Weekend Tour in west cornwall
A full weekend guiding in late September for Tony and his party saw us visit varied habitats to see as many species as possible. Saturday was spent at Hayle and Godrevy looking for waders, Wildfowl and Seabirds. The Hayle estuary produced the goods again, with Semipalmated Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank and Great White Egret amongst the highlights! A supporting cast including Turnstone, Greenshank, Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sandpiper, Curlew, Ringed Plover and Knot meant we were well ahead of the game with waders! Elsewhere on the estuary we added Kingfisher, Sandwich Tern, Med Gull and another 25+ to the tally.
On Sunday we visited the valleys on Kenidjack and Porthgwarra in the far west of the county. We were extremely lucky with the weather, calm, sunny day! A small copse produced our first good birds of the day with Redstart and Pied Flycatcher in the same place, followed shortly by a Spotted Flycatcher. The valley was alive with Chiffchaff and one or two Blackcap showed well for the group. Highlight of the morning though were the two Wryneck, one of which showed really well!
The afternoon was spent at Porthgwarra. Sat in the sun having lunch whilst watching close Stonechats, Chiffchaff and large flock of Linnets was very pleasant! It was then up over the moor where we found over 20 Wheatears, some in superb juvenile plumage, all feeding up ready for their journey south. We stopped to admire the view to the Scillies and a single Chough called and showed, albeit distantly, on the cliff top to our right. After a bit searching we were eventually alerted to the Lapland Bunting, that we had been looking for. It showed at incredibly close range as you can see from the images here. Amongst other species here we added Great Spotted Woodpecker, Meadow Pipit, Sparrowhawk, Willow Warbler, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Gannet and a flypast Manx Shearwater.
Total species for the two days amounted to 83! We could have easily had more, but the pace was just right and if we had raced around we may have missed out on some of the great views we had. Tony and the gang were tired but happy with the result and left a great TripAdvisor review which we are always grateful for. Look forward to seeing them again soon.
Two day guiding tour with Paul visiting different habitats and seeing some amazing birds. Bird list was 80+. Tour was very relaxed and met all of our needs. Although there was four of us he found time for the individual. Paul also had a great knowledge of the area which made the tour even more interesting.