Wednesday 25th March 2026: More Cornwall Birding

-

 We had an enjoyable day, but there was not much of note on the birding front! We collected Nicola from Mullion Cove and drove to Kynance, walking the path towards The Lizard where we enjoyed a nice lunch, with a hovering Kestrel the most noteworthy bird. We returned via Caerthilian Cove, but the scrubby vegetation was decidedly lacking in birds, with just a few finches seen flitting amongst the bushes.

From here we drove towards Loe Pool, where we took a short walk. A single Great Crested Grebe on the Pool was the best we could manage here, with no birds visible on the sea or beach. This was disappointing as we have seen good numbers of terns and a variety of waders here on previous years.

Finally, we stopped off at The legendary Helston Boating a lake, always good for adding Tufted Duck to the holiday list, and occasionally turning up something more interesting. Not today though, but a large family of baby Mallards were very cute and quite entertaining as they struggled to keep up with mum!

Mallard and lots of ducklings!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday 27th June: Roller in Suffolk

-
Image
 After daily reminders from Jenny that a Eurasian roller was still present in Suffolk I finally made the effort to go to see it and took advantage of the trip to visit several other local sites which were of interest to me.  My first stop was at the tiny village of Ampton where I normally find my annual tick for tree sparrow and this year was no exception as I saw one within 20 seconds of getting out of my car.  After watching it for a minute or so I quickly moved on to the next venue which was Lackford Lakes, a Suffolk wildlife trust reserve which had been reporting a juvenile glossy ibis for a few days.  I was told by someone in the car park exactly where it had been seen recently but he had not seen it that day when he had walked around earlier.  When I arrived at the hide 3 other birders were there but they had not seen it and so after 10 minutes I gave up waiting for it to show and moved on to try to see the roller. I had seen a number of birders along the ...
Read more

Friday 17th January 2025: Pagham Harbour

-
Image
We enjoyed a lovely day out at Pagham yesterday with Sue. We started with a circuit from the visitor centre, but the water levels were high at Ferry Pool and there was little of note. In the channel a few Redshank and Curlew were the best we could muster. We relocated to Halsey’s Farm and walked across the field to North Wall. There were plenty of Wigeon whistling noisily as we passed, and out in the harbour swathes of waders, creating a tremendous spectacle when they all took to the skies, a murmuration of Golden Plover swirling above flocks of Lapwing, and groups of Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit dropping in to the nearby fields. Lines of Brent geese headed further west, calling softly as they passed over.   Wigeon In the area we were thrilled to find a Long-eared Owl roosting, showing surprisingly well near the front of a bush. Long-eared Owl In White’s Creek we were treated to great views of a Spotted Redshank which wandered in very close, allowing us to note its key features. ...
Read more

Wednesday 11th March: Sdos outing to Warnham

-
Image
  We led an excellent SDOS trip to Warnham today, managing not just a lovely selection of birds, but that real rarity of late, sunshine!!! Fourteen members on the minibus were joined by nine members who had made their own way by car, so we split into 2 groups in order to accommodate everyone in the hides and make things more manageable.  On the millpond there were plenty of Tufted Duck, a few Teal, and Great Crested Grebe in stunning breeding plumage. Some bathing gulls, mostly Herring Gull, were in front of the hide, but also a couple of dark Lesser Black-backed Gulls that revealed their yellow legs as they rose above the water. Lesser Black-backed Gull (Andrew Farquharson) Bird of the day must have been the Siskin - they were everywhere around the feeders at both Bullfinch and Woodpecker hides, and their constant gentle twittering song filled the air as we walked along the path. The feeders also attracted plenty of Blue and Great Tits, but sadly nothing rarer. Goldfinches, ...
Read more