Back in Cornwall

I was lucky enough to get the chance to spend another week in Mousehole at the end of March. Had to spend much of it doing work, but there was time for a few trips out. Highlights included first Wheatears of the year, and Manxies and unphotographably close Common Dolphins from a boat trip out of Falmouth. The photos, in no particular order...

Cornwall - one last roundup

I should be working but keep revisiting my Cornwall photos . It's become evident that we didn't actually see a huge range of bird species, which is probably down to not visiting a huge range of habitat types... but among them were many species that I don't often see, and some of the views were incredibly close. It's difficult to tear oneself away from a harbourful of Great Northern Divers, auks and, yes, gulls in order to go and scour a woodland. Anyway, here's the last batch of pics, and I hope you enjoy them. Commentary will be minimal because they are mostly from places already mentioned in one or both of the previous Cornwall posts.

Further trips to Penzance station produced good views of a couple of female-type Black Redstarts.

First-winter Black-headed Gull braving some big waves near Mousehole.

More Newlyn Harbour action. Cormorant, Great Northern Diver about to dive, and a young Herring Gull playing with a mint Aero wrapper. There was actually very little floating rubbish in the harbour so maybe this had some novelty value :)

Little ones, all photographed along the coast road between Mousehole and Penzance. Chaffinch, Long-tailed Tit and a pleasingly chubby House Sparrow.

Daily vigils at my Fulmar watchpoint were successful, some of the time at least. I believe the birds were nesting on cliffs just south of the village.

Gulls, gulls, gulls. Love 'em. I wanted to get pics of a gull against a rough sea and the shot of a first-winter Black-headed came pretty close. Herring Gulls were by far the most abundant gulls around though and presented unlimited photo opportunities.

Mousehole boasts a large Jackdaw population. I found a leucistic one among them.

There are also Feral Pigeons aplenty here. Even I struggle to get too excited about these... but include the first pic because it's one of the sharpest BIF shots of the week, and the second because it makes me laugh.

Birds on the sea. A Guillemot in breeding plumage (as were most of the ones we saw), a couple of Long-tailed Ducks offshore at Marazion, and a twosome of Shags, one doing its fabulous dolphin leap.

Non-birds. The Small Tortie was out and about on the Monday - we also saw one on Saturday, plus a couple of bumblebees. The Grey Seal was lolling around close inshore at Mousehole on our last afternoon.

A trip to Hayle. We checked for Purple Sandpipers at Penzance on the way, and had some lovely views of Redshanks from the hide. Saw two Common Buzzards over the Hayle car park - they didn't come very close so it was nice to see this Sprawk floating over.

On the last day, Rob and I went to the Lizard - we didn't walk far once there because it kept raining very hard, but we did enjoy the glorious views (though in my case didn't take pictures of them - sorry about that). Lizard birds included high-up Peregrine, badly lit Raven, and distant Stonechat.

We also saw Raven at Sennen Cove, but it was the stunning big waves here that caught my attention. Lots of rocky outcrops offshore led to some serious ocean action.

And to finish, a quartet of Rock Pipits, from Mousehole and Newlyn. These brilliant little birds are so confiding and charming - after this trip they may well have soared into my 'Top Ten Birds of All Time' - love 'em.