A Weeks Birding and Mothing in Cornwall

Day 1, Saturday 11^th October 2003

Leaving my mother’s house at the ungodly hour of 2.30 am Keren and I drove through the sleeping urban streets of St.Helens to collect another birding friend of ours, Ray Banks. Ray also happens to be one of the northwest’s leading exerts on moth identification.

The journey down the M6 and M5 in the early of hours of Saturday morning was largely uneventful (no traffic etc) but two Barn Owls were seen briefly as they drifted through the beam of the car’s headlights.

We arrived at Exeter services at 6.45am for our rendezvous with the final member of our crew, Jon Lowes from Derbyshire, an expert in the field of being a git!

Annual greetings given and insults exchanged, we decided to have a bit of breakfast and a break before heading off for our first destination, the Exminster Marshes, less than 5 miles away.

One of the advantages of going birding with these two characters in autumn, is that they both carry pagers which alert them to any rarities which have been found throughout the country.  On this occasion they had nothing to report, so after a particularly unfulfilling (not to mention expensive) breakfast, we headed off toward Exminster in the hope of seeing one, or both, of the long staying Glossy ibiseseses.

So, after a brief detour, whilst Ray remembered how to read a map, we arrived on site. The surrounding fields were all blanketed in a thick morning mist making viewing them almost impossible. However, whilst we waited, we did manage to get good views of a party of Siskins flying over and to listen to the ‘subtle’ songs of the local Cetti’s Warblers. The surrounding hedgerows held a variety of the commoner species such as Long-tailed Tits, Goldcrests and Robins but nothing of particular note. After about 20 minutes two birders, who had been further down the path, called our attention to the fact that one of the ibiseseses had flown over them and landed amongst some sedges in one of the nearby fields. After a brief search we located the bird through the thick, low lying mist as it slowly picked its way through the long grass, with only its head and neck in view. A very prehistoric looking creature, we aged at as the 2^nd Winter bird. I fired off a couple of shots at it (with the camera) but the early morning light and mist made it impossible to get a decent image. We watched the bird for about 20 minutes, until it was flushed by a cow and disappeared into the distance.

 We then had a discussion as to what to go for next and, as we were so close, we decided to go to Aylesbeare Common in search of Dartford Warblers. 10 minutes later we arrived on site as the sun was just starting to burn off the last of the mist. One of the first species we heard was a Green Woodpecker as it laughed at us from a safe, un-photographable, distance. A further 10 minutes passed without us seeing much of note, but then a party of small passerines flew across the track in front of us, one of which seemed quite small and long-tailed. We waited a couple of minutes and were rewarded with excellent, but brief, views of a male Dartford Warbler closely followed by another three birds further down the track.

 On the way back to the cars we noticed a large raptor fly past us with a particularly bright rufous-orange tail. It was obviously a buteo sp. but getting prolonged views was proving very difficult as the bird was using a series of perches that meant it was hidden, or partially hidden, by foliage. The views we did get showed it to be pretty much a ‘standard’ Common Buzzard, but with this really obvious ‘ginger’ tail, which had a pale tip, dark sub-terminal bar and fine barring along it’s length. We watched the bird for the next hour or so just to confirm that it was a Common Buzzard and not what had been suggested by the more excitable amongst us, a possible Steppe Buzzard buteo buteo vulpinus. Eventually we all agreed that it was ‘probably’ a Common Buzzard, despite the orange tail, and headed onwards towards Cornwall and the Hayle Estuary.

 We arrived at the Hayle (SW546 363) a couple of hours later and had a quick look on Ryan’s Field (part of the Hayle RSPB Reserve). The first bird we saw was a Little Egret running around the shallow pools. Now, I know Little Egret is something of a ‘common’ bird these days, but those of us from the bird-starved northern regions, still get a kick out of seeing these wonderful, elegant, white herons with their ridiculous yellow feet. We watched the egret for half an hour or so and, because there was little else of note (a feral pigeon gave Jon slight palpitations for a second or two!), we crossed the busy road, that runs alongside the estuary, to view the mud banks of the Hayle itself. There were hundreds of Teal, Wigeon and Curlew on the mud and a large female Peregrine was sat on an unidentified kill. Dotted amongst the gulls and wildfowl were a further half-dozen Little Egrets.

Time was passing now and we headed back to the car, but not before a Kingfisher flashed past showing his stunning electric-blue upperparts.

A brief stop in Penzance for provisions (consisting mainly of beer and chocolate!) and we were on our way for the final leg of the journey and the cottage we had rented for the week (SW408 237).

