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| November 2007 Archive |
| 3rd, November 2007 A whole flippin flock of Firecrests roamed the woodland around College Res this morning. I counted 3 in one group (which does qualify as a flock!) and another single. This was a new Local Patch tick for me, quite a long awaited one. The calls were fairly distinctive, a 'zrrr zrrr' noise with rolled "'r's". There were loads of new birds present in the area including 1 Water Rail (still present from the 25th Oct), 2 Gadwalls (males), 1 Little Grebe, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 3 Tufted Ducks (first of the autumn), c40 Wigeons, 1 Curlew, 22 Lapwings (flew over), 1 Common Gull, 1 Great Black-backed Gull, 1 Marsh Tit, 2 Goldcrests, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 4 Siskins, 10+ Meadow Pipits, 2 Skylarks. Sorry for the long laborous list but there was so much stuff around this morning. Argal on the otherhand was silent. Don't know what's happened there but it's just dead! |
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| 5th, November 2007 Remember, remember the Buff-bellied Pipit at Lands End on the 5th of November (or so this new saying goes!). I did remember to get up very early and head out on the 3 hour bus journey. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though as this was possibly the best bus journey i've ever had. Towards lands end, it was obvious there was loads of birds on the move with hundreds of Starlings, Redwings, Chaffinches, Meadow Pipits, a few Common Gulls and a few smart Fieldfares seen. Then it all hotted up. In Sennen village from the top floor of the double-decker bus I spotted a Black Redstart on a rood top, bobbing it's tail like a stonechat does. Oh, then on the next roof top was another. 2 in total, in about 2 seconds! Crazy goings on but that's birding at Lands End. At Trevilley Farm it was looking good for a much hoped for bird when I found out that it had flown half an hour before. An hour later and I luckily refound it. An American Buff-bellied Pipit strutted about in front of an admiring crowd at Trevilley Farm. A nice id challenge compared with the adjacent Meadow Pipits. It's particularly buffy flanks, unstreaked back, brown rather than golden back colour and dark legs clinched it. Very happy I now had several more daylight hours to enjoy. 2 Chough and 1 Raven showed at the same site. Onto Porthcurno thanks to a lift from a kind, generous, and most benevolant "Devon birder" towards this scruffy, poor and transportless student. I was now in situe for another tricky bird. A Lesser Whitethroat possibly of the form 'minula' known as Desert Lesser Whitethroat showed very quickly near the car park. It showed some varying features from the breeding birds in the UK but is only a race and not a likely species 'split' in the future, still these birds are always interesting to examine in the field. A Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Kestrel showed in the valley plus 2 Gannets and 6 Kittiwakes on the sea. The weather was grey throughout but it didn't spoil some top birding fun! |
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| 6th, November 2007 Today was an exploratory visit taking in the perimeter of Stithians Reservoir. For more detailed information on this great birding site visit the August 2007 Article. The sun was out and so were the birds. From the southern end there were 2 Golden Plovers, 1 Shoveler, 3 Snipe, c40 Teals, c40 Wigeons, 5 Gadwall, 12 Coot, 1 Common Gull, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 2 Buzzards, 7 Goldfinches, 2 Ravens, 8 Fieldfares, c50 Redwings and 100+ Starlings. Plenty around and the Golden Plovers were a nice sight resting on a bank in front of the hide and good Falmouth birds. The perimeter path is in great condition and is a relatively easy but longish walk. A sneaky stop at the Golden Lion pub however relieved the situation! Around the northern end of the reserve a Kingfisher fished the cut-off area, the bright colours very eye-catching whilst it hovered. 5 Reed Buntings, 2 Goldcrest, c60 Lapwing, 17 Tufted Duck, 2 Cormorant and 14+ Linnet capped off the walk with 51 species seen without trying too hard. |
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| 8th, November 2007 The Firecrest fest continues around Falmouth after yesterdays birds and another one today at College Reservoir. It wasn't cooperative for photographs but views alone were good enough for me. Plenty on the water now even though the Grebes and Gadwall had disappeared. 2 Med Gulls (1,adw+1,2w), 2 Common Gulls, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Kingfisher, 3 Tufted Ducks, 8 Teals, c30 Wigeons, c50 Coot, 2 Moorhens, 4 Mallards, 2 Cormorants and 1 Mute Swan were present, Teal numbers the highest i've recorded here. The woodland held plenty of Goldcrests and were all checked closely today for loitering Firecrests which duely payed off! 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Coal Tit, 9 Long-tailed Tits, 4 Redwings, 2 Woodpigeons, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Jays and a Buzzard also showed even though hearing them was tricky above the extreme winds we are experiencing at the moment! |
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| 7th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Penryn - 1 Firecrest on the Old Drive by Tremough Campus. Swanpool - 1 Firecrest + 1 Med Gull |
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| 13th, November 2007 Local Bird News - College Reservoir - 1 Firecrest (50 meters from metal gate at west end of footpath near Argal Reservoir) |
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| 14th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Stithians Reservoir - Smew (redhead (female) present at the north end). Feock - 9 Black-necked Grebe (best seen from Loe Beach) Swanpool - 1 Firecrest + 2 Med Gulls. |
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| 15th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Feock - 2 Black-necked Grebe (best seen from Loe Beach) Swanpool - 1 Firecrest + 1 Med Gull. |
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| 16th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Stithians Reservoir - 1 Whooper Swan (no sign of Smew though) |
