Private Tour for Two - Cornwall Bird Watching Tours

Godrevy and St Gothian Sands to start us off…..

The weather was a bit unkind to us for our full day tour on 19th January with Mike and Denny. We managed to avoid the rain first thing at Godrevy and Gwithian but sadly no Choughs again on the headland. We did however, find a smart Black Redstart whilst watching the Grey Seal colony and have close views of Skylark, Stonechat, Rock Pipit and a fly-by pair of Ravens. The Snow Bunting showed well at St Gothian Sands and before heading west we had totaled 45 species.

Newlyn Harbour produces the goods!…..

Next Stop was the Short-eared Owl site. Unfortunately the rain had set in and all we could muster was a single Kestrel! So on to Newlyn Harbour, where two very kind fishermen allowed us access to the floating moorings. This in turn allowed us extremely close views of the Red-throated Diver that had been present for a few days and also the juvenile Glaucous Gull hauled up on the beach. Our only Kingfisher of the day shot past towards the lifeboat, but we couldn’t relocate it. A quick stop off at Jubilee Pool produced the hoped for Purple Sandpipers.

Gulls and Waders add to the list at Hayle….

After lunch at Marazion, we headed back towards Hayle and the estuary. High Tide was later in the evening, but was on the turn as we arrived at Copperhouse Creek. A short walk along King George IV memorial walk added a few waders to the day list including Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Greenshank and Dunlin. Ryans Field was unproductive so we headed for the old Lelant Station platform. Six Goosander, including four smart males, were in the main channel and gave great views close inshore, gulls included good numbers of Common and Mediterranean again, showing well. We then moved on to the platform at Lelant Saltings where we viewed the Ring-billed Gull at a distance.

By this time it was getting cold and the light wasn’t great so we decided to call it a day and retire somewhere warm. Despite the lack of Owls and Choughs, we had a great day recording 73 species in all.