TRANSFER TO CAMBORNE HOTEL - VISIT TO CAPE CORNWALL - MARIZION MARSH
WEATHER: clear blue sky moderate breeze. Top temp. 23C
Most of the group met up at 1pm at our hotel in Camborne. Some had travelled by train, including myself and Guy, and others came down by car. We all had seen various species en-route, such as: Little Egrets, Grey Heron, Sparrowhawks, Buzzards, Kestrels, some geese and gulls.
Two more of the group were arriving at 5pm at Hayle so the rest of us went out birding for the afternoon, the weather was just superb. We drove the 20 miles to Cape Cornwall, near St Just, where a Melodious Warbler had been showing on and off for the last couple of days. It seemed a good choice, we arrived at 1:30pm. Several birders were already insitu watching a bracken and bramble area below the NT car park, we joined them.
Cape Cornwall, the area in the foreground was where the Melodious Warbler was supposed to be hanging out
Over the next 90 minutes we saw a few species of birds and dozens of butterflies. Great Tit, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Spotted Flycatcher, Robin, Wood Pigeon were all seen in the area along with Red-billed Chough, Sparrowhawk. Common Buzzard, Northern Gannet, European Shag and lots of Barn Swallows and House Martins. We never had a sniff of the Melodious Warbler. We saw hundreds of Large White Butterflies, fewer Small Whites, lots of Red Admirals and at least three Small Coppers. Several Hawker sp. Dragonflies were chasing flying insects in the area,
We left at 3:30pm after consuming a delicous ice-cream, we headed for Marizion Marsh arriving after a 20 minute drive. The lake near the bridge held Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe, a single Teal, a pair of Mute Swans and not a lot else. The bramble fields in front of the marsh was quite devoid of birds but eventually we did pick out a Northern Wheatear, a single Whinchat, several Stonechats and a few Goldfinches.
St Michael's Mount at Marizion
Scanning the reedbeds and the small pools we added more Teal, some Mallards, Grey Herons, Moorhens and we picked out 3 Common Snipe. Scanning the beach area and the sea out to St Michael's Mount we saw a bunch of waders on the shoreline, mainly Common Ringed Plovers and Dunlins with Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls on ther water.
Dunlin and Common Ringed Plovers
Over the marsh we watched hundreds of Barn Swallows and House Martins preparing for the their roost in the reedbeds, we also saw quite a few Mediterranean Gulls in the sky and we had better views of the Whinchat.
a distant Whinchat record shot
Back at the bridge, where we parked the bus, we scanned the pool again and found a Water Rail feeding along the reed fringes, a species Pauline most wanted to see. We left just around 5:20pm and drove to Hayle Railway Station where we collected our last two group members, Debbie and Brenda. We drove back to Camborne to the hotel, checking in was quite a fiasco, but we eventually got it sorted. Dinner was taken at 8pm after calling the birdlog.