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| November 2008 Archive |
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| 1st November 2008 Recent days have seen some form of birding whether it be the walk up to campus to further my studies of the world, or on walks in the local area. The 'winter shift' have turned up for work all of a sudden (on time!) and are decimating the bumper crop of berries on Hawthorns etc. Today though, I got out to the lands end area to look for an apparently showy Bluethroat. Showy was one thing this bird wasn't it seemed, not being seen once and had probably gone. Not all was lost though we checked out lots of spots en-route home. c100 Golden Plovers were in the Lands End area but flighty, with 5 very late Swallows, 1 Jack Snipe, 3 Common Snipe, 4 Shovelers, 1 Raven, 1 Peregrine Falcon and 2 Stonechats nearby. We hoped to see some reported Whooper Swans and a Scaup at Drift Reservoir. After scanning the place, neither of those were present but we found a Greater White-fronted Goose and a female Common Scoter, strange how birding works sometimes! The Hayle Estuary gave us the last glimpse of a Spoonbill on Copperhouse Creek before it took to the freezing sky heading east, the 2 Pink-footed Geese were still around with a Water Rail on ryan's field. Back at Stithians Res we notched up some newly arrived birds with 1 Little Egret, 5 Shovelers, 5 Goldeneyes (all fems) and 2 Med Gulls. This ended the first of many wintery days to come down here i'm sure! Local Bird News - Swanpool - 1 Firecrest (up Swanvale) |
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| 5th November 2008 A cracking start to the day upon peeking through the curtains. Whilst noshing on some breaky the weatherman said Cornwall had the best of it today so I was off very quickly out of the door and down to College Reservoir. 2 (cracking!) Firecrests were the first birds to greet me at res, showing very well in bushes by the dam. It turned out to be a good walk all around with the cold nights obviously bringing in some stuff. 2 Water Rail, 2 Little Grebes, 23 Wigeon, c100 Coots, c40 Tufted Duck and 1 Common Gull shared the water with the more common birds whilst the from the woodland I saw 2 Marsh Tits, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Siskins, 4 Chiffchaffs (most singing!), 5 Skylarks, c20 Meadow Pipits and 28 Redwings. So forget autumn, it seems like winter has hit with the selection and large number of the species on view this morning. Great Stuff! Local Bird News - Gerrans Bay - 1 SURF SCOTER, 8 Common Scoter, Red-necked Grebe, 2 Slavonian Grebe, 5 Black-throated Diver, 3 Great Northern Diver, 4 Med Gulls Swanpool - 5 Firecrests (in the area) Falmouth - 2 Firecrests (in a garden!) |
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| 6th November 2008 Local Bird News - Gerrans Bay - 1 SURF SCOTER, 8 Common Scoter, Red-necked Grebe (still in bay from Pendower Beach) Swanpool - 1 Firecrest (still along track to Swanvale) |
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| 21st November 2008 Apologies for the total lack of recent updates. I wont bore you as to why as this is a bird blog and so onto the most recent sightings! Falmouth has had a good spell with a big influx of Firecrests into the area with birds turning up along Swanvale, Maenporth, Falmouth, Penryn, College Reservoir and Stithians Reservoir. I'm sure there are many more about so this is an excellent time to go looking for these colourful bundles of fluff! My most recent visit to College Reservoir was on 18th and a relaxed scan of the water revealed loads of ducks. 2 Shovelers shared the waves with, 2 Goldeneyes, 2 Gadwall, 5 Pochards 4 Little Grebes and not a duck but a belting Med Gull adult in winter plumage. One of my best returns for duck diversity for here when you include the horders of regular Coots, Tuftied, Mallards etc! Other than that the 9th of Nov was my last big outing where I headed for St Ives and Men-an-tol. The sea off St Ives had another Med Gull and a Red-throated Diver whilst Starlings and Turnstones fed out of the hand with great photographic results. Up to Men-an-tol with a biting wind and threatening clouds I was happy to find a female Merlin hunting low over this reported raptor roost. The winds kept any hope of Hen Harrier down however. |
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| 8th November 2008 Local Bird News - Swanpool - 2 Firecrest (still along track to Swanvale) + 4 Med Gulls |
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| 9th November 2008 Local Bird News - Maenporth - 1 YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER + 2 Firecrests |
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| 11th November 2008 Local Bird News - Swanpool - 5 Firecrests (along here and Swanvale) |
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| 15th November 2008 Local Bird News - Feock - 6 Red-breasted Mergansers (on the Carrick Roads) Stithians Res.- 1 Kingfisher, 1 Gadwall, 4 Goldeneye, 1 Pintail, 1 Little Egret, 1 Common Gull, 60! Snipe + 1 Coal Tit |
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| 18th November 2008 Local Bird News - Swanpool - Firecrest (still present up to Swanvale) + 1 Med Gull Stithians Res.- 1 Barn Owl, 1 Kingfisher + 3 Little Egrets |
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| 22nd November 2008 Before I came down to Falmouth for my time at uni just over 2 years ago, i'd hardly ever seen a Med Gull and had never had the pleasure of getting a glimpse of a Firecrest. On a relaxing, partially sunny(!) walk along the coast from Castle Beach to Swanpool in Falmouth I notched up 7 of the former and 3 of the latter, that's all within a mile or two! What a treat and sights that I can't ever imagine getting bored of. Other good birds for the area included 3 Ringed Plover roosting on rocks at Gylly, 2 Little Egrets, 7 Little Grebes, 3 Jays, 8 Chiffchaffs and a Coal Tit. |
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| 29th November 2008 With news that a Lesser Scaup was still at Helston with a Ring-billed Gull on the boating lake it gave me a great reason to postpone all work and all worries and get out for some birding (I wasn't procrastinating, honestly!). A loop of sites left me and devon birder Joe Ray empty handed where there had been Woodlark and Water Pipit seen by others previously. We soldiered on past these misses and found a Brambling at Canonstown with 4 Siskins, 1 Bullfinch, and 2 Fieldfares. On to Marazion Marsh with the wonderful views of Mounts Bay always great to return to. We saw 5 Pale-bellied Brent Geese on the beach with an incredibly late Swallow, Cetti's Warbler, Great Northern Diver and a whopping 41 Common Scoters also in the vicinity. Lots of good birds but we'd missed all our target species, the ones which really make the avid-birder twitch with excitement! The last spot on our epic rota for the day was the Helston area. Hopping off the bus and immediately into searching mode for a Ring-billed Gull, which we couldn't find. 7 Shovelers span around on the water's surface to feed quite characteristically. So it was off to the Loe Pool to salvage the day. Much walking later and with dusk approaching we located the LESSER SCAUP in the company of 2 Greater Scaups and 4 Pochards for nice comparison. Practically sprinting back to get the nus home we had just enough time to stop and confirm the calls of 2 Firecrests which caught our attentions. A top end to a resolutely classic birding day in Cornwall. |
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| 28th November 2008 Local Bird News - Stithians Res.- 1 Barn Owl, 1 Marsh Tit, 1 Kingfisher + c3000 Starlings Swanpool - 3 Firecrests (still present up to Swanvale) |
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| 25th November 2008 Local Bird News - Swanpool - Firecrest (still present up to Swanvale) + 1 Med Gull |
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