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| 20th, November 2007 After a good week away from Cornwall my return to the patch this morning was with much anticipation of possible new birds in the area. Highlight and a new patch, local area AND Cornwall tick, a WOODCOCK! This wasn't a tame viewing experience however, i'd bumped into a Woodock on a Kamikaze mission! After it flushed it headed straight for me. I ducked (in doing so, closely avoiding being blinded by the long bill!) and felt the wind flaps from this large snipe-type bird on my back. Encounters with this elusive and cryptic bird don't happen very often so a bit flustered, I whizzed around to see it fly away from me and it showed a big rusty coloured rump and tail, typical of this species. Back to the rest of the thankfully sedate walk, it was pretty quiet on the water with only a slight increase in Tufted Ducks (9) and 2 Little Grebes present with the Coots and Wigeon. The woodland tit-flocks are up to full strength now with many Long-tailed Tits, 2 Coal Tits and 17 Goldcrests amongst them. 2 Firecrests eventually showed along the northern woodland walk allowing for photos in the gloom. Other birds seen well included a Kingfisher, 2 Marsh Tits, 1 Skylark, 1 Meadow Pipit, 4 Great Spotted Woodpecker1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Chiffchaffs (still singing away) and 3 Water Rail (2 of them seen for a change) in the marshy area. |
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| 21st, November 2007 Cattle Egret IN FALMOUTH!! The biggest twitch within the boundary of Falmouth in recent years is on. Check back later! (Oh, if you want to know, it's near Carnon Downs at SW.805.405 in cattle field north of Come-to-good road.) + 2 Cattle Egrets in the Penryn area. Bye! P.s. - Sadly after extensive searching of the whole area there was no sign of the Cattle Egrets at Carnon Downs and in the Penryn area despite checking nearly every cow or other field in sight. A check from Penryn Quay and College Res drew blanks too. I have since learnt that the birds from the recent influx into Cornwall have been very hard to pin down. Not quite the day it could have been but a Green Woodpecker was in the Carnon Downs area which is also reputed to be a good spot for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in winter and a Marsh Tit called at College Res in a brief walk of the woodland. Local Bird News - Stithians Reservoir - 2 Dunlin, 12+ Golden Plover, 1 Little Egret, 2 Shoveler |
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| 22nd, November 2007 Local Bird News - Penryn - 2 Cattle Egret (flew upriver again at 7.30am) College Reservoir - 1 Goosander (present until 3.15pm, flew off West) Swanpool - 1 Firecrest (along swan vale near red bin) |
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| 23rd, November 2007 Local Bird News - Gerrans Bay - 8 Black-throated Diver, 1 Slavonian Grebe + 1 Brent Goose,pb Porthscatho - 1 Red-necked Grebe Swanpool - 1 Firecrest |
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| 24th, November 2007 Grilling College Reservoir this morning produced 4 (male) Pochard which are new in for the winter. Numbers of Wigeon and Tufted Duck have risen sharply to over 50 and 20 respectively, with a bit of luck the numbers will increase quite a bit in the next couple of weeks as ducks work their way south and into Cornwall. An adult winter Med Gull tried its best to hide amid the few gulls there were today which also included a smart Common Gull. No Firecrests seen in the woodland but 2 Marsh Tits called and a Kingfisher wizzed by giving a glimpse of life on its level. Not a bad life. The species list of around 50 included a few tricky species including Kestrel and Coal Tit. |
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| 25th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Penryn - 1 Med Gull (at Asda car park near College Res) St Clement (nr Truro) - 2 Avocets (returning for the winter) |
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| 26th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Stithians Reservoir - 1 Mandarin (fem), 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Med Gull Falmouth - 2 Med Gulls (on Penryn River this morning) |
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| 28th, November 2007 The total brilliance of today hasn't sunk in yet. A trip out to see lots of rare birds and whatever we could muster started brilliantly just south of Drift Res at Tresvennack Farm where a Cattle Egret wowed the assembled crowd of two! From here we walked to Marazion Marsh during the rest of the day. At jubilee pool the wing and rain started. After pulling on water proofs I counted 12 Purple Sandpipers, 4 Turnstone and a Dunlin. Then the red mist (metaphorically) descended (actually the mist was mist coloured in this case!). The walk to Marazion was pretty gruesome but still a flyby (fem) Velvet Scoter brightened our hopes a cool Cornwall tick for myself. The surf in the bay was perfect for kite-surfers, not so for birders and searching for a certain specific Diver species was tricky. The next few hours was spent searching before a diver was found. It was probably a Pacific Diver! Probably though, because it always dived a second after being relocated and taking so long to relocate as it could swim a hell of a long way under water it seemed but we got some of the features including a chin strap, no flank patch on a small black-throated diver structure. The RSPB reserve inland was brilliant, TOP NOTCH! A Swallow was totally cool, doomed, but cool and a strange November record. The kingfisher trail revealed 2 Water Rail, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Firecrest, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Cetti's Warbler. Probably my best walk at the reserve to date, the only disappointments being no sign of a Bittern or Marsh Harrier reported recently from the site. Ah, today is still sinking in... Local Bird News - Stithians Reservoir - 1 Green Sandpiper (in northern cut-off still), 1 Dunlin, 4 Golden Plover, 207 Lapwings |
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| 27th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Swanpool - 1 Firecrest (behind Swanpool along lane to Swanvale) + 3 Med Gulls |
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| 29th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Penryn - 1 Firecrest (on Browns Hill nr Millenium Apartments) Porthscatho - 3 Black-throated Diver, 3 Slavonian Grebe + 1 Little Egret St Mawes - 5 Med Gulls (ads), 1 Raven |
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| 30th, November 2007 Local Bird News - Penryn - 1 Firecrest (at the Tremough Campus this morning) Falmouth - 2 Firecrest (along Woodlane) |
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