Patch Round Up - Amroth 5k in early December

After four fantastic months volunteering at Spurn, I returned home to Pembrokeshire in late November (I will eventually get around to writing up a blog post about Spurn but I have been struggling to find the time at the moment as it'll be a long one!). Since getting back I have managed to get out birding in my local patch most mornings.

The boundaries of what I call 'my patch' has shifted and changed quite a lot since I first started birding my local area in ~2014. Now, I have decided to group the sites I visit regularly in to one large patch, a 5km radius centred from the sea front at Amroth beach. Which should put an end to the shifts and changes! The patch is named the 'Amroth 5k'. 

The birds. Winter is one of the best seasons on my patch, and having sorted out the patch boundaries, I set out some targets for the winter's birding that I should hopefully keep up to date on this blog. Ten species I would like to see on my patch. All of these are species I've recorded in previous years birding my local area, some only once, and others a handful of times but are always very nice to see and enjoy. Here's the list (in no particular order):

1. Great Northern Diver

2. Velvet Scoter

3. Long-tailed Duck

4. Surf Scoter

5. Purple Sandpiper

6. Iceland/Glaucous Gull (I'm not fussy, any would do!)

7. Jack Snipe

8. Woodcock

9. Firecrest

10. Black Redstart

I've got off to a pretty good start...up to today (15th December), I have recorded 5/10 of my targets in the Amroth 5k. The first target bird I got was a Woodcock flushed during the day whilst walking through the woods at the National Trust Colby Woodland on 1st. 

Carmarthen Bay holds nationally important numbers of wintering Common Scoters and this year seems a great year to be checking the bay. This is one of my favourite birding activities on my patch and the Amroth 5k incorporates a large chunk of the west side of Carmarthen Bay, from Ragwen Point (Carmarthenshire) in the east to Monkstone Point (Pembrokeshire) in the west. Most birds are often distant but Red-throated Divers, Red-breasted Mergansers and Great Crested Grebes are seen regularly amongst the rafts of Common Scoters. Daily visits to the coast to check the bay produced my second patch target on the evening of 3rd, 2 female-type Velvet Scoters at Coppet Hall.

This year seems an especially good offshore with 83 Red-throated Divers between Amroth and Wiseman's Bridge on 9th being my personal highest count. This was also when I added my third target bird, a Great Northern Diver at Wiseman's Bridge. I scored a bonus bird on the 13th, a fine Black-throated Diver paddling its way east very close in at Wiseman's Bridge. A really scarce bird in Carmarthen Bay and my second patch record!

Bonus bird! This Black-throated Diver really close in off Wiseman's Bridge on 13th was quite a surprise.

The 14th brought my fourth and fifth target birds, and my overall patch highlight so far this winter. Unsettled weather over the last few days has deposited large numbers of marine invertebrates along the coast, attracting large numbers of gulls. I set out to Monkstone Point to start working through the masses of birds to see what I could find. I was still walking down the steps to the beach when I clapped my eyes on a beast of a juvenile Glaucous Gull sat on the beach with the other gulls! I enjoyed watching it for a while but a very heavy rain shower forced me to take shelter and I was unable to re-locate it when the shower had passed. 10 Purple Sandpipers (my fifth target bird) were on the rocks at Monkstone Point yesterday morning, a reliable spot to see these birds in South Pembrokeshire.

Juvenile Glaucous Gull - what a brute!

Purple Sandpiper - 1 of 10 at Monkstone Point on 14th

Turnstone

Oystercatchers - a common sight along the coast in winter

Side note - so far my search for my passerine targets has been a total failure, not without trying I must add! 

Butterflies

May and June weren't just about birds. Matt and I got out several times to catch up with some butterflies around Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. A big thanks to John Chapple for all his help with site infomation!

Common Blue

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

'Tarus' Grizzled Skipper

Dingy Skipper

Brown Argus

Small Copper

Green Hairstreak

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Marsh Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

Heath Fritillary aberration

High Brown Fritillary

Small Blue

Large Blue

Marbled White

Silver-studded Blue

Large Skipper

Small Skipper

Spring birding in Cornwall 2020...

It has been a very long time since I last updated this blog. The workload as my degree progressed made it difficult to keep the blog going and I fell out of the swing of writing blog post regularly. This academic year has been especially busy as this is my Masters year. I finally handed in my Masters thesis at the end of May and suddenly I have lots of free time again. So far, I have been catching up my bird records, submitting them all to BirdTrack and eBird, and another plan post-degree was to get the blog up and running again. 

So here is a little round-up of some of the birds I've seen this spring. As for most people, I haven't had the chance to get out as often as I would've liked due to lockdown restrictions but still managed to make the most of my last spring in Cornwall. 

