So we struggled to get up and out early today, not helped by having to stop at the Wendron Pancake Barn for Breakfast!! The Gluten Free Bacon, Blueberry and Maple Syrup stack was awesome!!!! Margie had the same in the Gluten version and declared it equally fine!!!
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| Margie enjoyed this sign in the toilet!! |
We were also delayed by having to stop at Mountain warehouse to buy Margie some new boots!! The soggy foot cured!!!
So we didn't arrive at Porthgwarra until lunchtime!! This is a legendary sea-watching spot so I had to lug my scope up the cliff to have a crack at it! Luckily there was another Birder present, who knew what he was looking at! Sadly I had missed a Fea's Type Petrel by half an hour😢Damn those delicious pancakes and Margie's inability to make a decision about new boots!!! The good news however was that there was quite a lot of Shearwater Action, he also reported several Storm Petrels and a couple of Skuas going through, so I settled over the scope! It was good fun and once I got my eye in I was able to spot the things the other guy called, yes I forgot to ask his name!! There were hundreds of Manx Shearwaters, but I also got 5 Great Shearwaters, 2 Cory's Shearwaters and a Sooty Shearwater, sadly everything was very distant and pictures were annoyingly difficult especially when we had a distant megaflock of Manxies feeding, at least 500 birds probably many more, fantastic sight through the scope but just couldn't get useable pics!! I was very grateful to the other birder, he was very knowledgeable, with the distances involved and my low level of experience with the species going through, I would have struggled to ID most of the birds. But gradually I was able to pick out the various different flight patterns and the plumage differences an educational session!!
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| Me In Sea-watching Mode |
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| Shag on the rocks! |
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| Gannets, these went through a lot closer than the Shearwaters |
Margie had a wander, she just hasn't got the dedication or the scope for sea-watching!
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| Someone thinks, not saying who, that a rock in this picture looks like Homer Simpson |
Back to the Gannets, you know it makes sense!!
With the stream of Manxies drying up and the other Birder leaving, we decided to have a wander down to the beach, this turned into great fun with loads of birds in the jumble of rocks below the cliffs, Spotted Flycatchers, Grey wagtails, Rock Pipits and White and Pied Wagtails present, was hoping for something rarer but sadly couldn't find anything mega!!
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| Spotted Flycatcher, there were at least two present hard to keep track of em as they flitted about the rock |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Grey Wagtail |
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| Robin |
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| Think this is a White Wagtail |
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| White Wagtail |
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| Some Hunk Margie took a fancy too! |
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| House Sparrow, there were loads in the bushes |
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| Rabbit |
We had to leave, to take Margie's boots back due to a malfunction!! Having successfully exchanged them we decided to finish the day at Marazion! Now both my regular readers will remember the trauma I suffered on our previous holiday a couple of years ago when I scoured the tide line on the beach for the elusive Citrine Wagtail, without success, still hurts to think about it TBH😱😢😂
An enjoyable walk along the beach produced a Wheatear, more Wagtails, a couple of Knot, Ringed Plover, Turnstones, Dunlin and Sanderling, we also visited the Marsh as we wondered around, I noticed a small group pointing their long lenses into the reeds, we approached careful and were rewarded with great views of a Glossy Ibis!! A Bonus for sure!!
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| Turnstone |
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| Ringed Plover |
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| Knot |
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| Sanderling |
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| Often flushed by dogs and people who largely seemed oblivious to the birds |
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| Linnet on the Marsh |
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| Glossy Ibis, 81 had been reported on the coast a couple of days previous but we were happy with the one! |
Final bird of the day was a Great Black-backed Gull in the car park.
A very enjoyable day, with some very good birds seen!! The Pancakes will live long in the memory!!!
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