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| September 2007 Archive |
| 9th, September 2007 Local Bird News - Gyllyngvase Beach - 3 Med Gulls (all ads, at 5pm) |
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| 13th, September 2007 Local Bird News - Penryn - Osprey (fishing the river at 10.30am, flew SE) |
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| 23rd, September 2007 Back in Cornwall now, and imagine my anticipation and excitement levels on returning to College and Argal Reservoirs (my local patch near Penryn) to see what is still around, yeah, very excited! 7 Herring Gulls, 3 Mallards, 1 Mute Swan, 1 Coot, 1 Buzzard, 4 Swallows, 16 Black-headed Gulls after half the walk. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have bothered. Had to keep going though as I had the return walk on the other side of the res's to get back home. A tit flock appeard with 2 Coal Tits amongst them, a tricky bird to catch up with here, plus a mixture of summer lingerers and resident species - 4 Chiffchaffs, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 20+ Long-tailed Tits the common Tits and 1 Jay, a definate improvement. 4 Curlew fed in a field up the valley, calling frequently, regular autumn visitors here. Waiting at one of the few viewpoints over College Res, a small falcon appeared, a very small falcon! Slender pointed wings, contrasting tail band colours and fast wingbeats, a Merlin for sure. It flew lowish over the water and stopped in a tree before carrying on, over the valley side, even the Buzzard eating worms looked on in appreciation! A Falmouth and patch tick for me, a totally unexpected find here. Cornwall ain't so bad! Local Bird News - Penryn River - 2 Med Gulls |
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| 25th, September 2007 9 Quid it cost to reach St Ives this morning, complete robbery, i'm going to have to fast for a week to recoup this massive loss... There was a little pressure now to make the most of this expensive foray to the north coast but conditions looked good, strong north-westerlies. Couldn't find any other birders so settled down below the lookout on the island and focused the scope. Literally the first bird in the scope was a Grey Phalarope! It was one of the best feelings i've had so far in birding, finding my own rarish lifer, brilliant! It was just 20 meters offshore and showed the white wing-bar pattern when it flew, and broad bill when feeding. The next few hours were spent sneaking views out to sea inbetween the nearly constant rain showers. Totally soaked and with a huge swell offshore I amassed the following: 1 Sooty Shearwater, 1 Balearic Shearwater, 1 Black Guillemot, 5 Bonxie, 2 Arctic Skua, 13 Arctic Tern, 3 Sandwich Tern, c20 Kittiwakes, loads of auks, c500 Gannet and 1 Ocean Sunfish. One of the most fun seawatches i've had and it was without the help of any others. I did find the other birders on my way back to the train but they didn't have much else to add and very relieved, jumped on the train and did some birding at the Hayle Estuary on the way home. There was little of rarity value around but interesting to see a Wheatear on return migration and a partially albino Dunlin roosting on Ryan's Fields. A top day out. |
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| 27th, September 2007 Out of the door first thing and several Meadow Pipits flew over. It was a gorgeous morning with quite a bite to the now cold air. At College Reservoir the Kingfisher showed really well and even hovered over the water, a cool bit of behaviour i've not seen before. The chance of seeing one here is very good if you take a walk around the northern route of the reservoir (the southern route has been washed away in places and is dangerous now). The cold had increased numbers of ducks on the lake to 5 Coot, 1 Mallard and 4 Cormorants. It will be interesting to watch the numbers increase for the winter. Last year it was mid October untill there was a big jump in numbers. The woodland held the 2 Coal Tits again with 5+ Goldcrest, 2 Long-tailed Tit and 1 Jay amongst the usual crowd. Just about reaching Argal, I scanned over the water but hardly anything here to report except for a flyover Reed Bunting (a new bird in Falmouth for me) and several more Meadow Pipits. Not a bad morning for migration with plenty of birds on the move and clear sunny skies |
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