Wednesday 2nd April 2024: Gwennap Head and West Cornwall Valleys

We set out early this morning for one of our favourite walks, from Porthgwarra towards Lands End via Gwennap Head. We were expecting windy conditions as the day progressed, but in fact there was a cold wind all day, with some welcome respite in sheltered spots. The strong wind made birding difficult, but some Choughs probing their curved red bills into the short grass were rewarding to watch. From just one pair at The Lizard, these birds are now common around the Cornish cliffs, a real conservation success. A group of five Wheatears gathered on the cliff were presumably newly arrived, whilst we found plenty of the common species associated with this habitat - both rock and meadow pipits, and bouncing, chatty Linnets advertising their presence as they flitted about the vegetation.

Chough

We returned to the car and transferred to the Cot Valley, another one of Tim’s  favourites. We sat on the beach at the bottom of the valley to eat our lunch, where we were entertained by four Black Redstarts feasting on the plentiful flies and insects around the rocks and boulders strewn across the beach. 

Black Redstart

After eating, we wandered up through the valley and around to the headland. It was very quiet here, save for a Willow Warbler which Tim heard singing as we walked around. We managed to pick it out in the bushes halfway up the valley as we drove out, together with the briefest glimpse of a male Blackcap.

As we approached St Just, my phone regained signal and to our surprise and delight, there was a report of an Alpine Accentor in Nanquidno Valley, just a few minutes away. We hot-footed it there and headed along Nanjulian Cliff, soon encountering some regular Cornwall birders. Initially the news was not good, the bird had been flushed by walkers and not refound. It’s ‘like looking for a needle in a haystack’ we were advised. But a few seconds later, news came it had been refound further along the coast path towards Sennen. We tagged along with the locals, and before we knew it were enjoying stonking views of this beautiful bird, a very rage vagrant and a new UK tick for us. We had only seen this species once before in Aragon, Spain, but today’s views were far better.

Alpine Accentor

Finally, as we returned to the valley, we found another, showier Willow Warbler, with  yellowish tones, a striking supercilium and pink legs to clinch the identification despite a lack of song.

We had walked over 23,000 steps and poor Tim was exhausted, but it had been worth it for such a ‘mega’ bird!