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| I was watching the Snowy Owl and what an impressive beast of a bird it was! Time to move in for views which were slightly more scope filling. All the while it was important to keep a healthy distance as so not to disturb this rare stray, one which visits the mainland only once a decade or so (the last being before my birding days). No tripod in the bag, so I had to hold the scope in one hand with some zoom (partially rested on a leg) and put the camera to the eyepiece with the other hand. Thank goodness the wind wasn't blowing an 'owling gale! Record shot to the right ------> Apparently this is a 1st winter male bird, showing extensive barring on the chest, breast and contrasting scalloping to the saddle and wing feathers as far as I could tell, although it stayed low and hunkered down for most of the next hour of concentrated watching. A little stretch to preen a wing forced me to zoom out on the scope, what a huge owl it was with a bill and talons big enough to do some serious damage. Pellets found on site previously had showed that it had a preference for Golden Plover! The outing wasn't quite over and done here though, with one member of the crowd that had gathered standing in awe offering me a lift to Newlyn Harbour for a spot more birding. Here, cornish winter birding can be at its best. 1 Glaucous Gull, 1iceland Gull, 1 Black-throated Diver, 1 Great Northern Diver, 4 Common Scoters, Rock Pipits and on other occasions Black Redstarts, Black-necked Grebes and Kingfishers all make this a place to return to often. Amazed with the days haul I headed back to my uni pad, a flicker of smile reappearing when the mind wandered back to the days events. Cheers. Henerz. Photos from Newlyn -----------> |
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| This report details a days birding in Cornwall (18th Feb, 2009) depicting the range of difficulties, emotions and sights that can be had within a single trip in this wonderful county. Read on for all the downs but ultimately ups! |
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| Owls' about that - a days birding in west Cornwall in search of a special bird... |
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| Having trudged up to a spot called Zennor Moor in West Penwith last weekend, I hiked around for several hours resulting in pepper-sprayed gorsed legs, wet boots and the mild onset of hypothermia. One of the rules of birding is to always expect the unexpected and in my case this meant for missing this avian equivalent of a polar bear! If you don't know what this may be, read on! Now having walked a fair few miles from St Ives and using public transport I thought I ought to be rewarded, but no luck. It seemed you have to take the good with the bad. The bad stunk and so did my saturated boots. Leaving the moor after spotting a ringtail Hen Harrier and a Merlin though was pleasing and I vowed to return upon any further news of my elusive quarry. With regular checks for bird news from the group who are first with the news a whopping large percent of the time (or so they say): Rare Bird Alert, today I was tempted out, leaving the house before daylight had arrived. Following tracks trodden the previous week, suddenly the search was on again and with renewed vigor. The bird had been seen several times yesterday I told myself repeatedly. An unignorably strong sense of deja vu setting in as the boots simultaneously gave way to that horid sense of squelshing. That's the last time I waste a fiver on waterproofing spray, it's probably just water anyway. A Green Woodpecker, 2 Golden Plovers, 1 Stonechat, big numbers of possible migrant Meadow Pipits, and 2 Ravens completed what I hoped would be an introductory cast. Time passed, I walked, scanned, walked some more, scanned some more whilst sinking deep into the dark peat but one of the granite boulders in amongst the gorse and heather had a white blob on top. More bird plop probably. But scope out anyway and white blob swung around and stared at me! No one could wipe the smile from my face over the next half an hour. It's head turned out to be the white blob of plop, from a distance, and the rest of the body just looked like a granite boulder. The photo below shows the first view of it, present on the near horizon of gorse and heather. |
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Further bird news sightings - Keep checking the homepage for the latest sightings from Falmouth, no Snowy Owls though sadly, and news from further afield in Cornwall displayed in the scrolling bar across the top of the news field. Thanks. |
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| Raven |
| Stonechat |
| Snowy Owl |
| Glaucous Gull |
| Black-necked Grebe |
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| The first glimpse of the bird... |
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| Iceland Gull |
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| Turnstone |
| Kingfisher |