West Cornwall Winter Day Tour

Saturday 11th January 2025

Seven guests joined Paul as guide today on our first Winter Bird Tour of 2025. There weather wasn’t great once again! We picked up Corinne at Penzance and started our day in the harbour area with the usual Turnstones and Gulls and a scan over the rocks produced a female Sparrowhawk, no doubt the reason there were no Black Redstarts in the vicinity! A guillemot and a few Shags and Cormorants were the only other birds in the bay so we walked over to Jubilee Rocks to search for Purple Sandpipers. A small group were on the usual rocks and we turned our attention once again to the sea. Five fishing boats were just outside the harbour entrance and had obviously just returned from sea with a catch! There were thousands of bird around them including hundreds of Gannets, Herring, Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls, Kittiwakes, more Guillemots and at least 6 Great Norther Divers. It was a amazing spectacle, with a few Dolphins thrown in for good measure!

It was then on to Newlyn Harbour in the hope of a Black Redstart. Sadly, we dipped again, but had further close views of Great Northern Diver in the harbour and Sarah Jane picked up a Brent Goose flying past St Micheal’s Mount. Back in the van we headed further west but the weather closed in further so after a drink break at Bartinney we made our way back up the A30 to Hell’s Mouth. The weather was still poor at this point but appeared to be clearing a little, so after a few minutes of Fulmar action we drove to Godrevy Head.This was undoubtedly the highlight of the day. The sun came out!!! We parked the van opposite the lighthouse and just on the right hand side in the boggy area off the path was the Water Rail we had see three days early. It sat right out in the open, feeding with the odd Dunnock and Meadow Pipit alongside. It didn’t seem fazed at all by the group of admirers (and other members of the public who wanted to know what we were watching!) and we admired it for a good ten minutes before it sauntered off into the undergrowth.

Up on the headland there were a good number of people watching the seals in Basset’s Cove, so our group joined the throng. The highlight for us however, was not the forty or so smelly seals lounging around on the beach below! It was the stunning male Black Redstart just below us on the rocks. The bird was in almost full breeding plumage and showed incredibly well feeding on the grassy slopes. By now we were getting a bit peckish and after a brief toilet stop at Copperhouse we aimed for the Hayle Estuary where we would have lunch. But not before we had a good scan of the Creek, producing Snipe, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Greenshank, Shelduck and a few Dunlin.

At Hayle the tide was very high meaning there was plenty to look at on Ryan’s Field, including the wintering Spoonbill which was feeding right in front of the hide when we arrived. After lunch we walked the short distance to the main estuary to view from the causeway. Unfortunately, 5 idiots on kayaks had paddled right into the estuary, despite the NO ENTRY signs and had disturbed a lot of the roosting waders and gulls. We still managed a few new birds though, including five Goosander, three of which were stunning cream coloured drakes. By now the weather had closed in again and we headed back west to end our day at Marazion Marsh. Another scan of the sea here produced Velvet and Common Scoter and a female Eider, our 70th species of the day.

Another fantastic winter day tour in West Cornwall with some great birds and a lovely group!

BIRD LIST

Great Northern Diver, Fulmar, Gannet, Shag, Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Spoonbill, Mute Swan, Brent Goose, Canada Goose, Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Eider, Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Goosander, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Water Rail, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, Snipe, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank, Greenshank, Turnstone, Mediterranean Gull, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Kittiwake, Guillemot, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock Robin, Black Redstart, Stonechat, Blackbird, Redwing, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Raven, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet.