There is something very special about West Cornwall ( partly because of the fantastic birding, unspoilt scenery and that my family name originates from here, Bosistow Lane is actually a very good birding spot!). For me and Pete the area is usually very kind to us and we were hoping for a great day out starting at Porthgwarra....
A stunningly crisp and calm Autumn morning seemed to favour a bit of visible migration and we stood and watched 1 Little Egret, 1 Water Rail. 1 Golden Plover, 2 Chough, 1 Ring Ouzel, 13 Redwing, 7 Song Thrush, 3 Grey Wagtail, 11 Pied Wagtail, 1 Blyth's Pipit (!) , 38 Meadow Pipit, 178 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch, 1 Greenfinch, 2 Siskin, 3 Goldfinch and 21 Linnet flying around or moving through the valley... As the sun warmed up and we searched for the Blyth's Pipit without any luck we still had 7 Goldcrest, 4 Firecrest, 12 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap, and 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker . There is so much cover at Porthgwarra that we undoubtedly missed far more than we saw...
More than happy with our morning we went across to Perranuthnoe to see the long staying Hudsonian Whimbrel and the once in a lifetime chance to get this rare vagrant from North America on our Chough Junior List. After an hour of searching and seeing 1 Ringed Plover, 15 Curlew, 7 Bar-tailed Godwit, 20 Turnstones and a Common Sandpiper Pete somehow spotted it hidden amongst the rocks at distance. We sat and chilled out in the sun enjoying the distant but clear views of this super rare bird.
With time ticking we spent an enjoyable couple of hours on the Hayle Estuary picking up 5 colour rings and seeing a great variety of estuary birds including 1 Shoveler, 17 Pintail, 1 Juv Spoonbill, 1 Juv Little Stint and 24 Mediterranean Gull amongst thousands of other birds......we will certainly visit again soon and do some proper counts when we have time...
A fantastic days birding, finding a mega ! Great company, stunning weather and loads of other birds to enjoy and see, we are heading back west tomorrow and I can't wait!
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