Chough Junior Week 2022

Like two excitable little boys leading up to Christmas morning, Bob and I had been discussing our annual week off for birding for some weeks before it finally arrived and which we now (9 years since the first), lovingly nickname “Chough Junior”. Sadly, our week of birding was a little disjointed this year as Bob had to work for a couple of days over the weekend and I had to work a couple of days in the early part of the week. However, between us we managed to get out everyday with some great results and some lifelong memories made!   

Saturday 8^th October

In what has become a bit of a tradition, I kicked off our week at Porthgwarra in West Cornwall. Here I had some great visible migration considering the unusually warm conditions we have had this October and my totals included 2 Siskin, 65 Chaffinch, 23 Goldfinch, 1 Reed Bunting, 16 Skylark, 110 Meadow Pipit, 3 Grey Wagtail, 6 Pied Wagtail, 2 Swallow, 2 Song Thrush, 12 Golden Plover, 4 Chough and 1 Jay. The morning was made very special and rewarding though as I had a great county autumn record and a new bird for our Chough Junior list. At around 9am, a familiar buzzy trill was omitted from a small finch heading overhead. As it got closer I managed to get it in my bins and I was delighted to confirm that it was a European Serin! The rest of my morning was pleasant as I strolled around the valley and picked up 1 Firecrest, 8 Goldcrest, 6 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 1 Water Rail. Bob also had a stroll around Porth Joke in North Cornwall before he had to go to work and had 4 Water Rail and a 1 Reed Bunting of note.

The unseasonably warm weather was unusual but Porthgwarra was still rewarding! 

During the early afternoon news was released about a Black Kite at Sennen. I rushed to the area for it and thought I had glimpsed the bird distantly, but alas, not a conclusive enough sighting. Richard Augarde had seen it heading back towards Nanjizal and Porthgwarra where it had first been seen by Nick Ward early in the day. After several stops and scans with no luck I decided to drive to Hawkeys Heights overlooking Nanjizal and wait it out. This paid off as it didn’t take long before I spotted it high with a pair of Common Buzzards. Success at last and another new bird for the Chough Junior list! 

Black Kite put on a nice display over Hawkeys Heights

Sadly, a few days later this bird was viewed and photographed much closer and it transpired that the Kite came equipped with a falconers telemetry transmitter and a set of leather anklets! Turns out, this was a 10 year old male called Geb, originating from the Wild Zoological Park in the West Midlands! A disappointing scrub off the list and commiseration for the local birders that had enjoyed the bird so much.

Sunday 9^th October

News had broke on the Saturday afternoon of a stunning male Baltimore Oriole on Lundy Island situated off the North Devon coast! It would be a Western Palearctic tick for me and a glorious sight to behold if it stuck around. I had never been to Lundy before and thought it was a great opportunity to tick an island and a WP mega!

Long story short, I had a fabulous day with Mark Worden and some other twitchers from the Casual Twitchers WhatsApp group but the oriole had departed overnight. I am sure I will be back to Lundy in the future but having spoken with many regulars to the island, my advice would be to try and get there the same day as the bird is found as most things seem to depart over night never to be seen again! 

Illfracombe harbour was nice and calm unlike the rest of the crossing! 

I was pleased to see the thriving Grey Seal colony on the Island and pups on the beaches. 

The Lundy jetty and path leading up to some great looking habitat.

Monday 10^th October

I had been living Peter's highs and lows from my workplace over the last two days and had been recieving constant updates on his progress. Watching from the sidelines hadn't been easy after his great day in west Cornwall and his mega dip on Sunday. So by Monday I was itching to get out birding! I decided on spending my time in my local area to home, Checking little known sites in the hope of a spectacular find that never quite matieralised but there was still plenty to see. 

Par is situated on the south coast of Cornwall and has a great track record for rare and scarce birds. It is a very industrial area with a mixture of beauty spots such as Spit Beach and St Austell Bay. The high tide roost and local golf course produced nice variety with 75 Pied Wagtail, 2 Firecrest, 11 Ringed Plover, 9 Turnstone, 2 Dunlin , 167 Oystercatcher, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Mediterranean Gull. 

Firecrest is undergoing a rapid increase in Cornwall. They are now regular all along the south coast.

My next port of call was the little known Black Head. At the tip of St Austell Bay it is well vegetated with mature tree's and likely looking migrant spots. I was searching for that one bird which all rarity finders spend the day hoping for after the fast moving weather fronts across the Atlantic but the best I could muster as usual was 10 Goldcrest , 6 Chiffchaff , 3 Firecrest, 1 Marsh Tit and 1 Nuthatch. My last destination was an old China Clay pit in deepest darkest Nanpean. This unlikely setting has produced Green-winged Teal and Glossy Ibis in recent months and today I enjoyed watching a smart adult Yellow-legged Gull. 