Following the government easing lockdown restrictions in the second week of May, our (Matt Doyle and I) first plan was to catch-up with some good birds around West Cornwall. On 12th May we lucked in to great views of the immature male Montagu's Harrier that had been frequenting the fields around Polgigga/Nanjizal area for about a week, and a surprise Woodlark flew towards Sennen. 

Later that day a Turtle Dove flew over the road whilst driving to St Just. Unfortunately, a very notable bird these days. 

Montagu's Harrier 

Turtle Dove

Next was a Tawny Pipit at St Just on 16th, again an increasingly rare bird in Britain and the first twitchable in Cornwall for several years. We had great views of the bird feeding in a daffodil field, which made up for the incredibly brief view of a sandy pipit I flushed from the seaward end of Nanjizal valley in autumn 2016.   

Tawny Pipit

I was dying to get back on to the Lizard after lockdown, and Wednesday 20th, with light southeast wind forecasted, seemed an ideal day to visit. Matt and I arrived early and set off on our usual route that takes us through Caerthillian valley. Instead of carrying on around Old Lizard Head we decided to walk up the small valley between Caerthillian and the village, locally known as Hellarcher. We reached the small pond just up from the coast path and stopped to check the area. As we were about to carry on an oddly large, brown passerine flew over us and dived into the water hemlock around the pond. Puzzled by the size and shape of the bird we tried to get more views but typically it was very elusive. We managed a few more flight views but only brief as it would dive back into thick cover. The views we had suggested it was an Acrocephalus warbler and a big one at that! Great Reed Warbler was the mostly likely species but we needed more to confirm. I walked around to the top end of the pond and Matt waited by the bush the bird had flown into. It again flew, this time across the pool and up the field a little to land out in the open on a blackthorn bush. Matt managed a couple of pics and I had nice flight views confirming the large thrush-like beak, long tail and supercillium. A Great Reed Warbler! It then flew further up the valley and disappeared into the sallows. I put the news out and Tony Blunden and Mark Pass were first to arrive. It took a while to re-locate but Tony heard it singing much further up the valley. It stayed singing most of the day and was twitched quite widely by Cornish birders. It never seemed comfortable though and unsurprisingly had gone by the next day. Apparently the 8th for Cornwall and the first since 2012! 

We went down to the Lizard again that evening with hope of seeing the warbler again. There was no sign but a Woodchat Shrike at Old Lizard Head as the sun set ended the day perfectly.

Flight only views at first.

Finally perched out in the open. 

(photo: Matt Doyle) 

A much better photo courtesy of Steve Rowe. 

Great Reed Warbler

Woodchat Shrike

(photo: Matt Doyle)

Another highlight in May was a male Red-backed Shrike near St Just on the 21st.

Red-backed Shrike

With the influx of Rosy Starlings to West Europe gathering pace we headed out to Lizard again on 1st June to check the local Starling flocks. No pink but a surprise Serin flew low over Lloyd's lane (towards Bass Point) heading east. It was seen a few days later and likely has been on the Lizard since early May. In typical Lizard Serin fashion, it's very mobile and good at hiding!  

Rosy Starling
(photo: Matt Doyle)

We got in on the Rosy Starling action on the 4th, with an adult in fields behind Sennen School.

A Hoopoe on the Lizard 8th June was a surprising date and a species I thought I had missed this year. 

Hoopoe

We managed to catch up with a Hooded Crow on the Lizard on 9th June as it flew north over Housel and carried on over the village. We decided to wander over to check if the Hoopoe was still present in its favoured thistle field. We couldn't find it but quite a few Starlings were feeding in the field. Matt suggested this may be a place to keep an eye out for a Rosy Starling. A few moments after he said that one walked out from behind a thistle clump! Nice to find one for ourselves. The bird was quite a dull individual, likely a female or immature male. The flock was mobile and shortly flew off towards the village. It was cool to hear and see the Rosy calling as it flew away with the flock. We walked back to the car and headed back to Falmouth. Half way to Helston I had a phone call from Tony Blunden saying he had a bright pink adult male Rosy Starling feeding by itself in the same field! We turned back and had ace views of the male Rosy. 2 on the Lizard! Unfortunately, no pictures as we both left our cameras at home.

Round up of 2017 so far...

I haven't updated the blog in a while so here is a round up of the birding in January and February. 

I started the new year with a days birding around Pembrokeshire with Dave and Paul. The best birds of the day were a smart male Merlin over Marloes, 10+ Lapland Buntings in the fields by Trehill farm and an argentatus Herring Gull at the Gann.
With all the Waxwings in the country this year, I had to go and see some. So on the 3rd January I went up to Brecon where a flock had been hanging around for a few days. 12 had been reported but I counted at least 19 when I was there!

