Falmouth Birding (10 Viewers)

[dantheman]

2nd Jan 2016

Popped up to Stithians first thing -

Slavonian Grebe still
2 Goldeneye
5 Little Grebe
7 Tufted Duck
2 Canada Goose
60+ BH Gull
2 Common Gull etc

Surprise yeartick was a Starling inside Penryn Asda.

3rd Jan 2016

Went into town but made it almost a full-on birding trip

Florence Place

1 Firecrect (v vocal)
4 Blackcap
7 Long-tailed Tit

Nothing to note in the harbour/river area

Castle Beach

2 (mf) Stonechat

Tunnel Beach to Swanpool Point

7 Med Gulls
4 BT Diver
3 GN Diver
200+ Herring Gull feeding on starfish at E end Gylly Beach
30 BH Gull
1 Razorbill
3 Guillemot
168+ Shag
Kittiwake, Gannets
Some probably local random birder in a cap whom never seen before.
Fishing net out across the bay perpendicular from Swanpool Point

Swanpool cliffs -

7 Fulmar
2 Med Gull
60+ BH Gull
3 Turnstone


Lots and lots of folk out, lots with dogs on the coast in probably the nicest bit of weather for a while. Stithians Res basically full now.

 

[Trotsky1977]

Stithians today after work 1615hrs on a nice sunny, if fresh, late afternoon

Main hide
Slav Grebe
4 Cormorant
40 Canada Goose
fem Goldeneye

Southern Cut-off (filled the feeders)
Muscovy Duck
2 Grey Heron
10 Redwing
2 Reed Bunting
4 LTT
fem GS Woodpecker
**FOX right in front of hide...doubled back as it might have smelled me!!

 

[Jono Irvine]

10th January

Castle Beach between 12:00 and 15:00 (spent some time photographing Black Redstart) and looking out towards Maenporth:

8 Great Northern Diver
6 Black-throated Diver
1 Red-necked Grebe
1 Great Skua (close inshore, probably attracted by huge flock of wheeling gulls)
5 Kittiwake
1 Razorbill
4 Guillemot
1 Curlew
19 Oystercatcher
10 Turnstone
1 Grey Heron
1 Little Egret
1 Kingfisher
2 Black Redstart
2 Stonechat
1 Grey Wagtail

https://www.flickr.com/photos/calidris-photos/

 

[dantheman]

Bit of birding locally today -

Black Redstart still on Florence Place

Swanpool -

Great Crested Grebe
115 BH Gulls (1 full sum plum)
12 Fulmar on the cliffs

Falmouth Bay -

2 Black-throated Diver
50+ Shag
30+ Gannet diving

Castle Beach -

Black Redstart
2 Stonechat
13 Oystercatcher roosting

Pendennis Point -

3 Whimbrel
9 Oystercatcher roosting
1 Grebe sp. in mouth of Carrick Roads
8+ Great Northern Diver left the Carrick Roads c.5:30pm to roost out to sea

 

[dantheman]

Black Redstart still kicking around on Florence Place.

Bird walk at College and Argal - 'highlights' -

Argal Res

4 Great Crested Grebe (including displaying pair)
12 Tufted Duck
1 Chiffchaff
1 Firecrest
1 Mistle tHrush

College Res

1 Goldeneye (f)
5 Tufted Duck
c10 Teal
2 Wigeon
2 Great Crested Grebe
100 Herring Gull
2 GBBGull
4 LBBGull
1 Firecrest
1 Nuthatch

Also Stithians

Slavonian Grebe still
2 Goldeneye
2 Reed Bunting

 

[dantheman]

Florence Place, Falmouth

2 Black Redstart
2 Firecrest
1 Blackcap

Falmouth Town Centre

Colour- ringed Herring Gull W 078, white letters on blue ring

 

[Chris Oates]

Florence Place, Falmouth

2 Black Redstart
2 Firecrest
1 Blackcap

Falmouth Town Centre

Colour- ringed Herring Gull W 078, white letters on blue ring

Not sure if you know Mark Grantham bird ringer

markyjee 'AT' gmail dot com

We've got some of his Gulls in St Ives that have the same type of ring - ours are W195 & W196.

 

[dantheman]

Stithians Res today (2nd March, with S Perfect) -

Goldeneye
Slavonian Grebe still
Great Crested Grebe
6 Little Grebe

At the feeders -

4 Reed Bunting (3f 1m)
4 Great Spotted Woodpecker (3f 1m)
Water Rail
+ the regular feeder birds including Muscovy Duck

c.40 Redwing over


Yesterday (1st March) -

Flock of 8 Bullfinch near Treverva

 

[dantheman]

Today we did the section along the coast from Falmouth to the Helford Passage. Generally seemed rather quiet, but in reality probably not too bad overall at all ...

