Andrew
wibble wibble
13-12-03
Location : Hayle, Penzance, Marazion, Helston & Feock. Cornwall. SW545365, SW47298, SW510313, SW648242 & SW822371.
For the second day running I was on the first bus to the Station, this time to join Jasonbirder and his companion Lee on the way down to the tip of Cornwall. The mission was to see some specialities on offer in Hayle, Penzance and Helston. If it all went to plan I would get two lifers. It was evident we were all a bit tired but Jason was more so having been up since half two in the morning.
Luckily for us the early start meant the traffic going down was not a hindrance and we were at Lelant Saltings before long. There was heavy rain from daybreak and here it was no better, in fact worse was looming in the distance. With the rain on our backs we scoped the salt marsh and soon connected with the first special on offer, the drake Green-winged Teal. In fact I missed it at first but when Jason pointed out a flock flying up, I studied them for after they landed and eventually the bird showed it's flank stripe. It was good to be re-acquainted, I first clocked this duck back in October. Hopefully the rest would be as easily found but that was not the case. After this we scanned the majority of the salt marsh from various points including the garage, the Tempest Factory and the edge of Carnsew Pool before returning to Lelant Saltings.
A few phone calls later, we discovered we needed to be at Lelant Station further up the estuary. A short while later we were here and a lot wetter, the miserable weather was compensated for by the sight of the Lesser Yellowlegs feeding in the shallow main channel. We had one more bird to go for and it was one I wanted. Some more phone calls and we headed over to Copperhouse Creek and scanned a long line of Eurasian Wigeons before finally connecting with the drake American Wigeon courtesy of Lee. I was exceedingly delighted with this lifer. I had already made four attempts in October to see this duck. The pale cream crown set it off from the rest of the Eurasian flock. That was target bird number one acheived for me. The supporting cast from around the estuary were a single Common Greenshank, lots of Dunlin, double figures of Eurasian Curlews, a few Little Egrets, hundreds of Eurasian Teal, at least four Red-breasted Mergansers, lots of Common Redshanks, a Little Grebe, about three Grey Herons and a flock of Grey Plovers.
The next port of call was the Jubilee Pool in Penzance where we logged a Ruddy Turnstone, a Rock Pipit and our target, 4 Purple Sandpipers. The rain was not letting up and the wind was strengthening too but undaunted we moved onto to Marazion Marsh where after bucket loads of rain and a few false alarms we finally connected with the Water Pipit. That was my second lifer of the day and mission accomplished for me. Marazion also provided at least 20 Common Snipe, 6+ Meadow Pipits and a few Pied Wagtails.
A quick check of the boating lake at Helston failed to muster a Ring-billed Gull so we were off to Helston Loe Pool. After trudging about up Carminowe Creek twice and the North arm we couldn't see the Black Duck, just a few Common Goldeneyes, hundreds of Common Pochards, two or three Little Grebes, a handful of Tufted Ducks, several Gadwall and a couple of Great Crested Grebes. One of the Tufted Ducks could have been one of the five Scaup later reported.
We had about half an hour's light left and using the 'phone a friend' option put us on course for Feock to look out onto the Fal estuary for a regular visitor. It did not take long to find a brilliant Surf Scoter near 21 Red-breasted Mergansers. In between dives, we could make out the shape of it's bill and concluded that it was probably a juvenile. Later I learnt it was actually a female. That was the cherry that rounded off a spectacular day's haul and we headed home up the A30 very happy indeed. It was good to get such a illustrious list of birds and two lifers with good company to boot.
Location : Hayle, Penzance, Marazion, Helston & Feock. Cornwall. SW545365, SW47298, SW510313, SW648242 & SW822371.
For the second day running I was on the first bus to the Station, this time to join Jasonbirder and his companion Lee on the way down to the tip of Cornwall. The mission was to see some specialities on offer in Hayle, Penzance and Helston. If it all went to plan I would get two lifers. It was evident we were all a bit tired but Jason was more so having been up since half two in the morning.
Luckily for us the early start meant the traffic going down was not a hindrance and we were at Lelant Saltings before long. There was heavy rain from daybreak and here it was no better, in fact worse was looming in the distance. With the rain on our backs we scoped the salt marsh and soon connected with the first special on offer, the drake Green-winged Teal. In fact I missed it at first but when Jason pointed out a flock flying up, I studied them for after they landed and eventually the bird showed it's flank stripe. It was good to be re-acquainted, I first clocked this duck back in October. Hopefully the rest would be as easily found but that was not the case. After this we scanned the majority of the salt marsh from various points including the garage, the Tempest Factory and the edge of Carnsew Pool before returning to Lelant Saltings.
A few phone calls later, we discovered we needed to be at Lelant Station further up the estuary. A short while later we were here and a lot wetter, the miserable weather was compensated for by the sight of the Lesser Yellowlegs feeding in the shallow main channel. We had one more bird to go for and it was one I wanted. Some more phone calls and we headed over to Copperhouse Creek and scanned a long line of Eurasian Wigeons before finally connecting with the drake American Wigeon courtesy of Lee. I was exceedingly delighted with this lifer. I had already made four attempts in October to see this duck. The pale cream crown set it off from the rest of the Eurasian flock. That was target bird number one acheived for me. The supporting cast from around the estuary were a single Common Greenshank, lots of Dunlin, double figures of Eurasian Curlews, a few Little Egrets, hundreds of Eurasian Teal, at least four Red-breasted Mergansers, lots of Common Redshanks, a Little Grebe, about three Grey Herons and a flock of Grey Plovers.
The next port of call was the Jubilee Pool in Penzance where we logged a Ruddy Turnstone, a Rock Pipit and our target, 4 Purple Sandpipers. The rain was not letting up and the wind was strengthening too but undaunted we moved onto to Marazion Marsh where after bucket loads of rain and a few false alarms we finally connected with the Water Pipit. That was my second lifer of the day and mission accomplished for me. Marazion also provided at least 20 Common Snipe, 6+ Meadow Pipits and a few Pied Wagtails.
A quick check of the boating lake at Helston failed to muster a Ring-billed Gull so we were off to Helston Loe Pool. After trudging about up Carminowe Creek twice and the North arm we couldn't see the Black Duck, just a few Common Goldeneyes, hundreds of Common Pochards, two or three Little Grebes, a handful of Tufted Ducks, several Gadwall and a couple of Great Crested Grebes. One of the Tufted Ducks could have been one of the five Scaup later reported.
We had about half an hour's light left and using the 'phone a friend' option put us on course for Feock to look out onto the Fal estuary for a regular visitor. It did not take long to find a brilliant Surf Scoter near 21 Red-breasted Mergansers. In between dives, we could make out the shape of it's bill and concluded that it was probably a juvenile. Later I learnt it was actually a female. That was the cherry that rounded off a spectacular day's haul and we headed home up the A30 very happy indeed. It was good to get such a illustrious list of birds and two lifers with good company to boot.
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