Waxwings

The Scoter flocks are never particularly close to land in Carmarthen bay so a raft of 1,500 or so off Morfa Bychan on the 4th allowed me to have a look through. I scored big with a smart adult drake Surf Scoter about mid way through the raft. Views were unfortunately brief as it appeared to tuck it's head and was lost in the mass of birds. An amazing bird to get on my patch and also my first self-found Welsh rarity!

I got back to Cornwall on the 7th January, and so the next day, Liam, Calum and I spent the whole day catching up with a few good birds around the county. First looking for the returning adult Pacific Diver in Mount's bay. After viewing from several spots and glimpses of 'interesting' looking birds we weren't confident that we had seen the right bird. The tide dropped further so we were forced to give up. Next to Mousehole were the stunning little Eastern Black Redstart was showing really well on the beach below the cafe. Also there was an adult Iceland Gull (possible Kumlien's) on St Clements Isle. We finished the day at College Reservoir to get the long staying 1st winter drake Scaup on the year list and a bonus Yellow-browed Warbler calling from the woods nearby.

Eastern Black Redstart

The 13th was spent catching up with more good birds in the county. First at Gerrans Bay. Lots of activity offshore including 14 Great Northern Divers, 3 Black-throated Divers, 2 Red-throated Divers and 2 Red-necked Grebes! Calum also had a Slavonian Grebe, which I could get on to! We finished the day at the Gannel Estuary, where after a short while, and a break from all the dog walkers, we picked up the smart 1st winter Ring-billed Gull. Having only seen the return adult in Pembrokeshire before this, it was great to study the differences between the nearby 1st winter Common Gulls and the Ringer. We decided to wait around for a while with hope of Cattle Egrets coming into roost. It was pretty much dark when they arrived, 9(!) flew down river to roost in the trees at Penpol Creek.

Ring-billed Gull (1st winter)

Calum, Liam and I planned to spend the day in Devon on the 15th, but whilst driving up the A30, just passed Bodmin, my back tyre decided burst! So after a quick chat with Dad on the phone, I attempted to fit the spare. After a couple of minutes the spare was on, and the old ripped tyre thrown in the boot. We discussed the possibility of carrying on to Devon, but it was obviously not going to happen. As we were so close, we had to make a stop at Dozmary Pool, so after a quick drive on my new tyre and a terribly bumpy track, we made it and soon picked up the drake Lesser Scaup with a few Tufties. A lifer for Calum! We didn't stop there. We turned around and headed to Marazion, arriving on high tide and our attention turing to divers. We scanned the area and Calum got onto a group of five Divers, four Great Northern and another interesting one. They were very distant, but after about an hour and a half of watching, we were confident we had the PACIFIC DIVER. For comparison there was 2 Black-throated Divers very close offshore. We noted the thin and short billed appearance of the bird, the very rounded head shape and most obvious the total lack of any white on the flanks.Whilst the guys were looking at the divers I enjoyed some pipit chasing on the beach. In with good numbers of Rock Pipits there was a smart Water Pipit and a female/imm Black Redstart. After a stop at Philips Pasties we arrived at Hayle and I found our second Water Pipit of the day. Also here was the Green-winged Teal now fully out of eclipse and looking very smart. I had a walk around Swanpool in evening and enjoyed great views of 2 Yellow-browed Warblers and 2 Siberian

 Chiffchaffs.

Green-winged Teal

Water Pipit

Siberian Chiffchaff

The Cattle Egret influx continued, with Ben and Max finding a group of 10 feeding in fields by Loe Pool. On the 27th Calum and I went to have a look at the gulls at Mousehole. Amazingly, one of the first birds I got on to was a very smart 1st winter Caspian Gull on St Clements Isle! This was only my second Casp. and a great bird to see in Cornwall. 

Cattle Egret (1 of 10)

Caspian Gull (1st winter)

We did actually make it to Devon on the 28th. But overall, it was a rather unsuccessful trip. We started at Dawlish Warren were we dipped the Bonaparte's Gull for the third time but did have nice views of 2 Slavonian Grebes. Next on to Broadsands where we had great view of Cirl Buntings in the car park including 4 very smart males. We dipped the next target bird, the immature drake Surf Scoter off Sharkham Point. Despite finding several rafts of scoter in the bay we were looking right into the sun so looking through the rafts was impossible. The day ended on a high at Thurlestone with the wintering Desert Wheatear still on Leasfoot Beach and showing very well in the evening sun. 

Cirl Buntings

Desert Wheatear

Dramatic scene from Sharkham Point (note the burnt out car to add to the effect)

The good gulling in Cornwall continued into February. We spent the morning of the 4th on my PWC Lizard Point adding a few new things for the year (Golden Plover, Lapwing, Common Gull etc). After this we headed up to Hayle and after a famous Philips Pasty (as always) we started working through the gulls from the pub car park. I got onto an interested gull and immediately saw it was a Ring-billed Gull! I got everyone on it before we raced around to the causeway to have a better view of it. A sub adult bird with olive green legs and bill and dense streaking on the head. Unfortunately, it didn't stay long before flying over the A30 and out of view.

