Wanting Something to Happen....14-15th October 2019

This was rapidly turning into one of the slowest birding holidays that we'd ever had in Cornwall. Perhaps we had just cleaned up too early on by getting all of the good birds on offer, Red-eyed Vireo, Barred Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher etc, quickly after we arrived and also, because we already had a pretty impressive year list, by our own standards anyway, it was difficult to find any further additions. The weather hadn't been kind, it had been very wet but that is usually a good thing in Cornwall at this time of year, although not so good when the rain is torrential, The main problem was that the wind direction had been from the West and the South-west and that was acting as a buffer to any birds that would normally migrate in from the continent. Of course strong westerlies do help in bringing North American birds to our shores, hence the Red-eyed Vireo, but most of those type of rare finds had been confined to Ireland and Scilly so far this autumn.

We were so desperate to see something new that we thought we may as well go and have a look for a White Stork that had been frequenting the fields between St Leven and Porthgwarra. I say desperate because the Stork would be an uncountable bird since it was one of the birds purposely released in Sussex earlier in the year and thus does not count as a truly wild bird in much the same way that the Ferruginous Duck seen at Helston doesn't. But with nothing else new to go for and the valley birding proving so fruitless so far we thought, "why not?". Our own track record with seeing White Storks is very poor, with only the one near Buckingham over ten years ago on our lists but of course, with all the released birds flying around the country, any sighting of a White Stork these days will be open to conjecture as to its provenance. We took the coast path from Porthgwarra which proved to be a stiff exercise particularly for those of us with short legs! On our way we were entertained by several Ravens which appeared to be having a great deal of fun playing in the stiff breeze that battered us from the south.

Raven

I looked longingly out to sea, I still need lots of seabirds for the year list, but could only see Gannets and the odd Kittiwake out there. Everybody else was reporting Balearic Shearwaters, Sabines Gulls and rarer Skuas from the coast but, as per normal, they were eluding me. We saw our first Choughs of the trip but only noticed them after they'd passed overhead when they called loudly. Jackdaws were easier to observe and were a constant accompaniment as we trekked along the clifftop path.

Jackdaw

We failed to find the White Stork so it was a bit of a wasted walk in the end. In keeping with our usual luck, or lack of it, that day was the only day that the Stork had decided to go somewhere else, on every other day it was still to be seen feeding in the fields along the clifftop path. The only excitement provided, other than that by Corvids, was by a Sparrowhawk that rushed past twice in pursuit of any Meadow Pipit, Linnet or anything else that it might surprise.

Sparrowhawk

After slithering our way down the rocky path, made a little bit more precarious by a fine drizzle that had set in, we thought we'd try our luck a bit further along the coast at Penberth Cove which is a beautiful spot and is usually a really good place to find Yellow-browed Warblers which favour a certain patch of willow trees close to the parking area. At first nothing appeared in the trees which overhang the path but then I noticed some movement right at the back. The small bird was too energetic even to be a Yellow-browed and would be a Crest of some description. When the tiny bird had flitted through the trees and come right to us by the path, it hovered briefly at a small yew sapling. At this point I was still watching through my binoculars rather than trying to take photos and I observed the striking white supercilium of a Firecrest, our first of this trip but again not a year tick since we'd seen several earlier in the year. Photography is difficult under the trees because little light penetrates through the canopy so when I finally managed to capture the bird the images proved to be very poor. Whenever I visit this spot in bright sunny weather there never seems to be anything to get photos of!

Firecrest

Another bird was also active in the trees but materialised into a Goldcrest and not the hoped for Yellow-browed Warbler. In fact after watching for nearly thirty minutes more it was clear that the two Crests were the only birds save for common species such as Wren and Robin that were at play in the trees.

Goldcrest

We took our usual walk around the "block" which takes in other wooded areas and the rocky cove as well as gardens. A second Firecrest was active in the old gnarled tree by the coastguard cottages, different since it was a female whereas the one earlier with the bright orange crest was a male. The old tree provides an even denser canopy than the other trees so I didn't even bother trying to take a photo. The only other birds of note were Green & Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a Jay that perched right at the top of a tall tree.

Jay

Quite predictably as soon as we left we the cover of the trees it started to rain heavily once more and by the time we'd got to the car we were pretty soaked through yet again. Luckily we were able to dry out in the excellent Logan Inn at nearby Treen.

My good friend John who made the move to West Cornwall a few years back and who very kindly keeps me abreast of any interesting developments bird wise while I'm in this part of the world, had sent me a message informing that a Hippolais type Warbler, possibly Melodious, had been glimpsed very briefly at Pendeen that morning. We've only ever seen one Melodious Warbler before, at Lands End in 2010, so had to get there and look for ourselves even though the bird had been "found" nearly four hours before. The bird had been spotted in the garden of the Count House which sits above the lighthouse overlooking the sea. The wind was very strong on the headland but straight out of the south so the seaward side of the garden was sheltered more and that was where the possible Melodious Warbler had been seen. I walked along the thick hedge that borders the garden, pishing loudly and immediately a yellowish green warbler popped up on to a branch and stared at me before disappearing into cover again. No real excitement though since the inquisitive bird was a more common but not too dissimilar Willow Warbler. 

Willow Warbler

The next half hour of searching the garden didn't produce any other birds other than a Robin but there is a lot of cover and anything could have been hiding in there. I turned my attention to the sea but you need winds with a northerly element in them to produce at Pendeen and there were only the usual Gannets and Kittiwakes passing. A quick scan of the surrounding rocks and cliffs came up blank too. On the way back to the holiday cottage we tried Sennen Cove to see if there were any Black Redstarts, still required for the year list, on the beach rocks. Not this time but I did find a couple of late Sandwich Terns and more Mediterranean Gulls.

