Monday 18th March 2024: Gwennap and Cot Valley

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We started our birding day at Porthgwarra with a short seawatch. There were lots of Gannets passing by and plenty of auks, wings flapping fast as they zipped across the water. Unfortunately they were quite distant and we were not skilled enough to identify them to species level, so just ‘auk sp.’ for us. The previous day there were reports of hundreds of Puffins, so that seems plausible, but we shall never know.

Leaving the scopes in the car we clambered up the coast path for a walk around the cliffs of Gwennap Head towards Nanjizal. It was pretty cold and windy up here, and there was surprisingly little bird activity. A few Pipits braved the conditions, and some Fulmars lazily circled the steep-sided bays. A Raven was staking out his territory from a prominent rock with a menacing glare, and was unfazed by Tim edging ever closer for photographs.

Raven

The bird we were looking for of course was the iconic Chough, and we were not disappointed. After a brief flypast overhead when we were seawatching they put in several appearances, the most memorable being a single bird that swooped and dived, then soared up, as if just delighted in the joy of flying. Another bird was seen carrying nesting material.

Chough

We headed into St Just for lunch, then drove to Cot Valley where we sat overlooking the sea to eat, before walking up the valley and around the headland. Several Stonechats flitted about the scrub and a pair  of Kestrel briefly mated, but again there wasn’t much activity.

Finally, we called again at Hayle, hoping for the elusive Iceland Gull. We couldn’t find this at Copperhouse Creek, but a Greenshank transitioning to summer plumage caught our attention, looking somewhat different from the birds we normally see around the Adur estuary, with more streaking around the head and breast.

Greenshank 


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