Club Weekend, 15 – 18 February – Cornwall Leader: Jane Cumming

We were 15 participants, based at Bosavern House just below St Just. Weather generally fine and relatively mild
with some strong winds, and overcast.
As tradition dictates, we stopped in Hayle for pasties and scouted Copperhouse Creek, dockside Carnsew Pool, and Ryan’s Field RSPB reserve and the estuary bay, getting over 20 wetland species including Mediterranean Gulls (one pair posturing to each other with necks stretched up), Greenshank, Grey Plover, and a strapping Spoonbill with head plumes. We compared Bar-tailed Godwits clearly showing prettily streaked brown-grey backs in comparison with the Black-tailed’s plainer backs.We twice visited the Drift Reservoir near St Just to look for Cattle Egret, finding four on our second try in a field ofcattle (at one point joined by a Herring Gull who followed them in a line, showing its surprisingly larger size…), aswell as Great Crested and Black-necked Grebe, and over 100 Canada Geese. Each subsequent morning we visited the dramatic cliffs of Cape Cornwall with south-westerly winds and great breakers rolling in. The most tantalising glimpse was two member’s sighting of a pale beige first-year Iceland Gull on our first visit, amongst rock and beach roosts of mostly Herring Gull, though subsequent persistent trawls through the roosts failed to find it again. However, where a descending stream formed beach waterfalls and pools, a delightful ‘gull spa’ was revealed with much splashing and preening in the freshwater – as Jane said, you could almost hear the cries of ‘pass the soap’! We were lucky enough to spot groups of up to 16 Choughs calling and airily bouncing in the wind, as well as rafts of Guillemots and Razorbills – the largest at least 500 – around 100 Gannets, Fulmars, Shags, an unidentified diver (our only one of the trip – probably Red-throated), Kestrels, Ravens and seals. Later, walking down the sheltered road from the exposed Coastguard station above Porthgwarra, small birds created a wall of twittering sounds in the dense scrub and Sycamore woods: Chaffinch, Linnets and Goldfinch with a Bullfinch heard.
On the second day we also visited Sennen Cove, Pendeen Watch, and Carbis Bay with seals and a porpoise. Then back up past Hayle to the Gwithian Sands Nature Reserve created from old sandpits in the dunes south of Godrevy Lighthouse, with a nice selection of ducks and waders in the lake, including a Pochard. Then south to Marazion Reserve at dusk for a possible Starling murmuration that did not arrive.
On the third day we drove to Helston which has a nice public park and boating lake (with a smart pinioned Ferruginous Duck amongst gulls and Tufted Ducks), fed by the River Cober which carries on to the sea via Loe Pool (Cornwall’s largest natural body of fresh water). By the car park is a sewage works where we hunted for Yellow-browed Warbler in the surrounding patchy hedgerow/woodland – finally locating one as it moved restlessly about with Chiffchaff and Goldcrest, though most of the group never got good views; and we also got our first (singing) Greenfinch, and Grey Wagtails. We then searched without luck along the valley for a reported Glossy Ibis. Back at Marazion we looked for Glossy Ibis and Bittern but only found more common species – and an extraordinary coup for driver Keith who whilst filming a Grey Heron, found he’d caught an adjacent Snipe flying up into the picture! At Penzance’s dockside Jubilee Pool, we looked for Purple Sandpiper and found them in force – over 20 of the delightful birds scurrying amongst rough waves or jumping up onto the rough granite wall where they nestled in the tiniest indents (becoming Bird of the Trip for many members). Further along the jetty scores of Turnstones scuttled and scavenged amongst the humans with their cheeky air. Then a first-year male Eider flew fast and low from open water, looking large and heavy with white front patches visible on overall dark plumage.
On our last day we returned to the Hayle Estuary, adding a Common Gull and Yellow-legged Gull to our list. Our final visit was to the pretty village of Chapel Amble just past Wadebridge, where a Temminck’s Stint had settled into the wetlands formed by the River Amble making its way to the Camel Estuary via the new wetland reserve of Walmsley Sanctuary. When we read our instructions correctly, the group soon found this small but very rare wader in a wet field with the tiny river flowing through it, with Teal, Green Sandpiper, and Meadow Pipits – for some discriminating members the Bird of the Trip!
Many thanks as always to Jane for her excellent leadership, and to Alastair and Keith for driving. Our stay was also memorable for the wonderful food and comfortable accommodation. Even with a surprising lack of divers, scoters, shearwaters etc, and our failure to find Bittern or Glossy Ibis, we achieved a total of 89 species. Lois Pryce