This report covers my tour of the west country – Devon and Cornwall in particular. On Monday 15th September I spent the day working in the Leominster area (got some good views of buzzards), then drove down to Devon. I had time to call in at Bowling Green Marsh before it got dark, and was keen to see the glossy ibis as I’ve never seen one. I spoke to a chap who was also keen but had failed to see the ibis that week, and it was sounding as though it would not be easy to locate. There were quite a few waders present, but nothing too special. Most noticeable were the large bats flying round – anyone know what they might be? – they were much bigger than I’m used to seeing.
I spent the night at Saltash, and on Tuesday visited Stithians Reservoir (looking for the black duck, not seen, but did see two spotted fly catchers, blackcap etc), Helston (found the ring billed gull), then on to Hayle – three little stints, and a knot in Copperhouse Creek, parked at the RSPB reserve (one kingfisher, and swallows still feeding young) then walked a short way round the estuary, the tide was out. Many curlew, and one peregrine sat out on the mud; the peregrine then flew closer and caught an immature ringed plover which it promptly tore apart.
I then drove to Porthgwarra and walked to Gwennap Head, but not much about – even the meadow pipits were hard to find.
On Wednesday I had some work to do in the morning, then parked at Porthcurno and walked round the coast to Gwennap Head - partly just to enjoy the great outdoors, but did see several gannets. I then tried to find the reported wrynecks at Sennen, but not knowing the area too well the report I got wasn’t clear enough to identify where to look. I did find one turtle dove.
I was working again Thursday morning, near Taunton this time, then travelled down to Bowling Green Marsh again – found one spoonbill, and heard more tales of how difficult the ibis had been to see recently – it seemed it was spending the daytime at Exminster Marshes, so there I went. On the lagoon at Exminster was an arctic skua – it had been seen the previous day, but was still unexpected. A friendly walker then told me he’d seen a black stork in a pond about 300yds away – sounded good to me, so I hurried along and found the glossy ibis in the pond right next to the path. Things seemed to be going well, so I drove on to Berry Head in search of a reported wryneck. What a difference to driving in Scotland! – the drive past Torbay/Paignton seems a bit of a nightmare at the best of times. I spent 2hrs at Berry Head, chatted to a few birders, but no sign of the wryneck. I was intending to go cirl bunting-hunting the next day, so was surprised to get (poor) views of two cirls only yards from the carpark – it was so easy I almost felt cheated! I’d booked in at Exeter for the night, expecting to need another search for the ibis, but instead got back to Berry Head by 8:00am Friday for more searching. After about an hour I found the wryneck, and spent the next hour loosing/finding it until eventually I sat about 6 yards away from where it was, and slowly it worked its way closer until it was only about 6 or 7 feet away! – the views were brilliant, scope and bins quite unnecessary. Reluctant to move on I drove via Dartmouth to Slapton where I picked up several common spp and on to Prawle Point – determined to look at the cirl buntings there. Sure enough the cirls were easy to find, with I should thick around a dozen seen in less than an hour. After a friendly chat with a chap filming oystercatchers etc, I headed back, now on the way home. Again I called in Bowling Green on the way past, hoping to see the pec sands that had been reported, but failed to see them, so headed home, well pleased with the 5 days away – 90 bird spp seen. I’d seen 4 new birds – ibis, ring bill and wryneck. The barnacle goose (seen at Bowling Green) would almost certainly not be ‘genuine’, but including it rounds the count to a nicer figure!
Hopefully some pictures should appear below!
Andrew
Complete list:
Arctic skua
Avocet
Barnacle goose
Blackbird
Blackcap
Black-headed gull
Black-tailed godwit
Blue tit
Buzzard
Canada goose
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff
Cirl bunting
Coal tit
Collared Dove
Common sandpiper
Coot
Cormorant
Curlew
Curlew sandpiper
Dabchick
Dunlin
Dunnock
Egret
Fulmar
Gadwell
Gannet
Goldfinch
Great black-backed gull
Great crested grebe
Great tit
Greenfinch
Greenshank
Grey Heron
Grey plover
Grey wagtail
Greylag goose
Herring gull
House martin
House sparrow
Jackdaw
Kestrel
Kingfisher
Knot
Lapwing
Lesser black-backed gull
Linnet
Little stint
Long-tailed tit
Magpie
Mallard
Meadow pipit
Moorhen
Mute swan
Oystercatcher
Peregine
Pheasant
Pied wagtail
Pochard
Raven
Redshank
Ring-billed gull
Ringed Plover
Robin
Rock pipit
Rook
Sand martin
Sandwich tern
Sedge Warbler
Shag
Sparrowhawk
Spoonbill
Spotted flycatcher
Starling
Stonechat
Swallow
Teal
Tufted Duck
Turnstone
Turtle Dove
Wheatear
Whimbrel
Whitethroat
Wigeon
Woodpigeon
Wren
Wryneck
Rock Dove
Glossy ibis
I spent the night at Saltash, and on Tuesday visited Stithians Reservoir (looking for the black duck, not seen, but did see two spotted fly catchers, blackcap etc), Helston (found the ring billed gull), then on to Hayle – three little stints, and a knot in Copperhouse Creek, parked at the RSPB reserve (one kingfisher, and swallows still feeding young) then walked a short way round the estuary, the tide was out. Many curlew, and one peregrine sat out on the mud; the peregrine then flew closer and caught an immature ringed plover which it promptly tore apart.
