Monday
18th January light to fresh E Cloudy, showers Noon, cool wind
A
massive breakfast to last the day and I am off knowing that there are
birds available for the Year list in the vicinity. The possibility of
over twenty five in the next few days is a sure fire motivation.
As
usual I have been primed as to the locations of the better birds by
Phil Andrews and for that I am very grateful.
Hayle
Estuary RSPB reserve, an adult kittiwake and a spoonbill
ensure a good start.
Just
after the roundabout where Marazion is straight over and Penzance is
to the west, I spot a fox crouching in a grassy field and stop to
photograph it.
Over
to Marazion when on searching for a way to the shore via a back
street, I look up to view a very close gull. I shout out “glaucous!”
I immediately phone Phil excitedly. I missed out on this bird last
year.
A
message comes as I am searching the shoreline for the possibly
present Hudsonian whimbrel; Pacific diver east of Marazion....now.
I
am east of Marazion and I search frantically for the sender of the
message. After a few dead end lanes and alleys I find the very man,
James Packer, a friend of Chris Craig and he shows me a photograph of
what he thinks is the Pacific. I am not sure as the forehead doesn't
look right to me though I must admit the neck and bill do point
towards Pacific. Anyway we find the diver again bit it is very
distant and no way could we tell what it is.
On
rocks below where we are is a single turnstone with a couple
of grey plover and some redshanks. Meanwhile a diver that does come
close is a great northern.
Nothing
much out at sea, a raft of forty or so shags and a few passing gulls,
James and I walk around the coastal path towards Perranuthnoe. We
meet a group of four birders who report little. Two of them walk with
us, Phil Taylor and Hilary Mitchell; affectionately know as P &
H. I dawdle a bit, searching all rocks along the shore and P & H
disappear around a hedgerow.
There's
the whimbrel, not far away sitting on top of a rocky outcrop facing
away from me. James is only a bit in front of me and I quietly
whistle to him and point out the bird. He immediately gets his
telescope on it and photographs away like mad. I run to catch P &
H, shouting until I gain their attention and so all four of us get to
see a whimbrel species which looks good for Hudsonian. It takes off
and the all dark rump confirms that this is our bird. Brilliant,
Hudsonian whimbrel, a mega rare bird on the year list and the
third I have seen in Britain.
James
and I start to walk back towards Marazion as rain falls and we stop
to look over the sea towards the ever beautiful St Michael's Mount. I
almost tread on a small vole as I sit on a rock.
James
finds a red-throated diver.
James
goes off to see more birds, offering me a carbon lift to join him,
refused.
I
return to the Hayle estuary and spend an hour looking for the
reported yellow-browed warbler. No luck with that but watching a
kingfisher hunting from a high electric wire is interesting.
To
Carnsew Basin to find a red-necked grebe and a juvenile great
northern diver.
Back
at the Bed & Breakfast I start to update my Bubo 2016 year list
and find I have omitted to put red-breasted merganser seen on the Exe
River. That means my spreadsheet list must be wrong and I find that I
have omitted great-crested grebe from the first day!
The
Green Year list now stands at 126, fifteen ahead of where I
was at this time last year.
20.31
miles 963 feet elevation up 952 feet elevation down
No comments:
Post a Comment