COT VALLEY - SENNEN COVE - PORTHGWARRA
WEATHER: misty and wet for most of the day with some light showers, poor visibility. Top temp 14C
It was another day of poor weather, thick cloud-mist at ground level hampered our viewing and driving most of the time. It cleared around midday and we finally got some birding done.
Despite the inclement weather conditions we actually saw some excellent species but our day-list was very poor. We started in the Cot Valley, and after taking a wrong turn twice, in thick fog, we finally got down to the birding area near the bottom of the valley. The mist cleared as we neared the cliffs at the beach and we could see a lot of birds out at sea.
Once we had parked the bus we walked slowly down the valley checking every tree and bush for bird movement, we saw absolutely nothing for the first 20-30 mintes except for fly-over Jackdaws and Wood Pigeons. Half-way down we bumped into a small flock in the sycamore trees and our first passerine sighting was of a Firecrest! We all got reasonable views of it and of a couple of Long-tailed Tits and a Chiffchaff.
At the beach we scoped out to sea which was covered in birds, a huge feeding flock of Gulls, Kittiwakes and Gannets formed a large raft just offshore. The Gannets were shallow-diving, a mass of fish must have been near the surface. We saw found two Skuas attacking the birds, one each of Great Skua and Arctic Skua were seen. A couple of Manx Shearwaters dashed by too. Shags and Cormorants joined the masses and the larger Great Black-backed Gulls sat on the rocks above them all.
Birds around the cliffs and the cobble-stone beach were: Rock Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Jackdaw, a pair of Ravens but no Chough.
We left when a shower of rain came down, we drove to Sennen Cove for a warm cuppa, hot chocolate was the drink of the day. Along the beach we saw a couple of Grey Seals and also a couple of Brown Rats! A roosting flock of Gulls sat on the beach, including many Mediterranean Gulls, Black-headed and Herring Gulls. We watched both Grey and Pied Wagtails on the rocks and Rock Pipits flitted about chasing each other for fun.
News came through of a Red-breasted Flycatcher at Porthgwarra and as that was our next destination we set off pronto arriving at the car park some 20 minutes later. A stop by a farm produced sightings of Barn Swallows, Starlings and a flock of House Sparrows.
one of three Spotted Flycatchers seen in the Doctor's Garden at Porthgwarra
We ate our lunch in the picnic area at Porthgwarra before setting off up the track towards the 'Hidden Valley' where the flycatcher was seen earlier. We found 3 Spotted Flycatchers in the 'Doctor's' garden and we bumped into a couple of birders that we knew, they told us that the RB flycatcher was now much nearer, it had been seen around the back of the Doctor's garden!
We walked further up the valley and turned off to gain views of the bushes behind the Doctor's House, we saw a huge flock of Linnets with some Goldfinches and we found a Painted Ldy Butterfly and a Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly.
Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly
looking down the valley towards the ting cove at Porthgwarra, the bushes on the right was where we saw our targets bird
A birder signalled to us to go over, across a field he was watching the flycather down there. We positioned ourselves inside a small copse of mixed trees and waited for the bird to appear. It didn't for quite a while, but we did find a Yellow-browed Warbler!! It was Debbie who spotted it first! This bird showed very well, even the slowest of the group had good views of it. We also saw a couple more Chiffchaffs before the Red-breasted Flycatcher came into view. Over the next 30 minutes the flycatcher flitted about high up in sycamore trees, a couple of us saw it perched and most of the others only got fleeting glimpses of it. It was calling and even busrt into song a couple times!!
not the bird we saw today!!! But the same species! It is a Red-breasted Flycatcher. This picture was taken by me on Lesvos back in April. Our bird today was far too elusive to picture, and lacked any red colour.
At 4pm we left the area and heading back to Hayle, we intended to bird along the estuary but the weather changed our minds, we decided to finish ealry and arived back at the hotel around 5pm. Dinner was taken in the fish restaurant in Hayle.