtail (179) and House Martin (180)added to the list and my first Swift (181) of the year flew over the A30 at Redruth on the 30th whilst I directed traffic after a nasty car crash! A Common Sandpiper (182) was on the estuary at Hayle later the same day.

American Golden Plover (P.Freestone)

Sunday the 1st May saw pretty awful weather conditions with lots of that fine rain that wets you through! I met up with Mark on the Hayle Estuary who informed me that Brian Mellow had seen an 'interesting' Golden Plover on the estuary earlier in the day. I located it a short while after out on the mud flats from the old garage on the causeway and immediately phoned Mark, who had his scope with him. I managed a few distant flight shots which clearly showed a dark under wing, diagnostic of both Pacific and American Golden Plovers. So we had a rare one, but which was it. The bird looked really dark as it was very wet and views we had were relatively poor. After an hour or so we were fairly confident we had seen all the features of American Golden Plover, but put the news out as a 'probable', to at least get other birders out to see it. Fortunately it showed really well in much better weather conditions the next day and it was indeed an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER(183). On the evening of the same day I received a phonecall from Tim Twiggs who alerted me to a drake Garganey (184) at Gwithian. Luckily it was still there when I arrived! The next day I returned for better views of the Golden Plover with Ash and Monty and as we walked down to where it was being viewed from, a superb adult Hobby (185)flew overhead. After watching the plover for a while we headed back to the bridge to photograph the Bonapartes Gull. Monty and Ash left a short while after, missing the Curlew Sandpiper (186) that flew in with Dunlin!

Great-white Egret (Photo by Monty Curtis)

And so to more recent events..............On May 8th I arranged to meet Ash and Monty at Marazion early morning. I had been on night shift and was obviously quite tired. However, I still needed the GREAT WHITE EGRET(187) for the year. I soon had that in the bag as it flew a short distance in the sanctuary area. It did not show again, but Monty and Ash had already seen it so weren't too bothered. It was blowing a very fresh southerly at Marazion so I mentioned to the others that Gwithian might be a bit more  sheltered for tired migrants. What a decision that turned out to be!

Black-winged Stilts (P.Freestone)

The other two were in Monty's car and were well ahead down the main path at St Gothian when I arrived and I admit i was struggling to catch up with them in my tired state. Fortunately they stopped to look at the sanctuary area on the left enabling me to catch up. As i approached them I scanned the spit on the end of the island on the main pool as I always do for waders and Gulls. There, to my suprise and then elation I could quite clearly see a black and white bird with very long red legs. I lifted my bins and saw not one but three BLACK-WINGED STILTS! (188) I said to the others, "What the bloody hell are you two looking at! Theres three Black-winged Stilts over here!!" After a few seconds panic, both got onto them and we moved around the corner for a better view, only to find ANOTHER! So four in all, a new County record! I quickly phoned RBA and then all the numbers I had at my disposal. A steady trickle of birders gathered through the day and the birds showed really well.

Temminck's Stint (P.Freestone)

Friday 13th is thought to be unlucky by some. But not for Phil Taylor and Hilary Mitchell! I recieved a phonecall from John Swann to say that two visiting birders from Yorkshire (Gods other own county!) had found what they believed to be a TEMMINCK'S STINT (189) on Ryan's Field and did i have time to have a look. Fortunately I did and I soon joined Phil and Hilary in the hide who were still watching the bird in question. Temminck's Stint is a really rare bird in Cornwall, so I got the news out straight away allowing for plenty of locals to catch up with it. It remained until about 1630hrs when it walked out of sight on one of the islands and simply disappeared! A superb little wader and my 292nd County tick. Eight more to go!