Our second year tick-less day in a row then but late news emanating from the Lizard got us more excited for the following day when a Booted Warbler was reported from Caerthillian Cove, where we'd seen the Barred Warbler on Saturday. In fact one birder tweeted out that he'd seen the Booted Warbler, a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Red-breasted Flycatcher in virtually the same scope view plus the Barred Warbler was still there so it seemed as if all of the birds were on the Lizard and not in West Penwith! We'd leave early the next morning.

Now we knew how to access the Pump House at the top of Caerthillian Cove directly, we joined a group of fifteen or so birders just as it was getting light at the sallows where we'd seen the Barred Warbler on Saturday. An hour later though with no sign of anything interesting and after chatting with some local birders who knew the area rather better than myself, it became apparent that this wasn't the place that the Booted Warbler had been seen. When we'd twitched the Barred Warbler a local birder had told me that despite the Pump House being "loosely" a part of the Caerthillian Valley, it wasn't really what he knew as the Caerthillian Valley but rather just a "tributary" of it. The main valley was much bigger and wider and continued inland for over a mile towards Kynance and the moors beyond. Therefore everybody was looking in the wrong place! Josh, who we'd now met almost wherever a decent bird had been reported, had already strode off to find the correct spot and we followed best as we could but we are less intrepid and able so had to keep to paths as against going straight across fields. We retraced our steps back to Portreath Road and looked down into the Caerthillian Valley proper and saw several hitherto unnoticed birders scanning the valley sides. Making our way down a fairly steep path to the valley bottom where a stream gurgled through we spotted both a Willow Warbler and a Chiffchaff preening after bathing in the stream.

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

A chap came walking up from the other direction and we asked him if he knew where the Booted Warbler had been seen. He did but it appeared that "it wasn't around here, no, not at all" but "right at the top of the valley, up there" as he pointed to the north. I asked the easiest way to get there and he suggested that we return to the village and then take the path to Kynance Cove, adding "where the path dips to cross a stream, scan the trees there" but as far as he knew, "there's been no sign of the Booted Warbler but the other birds are there". First though we had a last look for the Barred Warbler to no avail so did indeed retreat back to the village.

Stonechat

A coffee and a bowl of chips later we walked down the path towards the spot where the Booted Warbler had been seen the evening before. There were a couple of other birders at the spot and they told us that they'd seen the Red-breasted Flycatcher but that the rarer bird must have gone. We found the Flycatcher quite quickly but viewing was distant across the valley. At least we had some nice bright sunshine for a change and it was nice to stand out in the warm instead of being cold and wet! Mrs Caley spotted the Yellow-browed Warbler close to the Flycatcher, it looked resplendent in the bright conditions, but there'd be no point in taking photos at such distance. We also managed to find a couple of Goldcrests in the same area.

Church Cove on the eastern side of Lizard village is another favourite place of ours and is a really good spot for finding rare and scarce birds. The week before we arrived there had been a Red-eyed Vireo in the churchyard trees, some folk believe the Porthgwarra bird had relocated from there, and yesterday both a Red-breasted Flycatcher and a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers had been reported. We parked the car and bumped into Josh yet again, we are definitely on the same wavelength. He had already found a Yellow-browed and a Firecrest in trees next to the stream just outside of the church grounds. We were soon on our own again though when Josh went wandering off to check somewhere new, I think it was his first time in Cornwall and he was keen to explore every inch of it. The trees by the stream are tall and I craned my neck to view the upper canopy since I could hear the Yellow-browed Warbler calling. It took a while but eventually the bird appeared in the open and paused long enough for me to fire off a couple of shots.

Yellow-browed Warbler

We were joined by another birder who asked "what was around?", I told him "there's a Yellow-browed in these trees" and he then instantly found the Yellow-browed Warbler in another tree just up the road where we were both able to track it more easily. Even though the birds new position was more at eye level it was in deep shade where the bright sunlight wasn't penetrating. But at least the Yellow-browed ceased its urgent quest to find food for a while and posed beautifully for us all to admire it.

A quick walk down the lane towards the cove yielded very little except for Goldcrests and Chaffinches so after another quick look at the Yellow-browed warbler which was still flitting around the same trees we jumped in the car and headed off back to West Penwith. On our way we stopped to see the male Ferruginous Duck at Helston again. It was initially hiding but just as we going to give up it swam out from behind a small island and came to within metres of us. Three days ago we had watched the bird dozing during a spell of heavy rain, now we could appreciate the duck in all its glory in fabulous sunshine.

Ferruginous Duck

Back at the cottage I went out alone to check the bushes and scrub that surround the farm and also to see if any Short-eared Owls were flying around on Bartinney Downs, a part of which could be seen from the farm. There were no Owls of any description, it is probably still a week or two early for them arriving back into West Cornwall, but I did meet some much more exotic birds on my walk when the farm flock of Guinea Fowl crossed the track ahead. The eight Guinea Fowl are a feature of the gardens here and one morning I found them all stood right outside the cottage door. There are six normal plumaged birds and two white ones. 

Guinea Fowl

The Guinea Fowl hadn't just attracted my attention since a big dog Fox, presumably, had also noticed them and was stood looking longingly in their direction. I sincerely hope the Guinea Fowl have a safe roosting spot somewhere on the farm!