A Few Days in Cornwall

Last week we took advantage of a Groupon offer and had 4 nights down in Cornwall in Harlyn Bay just outside Padstow. It's six years since we were down that neck of the woods, so it was nice to visit some of favourite places and walks.

We started off with a walk around Pentire Head and the Rumps, which we had done a two or three times in the past and have our favourite coffee stop at the Rumps where we sit and watch. What we had forgotten is that to get there from the NT Lead Mines Car Park is quite up and down and that we are six years older, but we managed it and completed the circular walk back via Polzeath.

Of course along the way there were some birds! Unfortunately for some inexplicable reason I had left the camera in our hotel room! What a plonker! Only realised just before we got to the car park and didn't want to turn back, so just have to make do with a list of what we saw and a scenic snapshot taken on my phone.

The birds..... 

Blackbird, Blackcap, Buzzard, Cormorant, Fulmar, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Oystercatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Rock Dove, Rock Pipit, Rook, Shag, Skylark, Swallow, Twite, Wheatear, Willow Warbler, Wood Pigeon and Wren.

The view....

So next day I did remember my camera and we went for a walk from Harlyn Bay along the coast towards Padstow, a nice flat walk, with quite a few birds about..

Oystercatchers,

 Jackdaw,

 Skylark singing,

 Nice views,

 Fulmar on approach!

 Bee, sorry don't know what sort,

 and Rook

In addition Pipits, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Stonechat were about. We then went into Padstow for an obligatory Cornish Pastie, but the weather was now turning nasty, so other plans were shelved and we did some coastal driving for what scenery we could see through the rain!

Last day took us to Trevose Head for a walk down to Booby Bay and back again  fantastic scenery and more birds too...

Our destination ahead,

 and on the way, A Skylark or two,

 and where we started from,

 Linnet,

Beetle.... any offers for what species?

 Herring Gull,

 Meadow Pipit,

 Crazy Surfers

and a look back to where we had been.

After this we went to the National Trust at Lanhydrock for another Cornish staple, a cream tea and it was very nice thank you! With only a Buzzard (with a dodgy feather) troubling the camera.

Cornwall, The North Coast

We have just had a week staying in our Niece's cottage near Wadebridge, apart from the Bank Holiday Monday when then weather was appalling, we had a really sunny week, so took the opportunity to go for lots of walks. So not a birding specific break, but just picked up what we could whilst doing various coastal walks.

Our first venture out on the Sunday was around:
The Rumps and down to Polzeath
This is one of our favourite walks and we had really been looking forward to it as the views are simply stunning. But what about birds you might ask, well...
Picked up a rock pipit:

Our first Skylark of the year (but first of many for the week):

An obliging Kestrel:

and a very obliging Buzzard:

I took so many photos of him it is difficult to pick one to put in the blog, so I have gone with this one, but will add some more to the gallery later.
Apart from the above, we also saw our first Fulmars of the year, but just couldn't get a photo. Never mind all comes to he who waits. So what else; Stonechat, Cormorant, Oystercatchers, Great Black Backed Gulls, Linnet, Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Jackdaw and other corvids, but as we walked inland up from Polzeath back to the NT Car Park, a Marsh Harrier came out of nowhere and disappeared as quickly.

As I said Monday was a wash out! Tuesday I was working, 'the wonders of broadband' but we did get out later and had a walk around:
Trevose Head and Booby Bay
The number of Skylarks here was amazing, the singing was everywhere, just brilliant:

So other highlights, 2 Fulmar nesting on the cliffs, more Pipits, our only Wheatear of the week:

A Merlin, but not the feathered kind!

A very nice Jackdaw:

Again lots of Stonechat (but all too far for a decent shot), a nice mixed bunch of Waders though (Sanderling and Dunlin):

A solitary Gannet:

A a pair of Linnet:

But the real highlight was a pair of nesting Kestrel, I'm not going to say where exactly, coming across this was real fluke: The male is sitting in the sun not far from the female who's tucked away in the shade:

A great end to a great walk!

So another working day, and instead of a walk we visited the Public Hide at the:
Walmsley Sanctuary (CBWS) and Amble Marshes:
The hide didn't produce much but there were a couple of highlights, a Little Egret and a pair of Jackdaw busily going to and fro to a nest box just to the left of the hide, so we had a coffee and waited but only Coot, Moorhen, Mallard and a number of Heron's troubled the scorekeeper.
We then wandered down to the estuary, picking up a couple of Buzzard, a Marsh Harrier, Shelduck, Mute Swan and more Little Egret:

Then after a little drive we picked up our first Cream Tea of the year!! with some Newts in the Tea Room garden.
Right! Now I'm on holiday so no work to get in the way. Today we decided to walk the:
Camel Trail from Egloshayle to Padstow
and see what we could find along the way:

 There were plenty of Little Egrets along the way, we must have seen a good dozen.

Some Shelduck

 There were 4 or 5 Curlew about and this Whimbrel all on his own

An Orange Tip

and a Red Legged Partridge was a lucky find.
So on to our final day, this time off to:
Bedruthen Steps
Again Skylarks were in abundance as were Pipits and Stonechats, I finally managed to get a half decent photo:

Fulmars were about as well:

So a very productive non-birding week! 47 Species in all:

Blackbird  ("Turdus merula")

Buzzard  ("Buteo buteo")

Carrion Crow  ("Corvus corone")

Chaffinch  ("Fringilla coelebs")

Collared Dove  ("Streptopelia decaocto")

Coot  ("Fulica atra")

Cormorant  ("Phalacrocorax carbo")

Curlew  ("Numenius arquata")

Dunlin  ("Calidris alpina")

Dunnock  ("Prunella modularis")

Fulmar  ("Fulmarus glacialis")

Gannet  ("Morus bassanus")

Goldfinch  ("Carduelis carduelis")

Great Black-backed Gull  ("Larus marinus")

Grey Heron  ("Ardea cinerea")

Guillemot  ("Uria aalge")

Herring Gull  ("Larus argentatus")

House Martin  ("Delichon urbicum")

House Sparrow  ("Passer domesticus")

Jackdaw  ("Corvus monedula")

Kestrel  ("Falco tinnunculus")

Kittiwake  ("Rissa tridactyla")

Linnet  ("Carduelis cannabina")

Little Egret  ("Egretta garzetta")

Magpie  ("Pica pica")

Mallard  ("Anas platyrhynchos")

Marsh Harrier  ("Circus aeruginosus")

Meadow Pipit  ("Anthus pratensis")

Moorhen  ("Gallinula chloropus")

Mute Swan  ("Cygnus olor")

Oystercatcher  ("Haematopus ostralegus")

Pied Wagtail  ("Motacilla alba")

Red-legged Partridge  ("Alectoris rufa")

Reed Warbler  ("Acrocephalus scirpaceus")

Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon  ("Columba livia")

Rock Pipit  ("Anthus petrosus")

Rook  ("Corvus frugilegus")

Sand Martin  ("Riparia riparia")

Sanderling  ("Calidris alba")

Shelduck  ("Tadorna tadorna")

Skylark  ("Alauda arvensis")

Stonechat  ("Saxicola torquatus")

Swallow  ("Hirundo rustica")

Swift  ("Apus apus")

Whimbrel  ("Numenius phaeopus")

Willow Warbler  ("Phylloscopus trochilus")

Woodpigeon  ("Columba palumbus")