Into the Valleys,13-14th 2019

Our main pursuit when coming to Cornwall during October, other than twitching rare birds, is to "work" the valleys and hopefully find a rare bird of our own. Unfortunately fortune hasn't smiled on us yet and we've never found a "mega" or even a "rare" and so far have had to settle for just a few self found "scarce" birds that everybody else finds as well, such as Yellow-browed Warblers and a Wryneck. But every year on almost every day of our holidays we walk at least one of the famous Cornish valleys in search of that elusive mega. My dream is to find a Black & White Warbler or a Northern Parula, both North American species, but in truth I'd take anything!

So it was, on yet another rainy morning, that we set out to explore our favourite, the Kenidjack Valley just north of St Just. In years past we stayed in a fabulous cottage right at the top of Kenidjack and could walk straight out the door to access it. Sadly that cottage is no longer available so now we park outside of it instead. We have spent countless hours both exploring the Kenidjack and standing patiently next to some bushes, especially the ones at the Donkey Paddocks, waiting for a bird to appear. From near those bushes you can also access the coast path that runs through "Poldark" country towards Botallack and where we found our Wryneck, very distinctive since it was lacking a tail, a few years back. This morning though as well as raining it was also very windy so we wouldn't be retracing our steps and venturing up there.

It turned out to be a disappointing couple of hours with very little showing in the inclement conditions, the best birds we found were a pair of Blackcaps, a couple of Goldcrests and two Chiffchaffs. Not really what we hoping for at all.

After grabbing a coffee in St Just's new and instantly forgettable cafe, except for the noise, (the new fad of "industrial" type of interior decor doesn't suit us at all) we headed back to Nanquidno thinking we may as well have another look, if still present, at the Red-breasted Flycatcher and have a wander down the valley. Amazingly the weather had cleared and we were greeted with warm sunshine!

Heading northwards from the parking area, Nanquidno runs south to north as opposed to other valley on the west coast which all run east to west to reach the sea, we reached the few cottages that sit lower down the lane. A Grey Wagtail and a Robin were attacking their own reflections in one of the windows and judging by the mess on the glass had been doing so for some time. On our approach they became shy and the Grey Wagtail decided to go fly catching on the house roof where it showed off its natural talent by snaring fly after fly with ease despite the breezy conditions.

Grey Wagtail

A Grey Heron lazily flew overhead, it was nice to be able to take a few photos of bird against a blue sky for a change! Further down the valley there were birds but little to get too excited about apart from a few Goldcrests.

Grey Heron

We returned to pay homage to the Red-breasted Flycatcher which I found almost instantly once again. Another two birders present couldn't lock onto the bird despite my directions and I heard them mutter to each other as we walked away, "he was making it up, there's no RB Fly, it's gone, tut, tut.....". Good job I posted a photo that I'd just taken on Twitter then once I'd driven out of the valley! Seems I'm not the only birdwatcher that possesses an unhealthy level of cynicism!

Red-breasted Flycatcher

The Red-eyed Vireo had been reported as still being present at the Doctors Garden in Porthgwarra and, with no other new birds to seek out, we decided to have another go at that. I hoped that in the warm afternoon sunshine I may be able to get improved photographs. If I could find the bird that is. Which, of course, I couldn't!

We walked up towards the Coastguards Cottages where we've found Dartford Warblers before but no amount of "pishing" could entice any, if indeed there were any, out of the bracken and gorse. A Kestrel entertained us as we whiled away the last hour or so of the day. We first saw it stood on top of a telegraph pole outside of one of the cottages from where it would often drop onto the ground beneath. After a few of these sorties it became apparent that the Kestrel was catching worms!

Kestrel

The close proximity of the young Falcon had aroused the pique of a Grey Wagtail which had been snaring flies on a nearby roof. The Kestrel being around also required the full attention of the Wagtail so it abandoned its own feeding and took a position on an adjacent wire from which it carefully kept an eye on the potential danger to itself.

After a few more moments of Kestrel watching we must have aroused the birds own interest in us since it made a swoop directly toward us! I half expected it to land on my shoulder in true "Kes" style but it passed right by and disappeared onto the moor. Nice to grab a couple of frames of it flying virtually straight at us though.

Another quick look for the Vireo proved fruitless so we drove back to the cottage musing on a slow day in the valleys but one which had had its moments. There would be one further surprise though when we passed Roskestal on the way out of Porthgwarra when I spotted a Dove perched on a wire over the road. It looked a little bit too compact and darker than the usually encountered Collared Doves, there are lots of those in the valley and elsewhere in Cornwall, and I knew instantly that it was a Turtle Dove. I pulled into a parking space and slowly exited the car to take some photos. The Turtle Dove, a juvenile, very helpfully stayed put while I took a few shots and only flew off when another car passed by. I wished it good luck if and when it chose to migrate south and a safe return next spring, maybe it would even find Otmoor. Sadly it would need every good fortune too if it happened to pass through certain areas of the Mediterranean region.

Turtle Dove