May Bird Guiding Day 5

Friday 15th May saw Steve and I at Land’s end for a late afternoon walkabout mainly in the hope of a Golden Oriole. After parking at the south end of the car park we walked through the sallows, but to no avail. Whitethroat, Wren and Stonechat were evident but no Orioles. Further across the moor I could see a few birders looking intently at a small area of sallows, so thinking they may have an oriole we headed in that direction. “Seen anything?” Says I. “Not yet”, came the reply, “but the Sardinian Warbler was seen about 10 minutes ago!”. I’d seen a text message earlier to say that a Sardinian Warbler had been see in the morning but presumed it was only seen then and not again! So we gave it 40 minutes but no sign of the bird, so we headed back to the car for a coffee. Big mistake. We returned only to be told it had shown itself 5 minutes after we left AND a Golden Oriole had flown over!! Anyway, another 40 minutes or so past before Steve finally picked the bird up. It continued to show well but briefly for the next half an hour allowing for a few ‘record’ shots as the light wasn’t particularly good.

After spending a bit more time with it we decided to wander up to Treeve Common to look for the Woodchat Shrike which had been reported the previous day. No look with that, but as the light faded a superb Peregrine flew over towards the coast, another new bird for Steve. So not a brilliant day as far as number are concerned with only 2 new birds added, but the Sardinian was a UK tick for me and after yesterdays travels it was nice to role back the pace a bit and take things easy!

Birds seen at Land’s End were: SARDINIAN WARBLER, Swift, Swallow, Raven, Jackdaw, Goldfinch, Herring Gull, Linnet, Whitethroat, Stonechat, Peregrine, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Magpie, Willow Warbler.