Ring-billed Gull (sub-adult)

On the 6th Ben, Calum and I spent the evening at Devoran. The evening before I found where the egrets were roosting but couldn't get an ID on them as it was near enough dark when I found them. Numbers built after 17.20 with several groups dropping into a small creek on the other side of the river. As the light faded they flew into the trees to roost. We counted a minimum of 30 egrets, 18 Little and 12 Cattle Egrets!

2 Iceland Gulls (juv + 2w) were at Helston Boating Lake on the 7th. They showed very well, particularly the juvenile which was coming to bread. There was some debate over the juvenile due to the appearance of dark centres in the primaries. These are evident in the picture and also in the field. It wasn't confirmed but it's possibly a Kumlien's type.

Iceland Gull (2nd winter)

This photo shows the dark centres to the primaries. Clearly obvious on the closed wing but it didn't stand out when the bird was in flight.

Iceland Gull (juv)

I went home for the weekend on the 9th so it was fitting to call in to  Wern Ddu, Caerphilly, en route, in the hope the Red-flanked Bluetail would show. I arrived at the site shortly after midday and the scale of the task was immediately obvious. The area is one massive conifer forest and somewhere in this huge area there is a certain rare bird. I sceptically trudged up to the location where it has been frequenting and began to wait for the bird to appear. After 45 minutes with no sign I was starting to get bored so I tried walking off the path and a bit further into the woods. I walked in about twenty metres and quickly picked up some movement. It was a bird. It came closer and sat on a tree stump in plain sight. At first I thought it was a robin...But hang on, where's it's red breast?!! It's the Red-flanked Bluetail!! It showed well but was very active and moving very quickly after a short time it disappeared; lost somewhere in the woods. Feeling very pleased with myself I return to the path hoping for one more glimpse before I had leave. I only had to wait half an hour before it appeared again this time right by the path! Again it's showed well for a few minutes before darting off and disappearing. A fantastic bird and well worth the wait!

Red-flanked Bluetail (record shot)

The rest of the weekend spent back in Pembrokeshire allow me to catch up with the juvenile Glaucous Gull at Fishguard Harbour, albeit very distant on the outer breakwater. Also on the Saturday I popped down the Gann to see the smart drake American Wigeon. It took all of three minutes to find the bird, feeding on the lagoon in the company of 30+ Wigeon and a few Pale-bellied Brents. Views were great and more than made up of the frustratingly distant views of the bird in Newquay last autumn. I also manage to have a quick look at Telpyn when I was back home and scored 3 Tealoffshore with the Scoter! Also an impressive 9 Velvet Scoters in a separate group to the main raft. Very unexpected as I've only seen the odd single here before.

American Wigeon

Back in Cornwall where we spent the afternoon at Hayle on the 13th. The number of gulls on the estuary was much larger than usual made up of mostly Lesser Black-backed Gulls (536) with similar numbers of Herring. Calum and I spent a few hours working through them and got an amazing ten gull species on the site. The best was a 1st winter Caspian Gull, the sub adult Ring-billed Gull, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls (ad + 2w) and the juvenile Iceland Gull! 

poor phonescope of Caspian Gull (1st winter)

Iceland Gull (juv)

A day out birding on the 18th started at Penzance. From Jubilee Pool I picked out a drake Eider, a nice year tick. I scanned across the bay a bit further and saw a group of divers 3 Great Northerns and... the Pacific! It was fairly close and was immediately obvious. I got Liam and Calum onto the bird and we started to get some pictures. I only manged one half decent shot...but you can see what it is.

We carried on to Nanjizal where we dipped the Little Bunting but did get a very bleached juvenile Iceland Gull at Polgigga. 

PACIFIC DIVER

Out birding again on the 25th, Calum and I headed to St Austell for the juvenile Glaucous Gull seen the day before...it would be a lifer for Calum! We walked on to the beach and waited around... with only a handful of Herrings around it wasn't looking very promising. We chilled on the beach for an hour or so and enjoyed 2 imm Black Redstarts on the cliff behind us. We were just about to give up and walk back when a few gulls flew over and with them...the Glaucous! Nice to see another as they have been quite scarce in Cornwall this winter. 

The next day I was at Coverack (without Calum) and found another Glaucous Gull feeding around the harbour and much closer than the other two I'd seen this winter. Also a juvenile Iceleand Gull as a bonus.

Glaucous Gull (juv)

Iceland Gull (juv)

The final noteworthy bird of February was also at Coverack a very smart 1st winter Little Gull out in the bay. This was only my second Little Gull, the first being the adult I found at the Gann (Pembs) back in 2015!

1st winter Little Gull (record shot)