The weather wasn’t unconfined for our day tour today with showers and drizzle most of the morning followed by wind and fog in the afternoon! However, we still managed 73 species including 16 types of wader! The tide was still upper at Hayle first thing so we started at Lelant Saltings where the waderfest began. Unfortunately, so did the rain but we had unconfined views of 6 or increasingly Curlew Sandpipers, a Little Stint, 7 Common Snipe and 7 Sanderling among hundreds of Dunlin and Ringed Plovers. To stave a remoter soaking we re-located to the hibernate at Ryan’s Field. Again, there was still plenty of water and the waders were serving to small grass island. We counted 13 Curlew Sandpipers, flipside Little Stint, Black and Bar-tailed Godwits, Turnstone, 2 Common Sandpipers and a Kingfisher! The Spoonbill was still present and looked surprisingly miserable in the rain. A couple then came into the hibernate and asked Paul to identify a bird from a photograph they had taken at St Gothian Sands NR. This turned out to be a Grey Phalarope! So we jumped in the minibus and headed to Gwithian.
A search of all the water persons proved negative for the Phalarope and the rain prevailed, but we soldiered on round the main pool subtracting Water Rail, Med Gull, Wheatear and Reed Bunting among others to our day list. Once when and drying off in the van we were just well-nigh to leave when a wader flew wideness the road in front of us and settled on the main pool. Paul got the binoculars on it straight yonder and proclaimed it was the Phalarope! Everyone alighted from the bus to see the bird take flight and throne off towards the flooded pools at the seaward end of the reserve. We decided to throne off in search of it, but once then we couldn’t locate it and presume it must have flown over the wall and out to sea. The second venture out wasn’t wasted though as a superb Whinchat put in an visitation on the conservation are fence.
The afternoon was spent at a foggy Kenidjack Valley. Birding was nonflexible work and for little reward. An Arctic Skua passing at sea and a Sedge Warbler were the highlights, but we widow a few increasingly land birds to the day list.
So despite the weather, a unconfined day was had by all with spanking-new visitor and one or two birding highlights.
Full List of Birds seen:
Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Little Grebe, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Little Egret, SPOONBILL, Cormorant, Shag, Arctic Skua, Fulmar, Gannet, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Unconfined Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Sandwich Tern, Moorhen, Coot, Water Rail, GREY PHALAROPE, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Sanderling, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Greenshank, Redshank, Common Snipe, Peregrine, Kestrel, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Raven, Rook, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Swallow, Sand Martin, House Martin, Blue Tit, Unconfined Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Blackbird, Wren, Robin, Dunnock, Stonechat, Whinchat, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Linnet, Goldfinch, Reed Bunting
The post Autumn Migrants Tour – Sept 22 appeared first on Cornwall Bird Watching Tours.