Black Redstart still on Florence Place am

Swanpool Point - 7 Turnstone, 5 Dunnocks together
Swanpool - 15 Fulmar on cliffs

Falmouth Bay -

8 Great Northern Diver distantly
(Large offshore gull roost of several thousand plus in the evening)

Pennance Point -
2 probable Common Scoter W
40+ Common Dolphin East
4 Bottlenose Dolphin distantly
1 Guillemot on sea
29 Shag
1 Kingfisher
2 Linnet singing
Skylark singing

Maenporth -

Great Northern Diver
Stonechat
Black Redstart f type
Peregrine
1 Fulmar on cliffs

Bream Cove -

2 Great Northern Diver

Rosemullion Head -

15 Turnstone
4 Purple Sandpiper
2 Stonechat mf

Distant light passage of Kittiwake, Fulmar, Gannet and auks (with more Gannets close in feeding, and auk passage building up later)

Prisk Cove -

15 Turnstone (presumed same birds as earlier)
3 Ringed Plover
4 Curlew

The Helford River -

2 Firecrest near Shag Rock
5 Great Northern Diver near the mouth
1 Red-necked Grebe near Durgan



Thin scattering of eg Oystercatcher, Shag, occasional Cormorant throughout, Rock Pipits and Goldcrests with male Kestrel at Maenporth too.

 

[Samuel Perfect]

04/03/16

Swanpool: 3 Med Gulls (adult, 2nd and 1st winter)

Stithians Res: 1 Slav Grebe, 2 Goldeneye (pair)

Had a look at the CBWPS sightings page for yesterday and interesting to note the right hand diver off Pendower Beach appears to show some good features for Pacific Diver; apparent chin strap, spiky bill, small white cheek patch, lack of obvious white flank patch and perhaps more rounded head. Although these could just be result of the angle of the bird and chance photographic effect.

http://www.cbwps.org.uk/cbwpsword/friday-4th-march-2016/

 

[tonymills]

Hi Sam, welcome back. There were 5 of us there at Pendower Beach and we grilled the BT Divers with Pacific in mind. They were all BT Divers for us , so i guess it's just the appearance in one still shot only. Nice thought, cheers tony

 

[Samuel Perfect]

Hi Sam, welcome back. There were 5 of us there at Pendower Beach and we grilled the BT Divers with Pacific in mind. They were all BT Divers for us , so i guess it's just the appearance in one still shot only. Nice thought, cheers tony

Hi Tony,

Only in Falmouth for a short while but happy to be briefly back on patch.

Was pretty sure Pacific Dive would have been on all of your radars so didn't think there was much chance of it going undetected. Still wanted to flag that right hand bird up in the photo as it's remarkable how Pacific-like it makes it look.

 

[dantheman]

Popped down to the coast this evening, most notable event were a few flocks of Whimbrel flying east.

Swanpool -

Reed Warbler singing, 2 male Blackcap together, 3 Swallow, Great Crested Grebe, Mallard with 8 duckling, Mute Swan still sitting on nest, with what looked like last years brood of 8 all still present. Green Woodpecker and Goldcrest heard.

Offshore (Falmouth Bay) -

2 Great Northern Diver, 1 Guillemot, with 1 Common Sandpiper on rocks,
Whimbrel flocks flying east (from c.4 miles distant to along the shoreline) 112+ (c.40, 30, 5, 25 and 12 with another group heard but not seen.)
Manx Shearwaters, Auks and Gannets and Fulmars also flying distantly west in good numbers.


A couple of days ago (Saturday 23rd) also saw 3 Greenshank and 1 Common Sandpiper at Gorrangorras, Penryn River, and 2 Shelduck close in past Pendennis Point

 

[dantheman]

Down to the coast again briefly this evening -

Swanpool

3 Singing Reed Warbler
Pair Mute Swans with 5 young cygnets (present since the 10th at least according to Facebook), with 8 additional 'adults' (last years brood) still present.
Coot + 1 young
Sparrowhawk over

Watched the sea for a bit (couldn't really call it a seawatch) -

Falmouth Bay

3 Great Northern Diver
2 Guillemot
with distant Gannets, a few auks moving and 5 Manx Shearwater


Stithians earlier was quiet, but Black Tern reported on the afternoon of Thursday 12th May for c. half hour, per the hide notebook.

 

[dantheman]

Helston Boating Lake today -

Coot + 4 young
Female Tufted Duck + 7 young ducklings (presumably a good Cornwall breeding record)

Stithians 21/05/16 - 2 Whimbrel (flew south over the road at southern end, calling)

 

[dantheman]

Jammed in on some Red Kites as I was driving past today (no Lammergeiers tho) -

Argal Res - 3 Red Kites circling over the southern end at 9am

 

[dantheman]

Not sure if the Painted Lady butterfly invasion has been documented much in Cornwall yet this year, but 7 on the pink flowers (Red Valerian) by the garden gate in the middle of Falmouth this morning - fairly approachable too which perhaps means they're a bit on the weary side.


I keep promising myself I'll do some birding sometime too ...

 

[fishybarry]

Up Argal lunchtime and Pelican was overhead. Circled a couple of times then headed off north over College res.
I expect the one from drift.

 

[dantheman]

Up Argal lunchtime and Pelican was overhead. Circled a couple of times then headed off north over College res.
I expect the one from drift.

Hey, nice!

Apparently it was at Devoran yesterday, so was just wondering if it had passed through; perhaps it'll be around the general area for a bit longer ...

Thanks for mentioning, I'll try and put it to BirdGuides ...

 

[dantheman]

Very brief look at Falmouth Bay this evening.

1 Great Northern Diver (1st summer type)
6 Mediterranean Gull
2 Black-headed Gull

Plenty of very distant presumed manxies going west.