CORMORANT (PREHISTORIC OR WHAT).

Things are beginning to improve slowly,but have not done much birding just a couple of trips to Stithians over the weekend looking for the Pectoral  Sandpiper without any luck. Best I can offer for this post is a couple of images of the nearest thing we can get to a prehistoric bird the Cormorant. I wonder if anyone has a bird or animal in their part of the world which could be called Prehistoric?

CORMORANT.

CORMORANT.

" MORFARCH "

Hi Everyone sorry for the lack of posts over the last two weeks, as you know we have been on holiday and for the last three days have not been feeling to great with a sore throat, headaches and no energy. (Guess the flu season is on its way). So I am going to keep this fairly short, last Sat and Sunday was spent catching up, Monday had the beginnings of a sore throat, Monday evening my Brother-in-Law David who lives in Falmouth rang to say that on Tuesday he was taking his yacht "MORFARCH " out for a days sailing Northward along the South Coast from Falmouth,and would I like to Join him. As you can imagine feeling rough or no I jumped at the idea. We were also joined by his Nephew Alan and we set of from Falmouth at 10 am and arrived back just after six in the evening. So below is a selection of images from the day. I will only title a few and leave the rest for you to enjoy. So thanks Dave it was a great day and we all enjoyed it very much.

CASTING OFF.

PART OF FALMOUTH WATERFRONT.

HEADING OUT.

PENDENNIS POINT.

ON THE RIGHT DAVID AND ALAN ON THE LEFT.

A BEAUTIFUL OLD WOODEN SAILER.

HEADING NORTH.

ALONG THE COAST.

SUN, SEA, AND SKY.

LIFE AT 45 DEGREES.

HEADING HOME.

ST ANTHONY LIGHT.

MORFARCH 36 FT TAKING A WELL EARNED REST.



BACK IN THE LAND OF PASTIES AND CREAM

Hi Everyone
                   Just to say sorry for the lack of posts this last week as my wife and I have been in Kent for a weeks holiday, and very enjoyable it was to.


So thanks very much for all your comments and I will get around to catching up on all your blogs over the next few days,and try to get a few images on.

GODREVY 11/09/2010

Just managed a hour and a half at  St Gothian Sands this morning as we were sitting the Grandchildren, not very much activity but loads of dog walkers, so what with avoiding dogfights and stepping in the proverbial, I did not stick around to long.

Still I managed to get a few shots of ordinary stuff and have included these from the visit. So its looking forward to tomorrow, weather is supposed to be good and four of us are going down west to see what we can turn up.

LINNET.

WHEATEAR.

BLACK-HEADED- GULL.

WHEATEAR.

CAUGHT NAPPING.

I got out early yesterday morning and drove down to Marazion as I fancied a Autumn Wader shoot, and wanted to arrive before others started to use the beach and disturb everything. Glad to say that when I arrived the beach was empty although there were loads of overnight camper vans around. So started walking along the beach until I found a large group of waders most of which were still asleep. So crept quietly until I was quite close and started to get off some shots, a few of which I have posted below.

RINGED PLOVER.

DUNLIN & RINGED PLOVER.

TURNSTONE.

SANDERLING

DUNLIN.

SANDERLING & RINGED PLOVER.

SANDERLING

I SUPPOSE I HAD BETTER KEEP AN EYE OUT IN CASE THERE IS ANYTHING NASTY UP THERE 

AND NOW EVERY ONES AWAKE.

As well as all the sleepy heads there were a few others that were up and about and enjoying the early morning sunshine and any tasty morsel they could find.

WHEATEAR.

RINGED PLOVER  (CAN'T BEAT A GOOD STRETCH IN THE MORNING)

TURNSTONE (LOOKS LIKE A FEW TASTY MORSELS IN HERE)

RINGED PLOVER (THINK I'LL HAVE A LATE BREAKFAST)

DUNLIN (IF ITS GONNA ITCH YOU GOTTA SCRATCH)

Please enlarge this for the best view.

TURNSTONE (I'VE GOT MY BEST SUIT ON)

PIED WAGTAIL  (I THINK THIS IS MY BEST SIDE)

WHEATEAR ( OH JUST LEAVE ME IN PEACE )

It was then a quick stop at Hayle Eatuary on the way home where I took this Oystercatcher and over to Ryans Field where I found the Bar-Tailed-Godwit.

OYSTERCATCHER.

BAR-TAILED-GODWIT.

CITRINE & PIED WAGTAIL

Birding can be a funny old Lark, one day you can go out with low expectations and have a real Purple Patch, another day you can go when plenty of good things are reported and see very little. which is just what happened on Saturday.

I got a text from Ashley mid Sat afternoon to say that in the Nanquidno area near Lands End there was a Citrine Wagtail, 4 Ortolan Buntings, a Wryneck and a possible Icterine Warbler.

So I set off and had a real slow drive down through very heavy traffic (I think every tractor in West Cornwall was on the roads) and arrived at 1510 hrs. Met up with another local birder Steve from Newquay and we set off for the area between Gurland & Tregiffian farms. On arriving at the first point met another chap who was looking over the ploughed field for the Ortolan's, he said they had been flushed by a Sparrowhawk twenty minutes earlier. So we went the short distance to the small pool where the Citrine Wagtail was seen only to be told it had been flushed earlier by an Aircraft taking off from the nearby St Just Airfield.

So the next hour was spent going between the two sites, plenty of Yellow - Pied and white Wagtails, and Steve found a Spotted Flycatcher with his scope. So Spot Fly and Yellow Wag were two year ticks, finally the Citrine Wag turned up at the pool for a short stay. I just managed to get a couple of record shots, shortly after this decided to call it a day and headed home, I suppose 1 out of four and three year ticks (Yes Steve did not realize but I had a Citrine at Marazion in 2004 so its just a tick) was not so bad.

Below are a couple of record shots of the Citrine and a White Wagtail.

CITRINE WAGTAIL.

CITRINE WAGTAIL.

WHITE WAGTAIL.

WHITE WAGTAIL.

After this Sunday turned out to be very wet and now Monday morning its very heavy rain and the forecast is for not much improvement all week, so hope some of these birds stick around.

MEVAGISSEY

This post was originally intended for the beginning of the week but a couple of others got in the way.
Last Monday my wife Lorraine and I spent a couple of hours in the fishing port of Mevagissey in the North East of the County, Mevagissey is about 7 miles East of the town of St Austell and as well as being a busy fishing port is also a popular tourist destination. The first two images were taken just outside the village of Pentewan Sands and show part of St Austell Bay and the beach camp site, the rest are from Mevagissey.

Sunny if you read this I hope it brings back some memories.

FERRY TO FOWEY.