Shear Numbers but Fea-less

I've managed to get out for a little more birding recently, though I've yet to tap into the rich vein of Portland birding, as usual.

 

 

On the 6th I was able to make a few brief excursions around the island, finding a distant feeding flock of seabirds that included a Balearic Shearwater and an intruding Great Skua off the West cliffs.

 

Plus, on the 8th I spent an hour or two at Ferrybridge seeing a Greenshank flying over, the long-staying Red-necked Grebe in the harbour, plus juvenile Redshank and Yellow-legged Gull on the mud.

 

A quick whizz round the middle of the island produced a few warblers as well as a couple of calling Tree Pipit.

 

But, it was on the 10th when the real birding came. 

 

I drove three hours down to Cornwall the previous evening, slept in the car, then picked up Samuel Perfect from Falmouth first thing, before making our way over to Pendeen in forecast strong North-westerlies.

 

The view from the cliffs below the lighthouse is impressive.  The rocks provide useful landmarks for calling out the position of birds.

 



 

 

It wasn't long before we had a large Shearwater in the bag, as a Cory's Shearwater passed distantly.  A few minutes later the first Great Shearwater sweeped into view, but this was quite a dark one without the obvious pale bands at each end.

 

Soon enough however we got brilliant views of both species, with one or two Sooty Shearwater and Balearic Shearwater amongst the hundreds of Manx Shearwater into the bargain.  Shear heaven!

 

It wasn't easy for everyone present to find sufficient shelter, particularly as the wind veered round to the north slightly.

 



This was the sort of typical views of the closer Manxies (plus Gannet), and just the one large Shear, a Great, came this close, but what a belter that was in perfect light!

A few other things were called during the 10 hours we were there, such as all three common Skua, though I only saw the one distant immature Pomarine Skua.  Also a Storm Petrel was a great find pattering around just beyond the rocks.

Talking of rocks, I suspect virtually everyone present totally ignored the fact that the Lichen here were very impressive with 5-6 species on one rock.  This one was rather photogenic.

In the end, I saw about 15 Great, 12 Cory's, 3 Sooty, and 3 Balearic Shearwater.  The only disappointment really was hearing of a Fea's Petrel passing nearby St Agnes Head, and not having it past here!  We were all so hyped to see that!  Nonetheless, a fantastic day, and my first double UK-lifer day for 15 months.

A little look in Chesil Cove this morning produced just a pair of piratical Arctic Skua going after the Terns.  I was half hoping to see a Cory's scything about in there, now I know what to look for!

Things have got to improve on the land shortly hopefully, once this wind dies down.

The Dipping Tale of a Citrine

24/25th

I was very excited to go on my first proper seawatch in Cornwall this weekend.  The weather had looked promising on the long-range forecast, so I took the gamble.

My sum experience of birding in Cornwall was a long weekend there in October 2008, principally looking a migrant passerines, so seawatching took a back foot. 

I met up with Garry Bagnell, George Kinnard, and Hugh Price at Dorchester in the evening of the 24th, and we drove all the way to Pendeen and camped the night at a nearby site.  Baggers' tent was luxurious, for a tent!

 

After the predictable poor nights sleep, we headed for the rugged headland.  The view from Pendeen lighthouse.

 

The wind was in the east initially, and we were hopeful that it would swing round, as the forecast stated.  It didn't.  Although there was a constant presence of Manx Shearwater offshore, none of the hoped for species turned up.  We did manage to see a few Sooty Shearwater, though many were distant.  We also saw 2 Great Skua, Arctic Skua, 2 Sandwich Tern, a Common Tern being chased briefly by a Peregrine, 4 Raven, and a small group of Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwit. 

 

Despite the wind direction, we decided Porthgwarra might be worth popping in to, at the very least for Balearic.  There were loads of Manxies there too, though I spotted just the one Balearic Shearwater amongst them.  A few others passed unseen by me in addition.  The highlight here though was a Basking Shark which only seemed to surface briefly.  Although the approaching ship Scillonian III didn't help, as it almost ran into it! 

 

Our last chance to save our Cornish adventure was Marazion Marsh near Penzance, so that's where we headed.

 

I had visited here briefly on my last Cornwall trip, though I didn't really explore it at all.  It's a fab looking place.

 

And it was all the better today, cause it had a 1st-winter Citrine Wagtail in it!  The area the bird was in was not difficult to get to (unlike the parking!), and we had great views of it, even though it was obscured by vegetation much of the time! 

 

I guess from the title you were thinking we dipped it.  Well no, but we dipped everything else, so it's appropriate!

 

We headed home on the news that the first Hippolais warbler of the autumn had been found on Portland.  Not a Melodious as all expected, but an Icterine.  After the long drive, we got to the Eight Kings Quarry, only to find the bird had not been seen for a little while, despite showing on and off all afternoon!  All we saw in there were Willow Warbler and Whitethroat, and our hopes were well and truly scuppered when the landowner came along and chucked us out of the field, even though it had nothing in it!  A couple of cursory glances from the local plod was the last straw, and we had to give up.  A shame, but predictable given the rest of the day we had.

 

Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed the trip, and I hope I get another bite of the Cornish seawatching cherry before the season is out.  Thanks Garry for organising and driving.