I then drove to Porthgwarra and walked to Gwennap Head, but not much about – even the meadow pipits were hard to find.
On Wednesday I had some work to do in the morning, then parked at Porthcurno and walked round the coast to Gwennap Head - partly just to enjoy the great outdoors, but did see several gannets. I then tried to find the reported wrynecks at Sennen, but not knowing the area too well the report I got wasn’t clear enough to identify where to look. I did find one turtle dove.
I was working again Thursday morning, near Taunton this time, then travelled down to Bowling Green Marsh again – found one spoonbill, and heard more tales of how difficult the ibis had been to see recently – it seemed it was spending the daytime at Exminster Marshes, so there I went. On the lagoon at Exminster was an arctic skua – it had been seen the previous day, but was still unexpected. A friendly walker then told me he’d seen a black stork in a pond about 300yds away – sounded good to me, so I hurried along and found the glossy ibis in the pond right next to the path. Things seemed to be going well, so I drove on to Berry Head in search of a reported wryneck. What a difference to driving in Scotland! – the drive past Torbay/Paignton seems a bit of a nightmare at the best of times. I spent 2hrs at Berry Head, chatted to a few birders, but no sign of the wryneck. I was intending to go cirl bunting-hunting the next day, so was surprised to get (poor) views of two cirls only yards from the carpark – it was so easy I almost felt cheated! I’d booked in at Exeter for the night, expecting to need another search for the ibis, but instead got back to Berry Head by 8:00am Friday for more searching. After about an hour I found the wryneck, and spent the next hour loosing/finding it until eventually I sat about 6 yards away from where it was, and slowly it worked its way closer until it was only about 6 or 7 feet away! – the views were brilliant, scope and bins quite unnecessary. Reluctant to move on I drove via Dartmouth to Slapton where I picked up several common spp and on to Prawle Point – determined to look at the cirl buntings there. Sure enough the cirls were easy to find, with I should thick around a dozen seen in less than an hour. After a friendly chat with a chap filming oystercatchers etc, I headed back, now on the way home. Again I called in Bowling Green on the way past, hoping to see the pec sands that had been reported, but failed to see them, so headed home, well pleased with the 5 days away – 90 bird spp seen. I’d seen 4 new birds – ibis, ring bill and wryneck. The barnacle goose (seen at Bowling Green) would almost certainly not be ‘genuine’, but including it rounds the count to a nicer figure!
Hopefully some pictures should appear below!
Andrew
Complete list:
Arctic skua
Avocet
Barnacle goose
Blackbird
Blackcap
Black-headed gull
Black-tailed godwit
Blue tit
Buzzard
Canada goose
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff
Cirl bunting
Coal tit
Collared Dove
Common sandpiper
Coot
Cormorant
Curlew
Curlew sandpiper
Dabchick
Dunlin
Dunnock
Egret
Fulmar
Gadwell
Gannet
Goldfinch
Great black-backed gull
Great crested grebe
Great tit
Greenfinch
Greenshank
Grey Heron
Grey plover
Grey wagtail
Greylag goose
Herring gull
House martin
House sparrow
Jackdaw
Kestrel
Kingfisher
Knot
Lapwing
Lesser black-backed gull
Linnet
Little stint
Long-tailed tit
Magpie
Mallard
Meadow pipit
Moorhen
Mute swan
Oystercatcher
Peregine
Pheasant
Pied wagtail
Pochard
Raven
Redshank
Ring-billed gull
Ringed Plover
Robin
Rock pipit
Rook
Sand martin
Sandwich tern
Sedge Warbler
Shag
Sparrowhawk
Spoonbill
Spotted flycatcher
Starling
Stonechat
Swallow
Teal
Tufted Duck
Turnstone
Turtle Dove
Wheatear
Whimbrel
Whitethroat
Wigeon
Woodpigeon
Wren
Wryneck
Rock Dove
Glossy ibis