Tuesday 11^th October

                Record numbers of Chough are on the Lizard Peninsular this autumn

My lovely wife Libbie also had a spare day today and we enjoy nothing better than spending time outdoors together. We both love the Lizard Peninsular as it has so much to offer for a great day out. Birding for both of us, plants for Libbie and Ann's Pasties for lunch! We set off from the carpark at Kynance and walked out to Soapy Cove enjoying a nice selection of common migrants including 2 Blackcap, 1 Black Redstart, 32 Swallow, 5 Chiffchaff, 1 Firecrest, 1 Whinchat and 1 Wheatear.  Amazingly high numbers of Chough were spiralling all around us at one point and we even saw another Lizard speciality; a Dartford Warbler. A whopping great Adder enjoying some autumn sunshine and a whole host of butterflies inlcuding my favourite Clouded Yellows rounded off a great walk.

I very rarely see Adders in Cornwall these days. So it was great to watch one undisturbed whilst it basked in the autumn sunshine.

After pasties we stopped at Church Cove. Another great birding destination with mature Sycamore and Elm tree's which produces rarities every year. I was happy to find a Yellow-browed Warbler here and 2 more Firecrests. We also had a nice chat with Lizard birder Tony Blunden who was taking his lunchbreak from work. Not a bad place to be within cycling distance from home. One day he will find a monster rarity here I'm sure. 

                                                      Black Redstart at Kynance

Wednesday 12^th October

Today Bob and I finally had a day off together and what better way to ease into the rest of our birding week than twitching a mega on the Isles of Scilly! Once onboard the Scillonian Ferry, we had a great start to the day as 15 Cattle Egret flew across the sea at Penzance before we had even departed the harbour. The rest of the sailing was pretty uneventful with very few notable bird sightings that morning. Once we had departed the Scillonian we didn’t have to wait long for our private charter boat to pick us up and get us over to Tresco where we hoped our prize awaited! After a brisk 25 minute walk due to tides (meaning we could only land on the far side of the island), we were at the spot were we stood in hopes of our long awaited prize.

It didn’t take long before a fairly long staying Swainsons Thrush gave us some outstanding views and entertained the small crowd for several minutes. What an absolute cracker and we were both pleased to get such a great Western Palearctic tick! However, we needed to plough on as there was a reported Two-barred Warbler also on Tresco and just 10 minutes away. Sadly, despite giving it a couple of hours we didn’t see this bird. On the return Scillonian voyage, it became apparent that the identification of this bird was questioned and it was decided that this was actually a Yellow-browed Warbler with some minor plumage anomalies. Naturally, we didn’t feel to bad about dipping this Warbler despite the patient effort!

The Swainson's Thrush put on an excellent show!

Many people had gathered in hopes of glimpsing the reported Two-barred Greenish Warbler!

The Scillonian crossing back to Penzance was much more rewarding on the birding front as we encountered  1 pale phase Arctic Skua, 1 Great Skua, 2 Sooty Shearwater, 1 Manx Shearwater and the “pièces de resistance” came in the form of 2 Great Shearwaters which were in Cornish waters which meant that they could also be added to our Chough junior list! What a great ending to a brilliant day.

Sea-watching aboard the Scillonian was rewarding on our return voyage. 

Thursday 13^th October

After such a rewarding day yesterday we opted to have a scour of our local patch on the north Cornish coast and see if we could turn up some goodies for ourselves. We had to work hard for our rewards as little was moving overhead but eventually we ended up with a great list of birds including: 4 Chiffchaff, 1 Firecrest, 17 Siskin, 6 Goldcrest, 1 Wheatear, 1 Snipe, 2 Grey Wagtail, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Great Northern Diver and 1 Merlin. Two star birds really stood out though including a Yellow-browed Warbler in the valley and late in the morning a Richards Pipit sailed over head calling as it went.

Great Northern Diver overhead was pretty special

An iconic Yellow-browed Warbler in the valley was also a very pleasing find. 

We were pleased with our morning haul but had a whole afternoon ahead of us so headed up to Davidstow Airfield and Crowdy Reservoir. There was very little of note of the airfield and it has been surprisingly quite over the last couple of years. It must be due some more notable birds in 2023! Crowdy Reservoir was a whole different ball game though and seemed pretty busy! Among the more common species we were pleased to pick up 1 Little Stint, 4 Ruff, 3 Dunlin and 1 Little Egret, 2 Merlin and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. Shortly into our visit we heard the distinct call of an American Golden Plover and picked it up in our scopes flying off towards Roughtor! A most pleasing end to our successful patch day.

