Arctic Skua
Sea watching at St Ives
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Pressure was off for our second day in Cornwall after sucessfully scoring the Brown Booby the previous day. We debated the best place to head given the winds were westerley in direction and we ended up in St Ives, actually where the first Booby was found. The sea watching spot took some finding, how any one gets any where in the traffic in summer round there I will never know.
The dead ends and blocked roads were well worth the pain as the sea watching proved very enjoyable with at least 7 Arctic Skua chasing Kittiwakes around the bay, only stopping to feed on their prey. In addition there was 3 Great Skua's and a good few thousand Manx Shearwater.
As the weather closed in we started to head north and battle the M5 traffic. We opted for one final stop at Davidstow Airfield. The weather was cold and wet whilst the airfield have a very eery tone given it was deserted. The large holes in the runway surely meant in was not in use. We crept along in the car until we located our target bird a stunning Buff-breasted Sandpiper. The bird was keeping company with a Dunlin but there were also Ringed Plovers, Ruff, Skylark and Pied Wagtail.
I'd only seen one Buff-breasted Sandpiper before which was very distant so to see bird feeding just a few yards from the car was amazing. Highly pleased with our views we headed home, many thanks to RH for driving.
No comments:
Post a Comment