| 28th, October 2006 On the way out to do the tri-weekly shop(!) I called in at Penryn Quayside with my bins, I soon picked out a Greenshank amongst a few Redshanks. Lone Curlew and Little Egrets waded on the mud here (low tide), and just before I left, a tiny bird wizzed by showing flourescent blue then orange and again blue then orange - Kingfisher, wow! As always it disappeared and I couldn't relocate it upstream but a great sight. Back at Tremough campus a flock of 30 or so Canada Geese flew south probably back to College Reservoir. |
 |
 |
| October 2006 Archive |
| 29th, October 2006 The weather brightened up today so I was quickly off down to Argal on bike early afternoon. The Arctic Tern juvenile was still around and the Little Egret had returned but there's no sign of any winter ducks here yet. Viz-Mig was good with over 20 Skylarks (flying west?) along with plenty of Meadow Pipits, a couple of Grey Wags and 2 Greenfinches. Photo opportunities came from showy Mallards and Blue Tit feeding on a dead tree.College Reservoir path is getting very muddy but I managed to get to a good viewpoint on the southern shore, where there were 27 Canada Geese, 6 Tufted Ducks, 6 Wigeon and a single Little Grebe out on the lake. |
| 1st - 16th October Just an overview for the first part of this month (thanks to a pc crash!) 16th - Tremough - 15 Pink-footed Geese flew over the campus this morning. 15th - Argal - Quiet but a Collared Dove showed down to 1 meter! College - 50 Wigeon and more Canada Geese - a sign of winter. 11th - Swanpool - Good views of female Surf Scoter, and Med Gulls on lake 10th - Hayle Estuary - Spotted Sand. showed well near lelant. 9th - Argal - Arctic Tern still present, and 4 Grey Wags from the hide. 4th - Argal - Arctic Tern juv and a Common Sand. from the hide. 3rd - Penryn - Greenshank with redshank on the mud, also a song thrush. Stithians - Dipped the pec but got good photos of a Buzzard 1st - College - Grey wag and Buzzard with Canada geese building up. |
 |
| 17th, October 2006 I decided to grill my local patch today and it turned out to be quite impressive. Argal, even after last nights rain remains low but the only wader was a 'heard Curlew'. The juvenile Arctic Tern was still present and quite confiding this afternoon. Only other interesting birds here included a fly-over Raven and a Little Egret from the hide. College on the other hand was 'on fire' in a wildfowl sense. This morning loads of Canada Geese flew over and this was one of the reasons for going to College this afternoon, well, I counted over 120 of them before getting bored and moving onto the large Wigeon flock present, amongst which was a Shoveler! A great afternoons birding. Go to the 'Gallery' for more. |
|
| 18th, October 2006 Sadly I think the Canada Geese have already left and flown north as at about midday I couldnt see due to think fog but I could here loads of 'Honks' coming from the sky, a great autumnal sound! Local Bird News - Falmouth - 2 Mediterranean Gulls |
|
| 21st, October 2006 With a lack of rarities in Falmouth I ventured out of the 'survey area' and down to Porthgwarra where a possible 10 lifers were to be had for me! It started badly with heavy rain and a cancelled train but I made it and was watching a Yellow-browed Warbler and Pied Flycatcher at St Levan within an hour of arriving. Moving on to Porthgwarra by foot with Plymouth birder Darrell Clegg we were soon watching a juv Red-backed Shrike and further up the exit road a couple of juv Ring Ouzels. A wander to find the bluethroat reported yesterday was fruitless and on the way back to the bus stop I heard breaking news of a Siberian Stonehcat!! Wow, it didn't show for long (no photos) but a stonking bird!! |
|
| 24th, October 2006 An e-mail from welsh birder Marc Hughes on the id of the resident tern at argal reservoir at the moment, prompted me to go for another look. He'd raised the possibility of it being a Roseate Tern by the fact that it has black legs and a long beak. The forehead pattern is also condusive to roseate although i'm not sure about the wing pattern. I haven't had any experience with roseate so if you have any opinions please post on the guestbook, Thank you. A great bird for Argal, and is still showing well. |
|
| 25th, October 2006 Thanks very much to those you you who e-mailed me, it was nice to be corrected and hopefully wont make the same mistake in the future. The tern species down at Argal is as someone put it, "undoubtedly an arctic tern". Well thats that, and i'm moving on swiftly! Local Bird News - Falmouth - 1 Yellow-legged Gull (1w) and 3 Med Gulls - Stithians Reservoir (from southern causeway) |
|
| 26th, October 2006 A leasurly around Argal Reservoir in the sun (at last) was decent, I met a local Falmouth birder who's actually at my uni (woohoo, at last!) called 'Nick' (great to meet you if you read this). New bird at Argal today which was a flighty Stonechat on the southern shore, perched on a bramble spike. The Arctic Tern was present on the northern shore where it favours a particular rock. Other birds included a few flyover Skylarks and Goldfinches, also a Buzzard soared high above our heads on thermals. At College Reservoir I located a female Ruddy Duck which was probably the same bird seen by Nick at Loe Pool near Helston recently (a new bird for me at College). |
|
|
|