Family Holiday birding in Cornwall

Osprey

Dunlin

Black-necked Grebe

Chough

Stunning coastline in all directions

Red Admiral influx

Southern Migrant Hawker

Wheatear

Stonechat

Dunlin

Little Stint

Little Stint

Ringed Plover

Curlew Sandpiper

Little Stint

Curlew Sandpiper

Just home from a fantastic week away with the family staying just outside St Just in West Cornwall. We spent lots of time enjoying some amazing scenery around the coastal paths and enjoying the most unbelivable house where we stayed.

I managed to get out and do some birding each day of which I'll summarise the sightings. Chough were seen on every costal walk in varying numbers, anyone will do well to miss them.

Hayle - 5 Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Whimbrel, 3 Greenshank, 150 Dunlin

Portgwarra - 5 Fulmar, plent of Gannet, Wheatear, Whinchat & Stonechat

Drift - Juvenile Osprey, 5 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, Great Crested Grebe

Kelynack - 4 Pied FLycatcher, 10 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Tree Pipit, 15 Willow Warber, 6 Chiffchaff

St Gothian Sands - Black-necked Grebe, Yellow Wagtail, 2 Little Stint, Swift, Whimbrel & Greenshank.

Godrevy - 24 Grey Seal, 2 Wheatear

2 Sandwich Tern, 9 Wheatear

Alarm call with Rutland Ospreys

With a big birthday approaching, Mrs D booked a fantastic weekend away to one of our favourite places, Rutland Water. Whilst not bathed in sunshine it was humid and dry on the Saturday when we visited the nest in Manton Bay where both chicks were growing well. We got some terrific views of the parents returning from hunting although some times unsuccesfully.

We stayed in lovely place and had a fantastic meal before retiring fairly early as an early present Mrs D had booked me a Osprey Experience which would require getting up at 3.15am for a 4am appointment. The light and weather wasn't great but I still got to see two differnet Ospreys perched and dive in front of us. Much too fast for my bridge camera so I just enjoyed the spectacle. Thankfully another guest, Peter "Moose" Jousiffe, took some fantastic photos that he kindly sent to me for use on the blog and to remember the experience.

As part of the weekend we also did a trip on the Rutland Belle and a nice walk on Sunday morning where we picked up two Ospreys together high above us on west shore line. Other sightings included Mandarin family, Common Terns, Cormorants, Greylag, Eygptian Goose, Grey Heron and Little Egret. Another great weekend.

Eden Project & Hayle birding

Eden Project

Meditarran Zone

Quite a structure

Warm conditions inside the pods

When the rain stopped

Eden Project

Osprey

 Grey Plover & Wigeon

Grey Plover

Bar-tailed Godwit

Med Gull

Grey Plovers

My annual pilgrimage started with a days birding in Cornwall. As I reached Devon the rain got very heavy and with no sign of it stopping for a few hours I took a detour to the Eden Project. It's a destination I've wanted to visit for a long time and it did not disappoint. 

  Then I headed to Hayle where my first bird was an Osprey that appeared above me and circled before disappearing into the sun. Down on the estuary there was a wide selection of birds including Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Med Gulls, Redshank, Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing & Curlew.

Osprey on a bike

A couple of mad weeks at work since my two weeks leave so not had any time to update the blog. Mrs D and I had two fantastic days in Rutland cycling and birding. The star attraction were of course the Ospreys that were doing very well in Manton bay with four chicks on the nest. 

The Osprey reserve have installed a new double tier hide with has made viewing even better. Other species of note were 2 Arctic Tern & 6 Egyptian Geese both being year ticks whilst best of the others were 20 Common Tern & a Barn Owl out hunting on our second morning.