Surreybirder
Ken Noble
Cornish break
In the second half of October I had just over a week with my family in Cornwall, staying about 1.5 miles East of Looe, near the Bolgigga National Trust coastal area.
We stopped at Plymouth Sainsbury’s to stock up on the way down (18th October). While my family did the shopping I walked the dog round the car park. I was quite impressed when I popped my head over the wall to see a tidal creek with 4 little egrets, a common sandpiper and a grey wagtail. There were also two buzzards soaring overhead.
The first few days in Cornwall were very windy. There were some sheltered spots by the coast path and these were sheltering quite a few birds. It was a bit late for migrants but I saw wheatear, chiffchaff, a few swallows and a blackcap. There were a few gannets and shags out at sea. There were also redwings and fieldfares (both Cornish ‘ticks’ for me). Also along the coastal path were several stonechats. Buzzards and ravens were reasonably frequent and I had one sighting of a peregrine.
In Looe harbour I counted 28 little egrets—the largest flock I’ve ever seen.
On 20th October we visited the Eden Project. It’s well worth a visit, though expensive. The only birding interest was spotting some of the Sulawesi white-eyes in the tropical humid biome, but there were still several Common darter dragonflies about.
The coastal path East from our cottage was good for butterflies and I saw several clouded yellows, red admirals, painted ladies, speckled woods, small coppers, walls and various whites.
I was interested to see a heavy movement of wood pigeons W on two dates. (I counted 1,360 on 24th and 900 on 27th.)
The bird of the holiday was a firecrest which I saw twice (with a gap of 600m and 48 mins) on the last day of our holiday—27th. The first time I was ‘squeaking’ a flock of long-tailed tits when it suddenly showed in the middle of a bush. Later I thought I could hear a slightly different call among the gorse where there were several goldcrests and, sure enough, the firecrest suddenly landed on top of a bush for a few seconds. At first I thought it must be a second bird, but I have no real evidence for that. A marsh tit seen the same day was a new Cornish bird for me. (I also ‘ticked’ Canada Goose and water rail, seeing two of the latter in the lovely Seaton nature reserve about 2.5 miles E along the coast from where we were staying.)
In the second half of October I had just over a week with my family in Cornwall, staying about 1.5 miles East of Looe, near the Bolgigga National Trust coastal area.
We stopped at Plymouth Sainsbury’s to stock up on the way down (18th October). While my family did the shopping I walked the dog round the car park. I was quite impressed when I popped my head over the wall to see a tidal creek with 4 little egrets, a common sandpiper and a grey wagtail. There were also two buzzards soaring overhead.
The first few days in Cornwall were very windy. There were some sheltered spots by the coast path and these were sheltering quite a few birds. It was a bit late for migrants but I saw wheatear, chiffchaff, a few swallows and a blackcap. There were a few gannets and shags out at sea. There were also redwings and fieldfares (both Cornish ‘ticks’ for me). Also along the coastal path were several stonechats. Buzzards and ravens were reasonably frequent and I had one sighting of a peregrine.
In Looe harbour I counted 28 little egrets—the largest flock I’ve ever seen.
On 20th October we visited the Eden Project. It’s well worth a visit, though expensive. The only birding interest was spotting some of the Sulawesi white-eyes in the tropical humid biome, but there were still several Common darter dragonflies about.
The coastal path East from our cottage was good for butterflies and I saw several clouded yellows, red admirals, painted ladies, speckled woods, small coppers, walls and various whites.
I was interested to see a heavy movement of wood pigeons W on two dates. (I counted 1,360 on 24th and 900 on 27th.)
The bird of the holiday was a firecrest which I saw twice (with a gap of 600m and 48 mins) on the last day of our holiday—27th. The first time I was ‘squeaking’ a flock of long-tailed tits when it suddenly showed in the middle of a bush. Later I thought I could hear a slightly different call among the gorse where there were several goldcrests and, sure enough, the firecrest suddenly landed on top of a bush for a few seconds. At first I thought it must be a second bird, but I have no real evidence for that. A marsh tit seen the same day was a new Cornish bird for me. (I also ‘ticked’ Canada Goose and water rail, seeing two of the latter in the lovely Seaton nature reserve about 2.5 miles E along the coast from where we were staying.)
