TRANSFER FROM SOMERSET TO CORNWALL - HAYLE ESTUARY - JUBILEE POOL IN PENZANCE -MOUSEHOLE AND NEWLYN HARBOURS - CAPE CORNWALL - RETURN TO HAYLES ESTUARY - BOOTED EAGLE ROOST SITE NEAR MARIZION
WEATHER: A very wet and windy start, but by 9am it was clear skies and lots of sunshine. Top temp 12C with a moderate breeze.
Guy picked me up at 6am in the rain, he drove us all the way to Hayle in Cornwall without stopping, not even for red lights!! Ha! The rain was persistent until we drove past Bodmin Moor, from then we had cloudless periods and lots of sunshine.
Through the windscreen near Redruth
We had four primary target species for this trip: BOOTED EAGLE was the main motivator for our visit, a juvenile pale morph bird had been seen on a daily basis for nearly two months in the area around Marizion, until two days ago (Friday) when it was last seen, doh! The other target birds in Cornwall included an adult Iceland Gull, an adult Ring-billed Gull and a Pacific Diver, it would be quite a reasonable haul if we get them all, read on and see how we got on.
We drove straight to Lelant Saltings Station and scanned the Hayle Estuary from the vantage point of the platform, the tide was low but rising, all the roosting gulls were quite a distance away and we were looking into the sun. We clocked quite a few species from there: Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Common Gulls, Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls but not the two species were after the most.
A view of the Hayle Estuary from the platform of the Lelant Saltings Station
Waders and other species seen included; Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Goosander (6), Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal, Little Egret and lots of Crows.
Curlew, Redshank and Dunlin
We decided to move further down the estuary to get nearer to the gulls roosts, so we drove to the other Railway Station called Lelant? From there we had much better views of the Common Gull flock and better views of the larger gulls. Despite viewing from this new position we failed to find the Ring-billed Gull and it took quite a while to find the Iceland Gull (which, in my opion was the better of the two rare gulls anyway).
the Iceland Gull was a long way off - you can just make it out in the centre of this picture
We gave up around 10:45 and drove into Hayle to visit the large supermarket where we bought coffee and ate some early lunch. Driving past Ryan's Field we spotted a Eurasian Spoonbill in ther main channel.
Our next target was the wintering-colony of Purple Sandpipers at the outdoor swimming pool along the esplanade in Penzance. The 'Jubilee Pool' has a good area of rocky terrain around it, which becomes exposed during low tide periods. The tide was coming in but some of the rocks were still visible and they were covered in small wading birds. We quickly noted: Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Sanderling (50-70) and our target bird the Purple Sandpiper. We counted 19 of the Purps, but we knew that there a lot more in the vicinity of the pool, a count of 74 was recorded later today.
some of the 70+ Sanderlings on the rocks below Jubilee Pool
Purple Sandpipers flying in to join the Sanderlings
Purple Sandpiper with Sanderling
Ringed Plover with Sanderlings and Purple Sandpiper
From Penzance we made the short journey to Newlyn and the coastal area just outside of Mousehole. The sea was quite rough with large rolling waves and lots of surf, but we sacnned the water and found a few species.
Cormorants and Shags abound, lots of Guillemots swan about, we saw at least three Great Northern Divers and then we found what could possibly have been the PACIFIC DIVER. However, the bird was too far out to clinch the ID, it looked like a small Black-thorated Diver without the white patch on the flank, but we couldn't see facial detail or the chin strap which would have the identifier. Several Grey Seal were loafing on the rock islands and lots of Gannets were feeding in the bay.
looking across from Newlyn to St Michael's Mount at Marizion
From Mousehole we drive the 9 miles across to St Just and then down a narrow lane to Cape Cornwall, our mission was to see some Red-billed Choughs. We saw the choughs as we drove down the lane, from the car park we counted at least six of them, they were noisy but always distant. Scanning the rough sea we saw a large number of Gannets, also flocks of 'auks' mostly Guillemots but also Razorbills. Both Fulmar and Kittiwake were also seen and one or two Common Dolphins broke the surface now and again.
Cape Cornwall
Job done at Cape Cornwall we drove back to Hayle for a second shot at seeing the Ring-billed Gull. Alas, although the tide had pushes the gulls much nearer to the Lelant Saltings Staion, there was far fewer of them. In fact, we only counted six Common Gulls, the Ring-billed would have been loitering with them had it been there.We added Dunlin to the wader list and saw our first Grey Heron and Little Egret of the trip.
Red-billed Chough at Cape Cornwall
Even though we had very little chance of seeing the BOOTED EAGLE we still made an effort to do so! The roost site was laong the very busy Marizion to Helston Road, we ad to park in a lay-by and walk quite a distance along the verge of the road with fast moving traffic zooming past us.
We watch the so called roost site of the Eagle, a clump of mature pines, we watched for an hour from 4pm - 5pm. We saw nothing, not asingle bird of prey. Until, just before we left a juvenile male Marsh Harrier drifted towards the pines, our earts jumped, we thought that we had the Eagle, but alas it was not. Then a Buzzard flew over the pines, but it was just a Buzzard.
Our afternoon of diappointment continued into the evening because we had hoped to go to dinner at one of favourite pubs. But it was closed on Mondays during the winter. We then drove into Hayle to Sanders Fish and chip shop, the restaurant was full we could sit in!! Soi we ended up buying our dinner and sitting in the car to eat it. What a way to end the show!