Friday 13^th October

Today would turn out to be a day that is fondly remembered by hundreds of birders and twitchers across the UK for many years to come. The previous afternoon, news broke that a Blackburnian Warbler had been found on the island of Brhyer. When I first saw pictures the previous day I dragged my heels at booking the Scillonian with Bob as I thought the bird looked quite poorly and was unlikely to survive the night! However, as more information came out that day it was apparent the bird was actually looking really bright and feeding very actively. So fast forward 17 hours and we are boarding onto a very busy Scillonian for our 2^nd trip to the Scilly Isles of the week!

The mood on board was quite sedate when we started steaming towards the Islands but after an hour or so news broke that the bird was still present and feeding away quite actively and it was awaiting our arrival. Suddenly the excitement and atmosphere was somewhat more electric and many eager twitchers were readying themselves for this absolute mind bender of a vagrant.

Once docked, there was a short wait for one of the day boats to get us to the island of Bryher. Once 40 or so eager twitchers were aboard it weaved its wave through the channels between Tresco and our destination and at times, I felt sure we were going to touch the sea bottom! Thankfully due to the excellent skills of the skipper, we arrived and after a short 10 minute walk to the location and then a brief wait which in reality was only about 3 minutes but felt like half an hour. Boom, there it was flitting from branch to branch giving amazing views to a mass of delighted souls! What a bird and a memory that will stay with me and many others for the rest of our lives. It is the type of bird that you can dream of seeing this side of the Atlantic but never think it will really happen. Legendary!     

Just a small percentage of people present at the Blackburnian Twitch! 

The bird that dreams are made of! A real eye pleaser and didn't disappoint in anyway. 

On a high and with the atmosphere still electric the Scillonian Crossing didn’t disappoint either and our list of notable birds included 1 Cory’s Shearwater, 2 Great Shearwater, 9 Balearic Shearwater, 1 Puffin, 1 Pomarine Skua and 2 Minke Whale feeding in the distance.

Many happy souls returned to Penzance that evening after such a successful day. 

Saturday 14^th October 

It was pretty wet, grey and miserable on this morning and in all honesty the last few days excitement had caught up with me. I was tired, achy and didn’t have a lot of fuel left in the tank. We decided to have a gentle start so headed up to Maer Lake in Bude then back to Davidstow and lastly a quick check of Treraven Meadow in Wadebridge. Despite a good effort plugging each location it was very mundane on the bird front so it was time to salvage the day and head west for a bird we needed for our Chough Junior list! 

An hour or so later we had just reached Pendeen in West Cornwall and could see some birders gathered on a nearby path with cameras pointing at a prominent bush in the middle. There perched proudly was our intended target, a juvenile Woodchat Shrike! We were just preparing ourselves to walk closer and get some photos when Royston Wilkins pulled up alongside us and said “get in the car”! We didn’t ask why and willingly followed his instructions. Once in he sped off with his two eager passengers in tow. “What’s happening Royston” I asked? “A Red-eyed Vireo has just been found at Tregeseal near St Just matey” he replied! A short while later we arrived and bumped into Geoff Wyatt (the finder) and Nigel Wheatley who explained it hadn’t been seen since the initial view.

The juvenile Woodchat seems to have delighted many visitors to West Cornwall this autumn. 

We patiently waited gazing up at the sycamore tree and then a bright looking passerine caught my attention. A second later and there it was showing amazingly well and seemingly quite sedate compared with others I had viewed in the past! We got some photos and were amazed when we looked up and seen that within minutes around 40 birders had descended on the area. Where did they all come from so quickly?

We both had great views of the Red-eyed Vireo thanks to Royston for getting us on it so quickly! 

After such successful and exciting afternoon we thought we would end it with a quick look at Copperhouse Creek, Hayle and see if the 2 Lesser Yellowlegs were still present. They didn’t disappoint and put on a cracking close range show for us and a handful of other observers. What a special afternoon and great species selection showing Cornwall at its finest!

The Lesser Yellowlegs also performed well that day and gave outstanding views. 

Sunday 15^th October

Our last morning was spent at Park Head where we had some more great visible migration again. We didn’t pick up anything rare or different but after the week we just had we didn’t need to! Our totals included 202 Meadow Pipit, 101 Skylark, 104 Chaffinch, 55 Siskin, 12 Goldfinch, 1 Greenfinch, 12 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 5 Reed Bunting, 3 Yellowhammer, 1 Chough and 1 Little Egret. With 7 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap, 5 Goldcrest and 1 Yellowhammer in the valley.

You can never had a boring morning at Park Head when it offers such stunning scenery! 

A good movement of Siskins was pleasing to experience on our last morning. 

With some chores outstanding and rest needed before going back to work the following day it was decided to take the afternoon off. But we were both delighted with the results and quality that we had during our week off and can only hope that future years will be just as exhilarating and rewarding.