The end of October always sees me heading out to the Isles of Scilly for the traditional "Teachers' Week". I've seen some nice birds on the Friday before I fly over the years and this year proved to be no exception as I undertook birding around the Hayle Estuary before staying overnight.
My target bird was a Lesser Yellowlegs which showed fantastically in Copperhouse Creek. I then meandered around the estuary, which has a lovely selection of birds which included Greenshank, Ringed Plover, Wigeon, Teal, Dunlin, Little Egret and a Little Stint. The Little Stint appeared to show some webbing, causing a crazy five minutes, but it must have been the angle of the sun.
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.
Sometimes decisions made in the moment are the best. On Sunday morning at 9am Mrs D had gone to her Yoga class & was meeting friends in the afternoon and as if by magic the Sociable Lapwing appeared on BirdGuides. With Storm Bella coming to an end over night this looked to be a good opportunity to try and see this species missed in Cornwall (Finders report) a few weeks ago. I'd been talking to Jake from the Scilly crew and he was convinced it was still somewhere in south-west.
Bude Marshes was punched into the satnav, podcasts downloaded and I was off down the M5. A complete closure on the motorway at junction 13 didn't stop my positive thinking, I was on a mission. I'd never been to Bude before so it was a case of sitting back and ticking off the 150 miles. It was a beautiful day and the drive went pretty quick given the distance.
I parked at the ruby club and got fully geared up in wellies as advised. The walk only took five minutes when I reached the main marsh where the path split. A local birder saw me and advised to go left from better scope views or go right for closer views but be prepared for bird to go out of sight. I went left.....the path was very wet but rose slightly and gave good views over the marsh. The scope was quickly set up and there was the first winter Sociable Lapwing. The bird was very busy feeding on the grass and seemed to call on occasions. The local birds chased the rare visitor on occasions allowing some flight views. The bird was active for around 45 minutes before flying to the roosting Lapwings. There was only three birders on the
side I stood whilst there was probably a dozen on the other side of the
marsh, all well distanced.
This was one rarity I was very keen to see given the worldwide population has fallen by 90% in the last fifty years hence UK records have really dried up. The last record was twelve years ago on St Marys, Scilly whilst the one previous was in Kent the previous year. Research suggests that it is not the breeding grounds that is the issue for the species, it's their migration routes. It was good to read there is a multi-national conservation project studying the species and hoping to reduce anymore fall in numbers.
I'd hoped to get to Ham Wall on the way back but given it is now Tier 3 I knew that wasn't really an option. A cracking way to end the year.............
This photo is a good summary of the weekend weather
With lockdown lifted we both fancied a trip to the coast and with a reported Sociable Lapwing in Cornwall we opted to head this way for a change of scenery. The Lapwing had been around for a few days but then hadn't been seen on Friday afternoon so it was no surprise there were no reports on Saturday so we headed to coast and did a walk at Bollatack where we saw our first Chough. Passing through the area there were numbers of Lapwing & Golden Plover in flight.
The weather was very mixed and that would be an understatement. A lunchtime pasty in the car warmed us before we headed to Mousehole which was very pretty. A dozen Turnstones were feeding in the harbour and there were good number of Lesser & Black-backed Gulls on the island.
We then drove round to Penzance and walked along the front, again sunshine, wind and rain continued but I did get to watch a dozen plus Purple Sandpiper, 2 Ringed Plover, a Black-throated Diver, 25 Common Scoter and more Turnstones. This rounded the day off nicely.
On Sunday we walked around the edge of Hope Cove in barmy winter sunshine. St.Micheals Mount looked particularly impressive the closer we got to it. A Black-throated Diver flew out of the bay probably given the extra activities taking place as it was so calm. There were huge numbers of Goldfinches all along the path having a feeding frenzy. From here we drove round to Porthleven where were found Mrs D's old family holiday home and lovely coffee and cake. Rock Pipits were the only bird of note. At 12 noon we set off north up the M5 only to get news the Lapwing had been relocated! Fading light would have made it impossible to get back so we cracked on towards home. Its been a fantastic year and we did have a fabulous weekend with plenty of laughs.
We arrived on St Marys via the Scillion taken from Penzance. A Red-throated Diver fed just off the boat, en route we recorded a Sooty Shearwater, 2 Arctic Skua and a number of Kittiwakes. There were a couple of Dolphins that displayed briefly but I was very focussed on the horizon given a number of people were sadly ill.
My bag was typically last off the boat enabling Jake & Brad to reclaim the ground floor room sending myself and Mick upstairs. Mick is a Spurn birder who has visited forty eight times previously. Mick was a great room mate and it was interesting to pick his brain on a number of birding subjects. The rest of the house was as per previous years, Paul Freestone, Adam Hutt, Brad & Jake from Cornwall. Our first target was the Blue Rock Thrush who had edged further east than it had previously. As I arrived on the far side of Old Town a few birders looked to have located the bird on the other side of the way. Cliff Smith had the Thrush in his scope so kindly let me take a look as the bird perched very high on the rocks. To see this bird so quickly was quite a shock as many island birders have to put days into seeing the bird. I then walked through Lower Moors with Adam and after a short wait the stunning Spotted Crake showed amazingly well and even swam under me as I stood on the bridge. I'd only seen one previously which was fairly distant, so this was a real pleasure. Two Water Rails were also called from the same location. There were Stonechats everywhere of which you could have photographed all day. We headed out for a couple of pints at the evening count before looking forward to the next day.
