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.