 The first job, whenever we arrive at our rented accommodation, is to suss out the habitat and decide where’s best to place our two moth traps. As soon as we pulled up I could see the disappointment on Ray’s face. Our garden was no more than a 20 sq. yd. patch of grass surrounded on three sides by a 10-foot wall.  Not the best we could have hoped for! Putting on my diplomat’s head (I had to blow the dust off it first!) we ventured to our neighbour’s front door and asked for permission to trap in his huge, well-manicured garden. He gladly agreed, as he was a fellow birder with a passing interest in moths. Result! We now could run two traps!

We quickly set the traps up and headed to the pub for a hot meal and a couple of beers. 

And that’s how the long, first day ended, with 4 exhausted birders reflecting on a fairly good day with the promise of some good moth trapping and birding to come over the coming week.

Day 2 Sunday 12^th. October

 First things first, our mornings in Cornwall always start with Ray and I emptying the moth traps of the haul from the previous night.  This morning’s catch wasn’t huge, but the two traps contained some good migrant species (the main aim of our sessions). Amongst the usual Feathered Ranunculus, Black Rustics, Lunar Underwings and Beaded Chestnuts were several Rush Veneers and Rusty Dot Pearls. But the highlights were 2 Cosmopolitans and a Scarce Bordered Straw. A good start.

 Following breakfast, we headed off for the day’s birding in the good number of wooded valleys that abound in west Cornwall. First stop was Porthgwarra, (SW372 216) but as soon as we stepped out of the car the same strong south-easterly wind that had brought our migrant moths, was blasting up the valley and battering any cover that may, or may, not have contained any birds, making the area ‘un-birdable’. We made an executive decision to head further west in the hope of finding some shelter at another hotspot, Nanquidno, (SW363 292) below Land’s End airfield. Again, though, the wind was making birding difficult and in a 1 hour circuit we saw nothing more interesting than a male Blackcap. As we were about to leave another birder came up to us and told us of a Richard’s Pipit that had been seen on the airfield, so that was our next stop. Despite extensive searching, we failed to locate the bird, so went to the next valley in the sequence, below St.Just, Cot Valley (SW365 303).

 There was a little more shelter here, but again birds were few and far between, but after about an hour, I picked up on a familiar call amongst the various tits and Goldcrests – a Firecrest! Unfortunately, the bird was deep in cover and only gave a couple of brief flight views.

 Back at the car we rang Birdline Southwest to be told that the earlier Richard’s Pipit had been relocated back at the airfield so we decided to give it another go. 10 minutes later we were wandering round the fringes of the runway (the airport is closed on Sundays) with several other despondent birders, all of us dipping out!

All of a sudden we get a message that there’s a Radde’s Warbler at Land’s End (SW347 259) and that it had been ‘showing well’, so that decided our next destination.

We parked at the Land’s End complex and walked across the cliff top path to where we thought the bird had been seen. There were another dozen or so birders in attendance, all staring into a low clump of blackthorn, but not giving the impression of actually watching anything in particular. 5 minutes later and the heavens opened, driven by the, still strong, south-easterly winds so we decided to cut our losses and head back to the cottage and dry off. Imagine our dismay when the chap who owns the cottage (the same chap who kindly let us set up our moth traps in his garden), knocks on the door to tell us that he had just come back from watching the warbler and that all the birders had been stood in the wrong place! Given that we were all knackered, the weather was crap, and we have all seen Radde’s Warbler anyway, we agreed to not bother driving back across there (all of 5 miles!) and to have a look for it in the morning.

Before we settled down for an evening in front of the TV, I decided to brave the horrendous downpour and give the traps a quick once-over. Imagine my surprise when the very first thing I saw was a huge Convolvulus Hawkmoth on the ground just beside the trap in the walled garden! Cue panic! Shouting for Ray to fetch a catching jar, I covered the moth with my hands (more to prevent its escape than to protect it from the rain). Ray wouldn’t brave the weather so I had to leave the moth to fetch the jar from him at the front door. Wimp! Fortunately it stayed put long enough to allow me to catch him for photography the following morning. Great stuff!

More beer then!

Day 3 – Monday 13^th. October 2003

After last nights Convolvulus we were expecting good things from the morning trap-emptying. We weren’t to be disappointed! Almost the first species we found was a Vestal, a pretty little cream/yellow insect with a crimson stripe across the wings and also a quite scarce immigrant to Britain. In the end we had a total of eight Vestals in a variety of colour forms including the rare pink form. The traps contained a wide selection of migrant moths including Scarce Bordered Straws, Pearly Underwings Cosmopolitans, Dark Swordgrass and a single Small Mottled Willow. All told, an excellent haul.

 So with the moths identified and photographed we turned our attention to what birds to go and look for.

With negative news on yesterday’s Lands End Radde’s Warbler we decided to have a look at Porthgwarra as the wind had died down so much.

 We arrived at Porthgwarra at 9.30am and headed straight for the bushes which border the hillside gardens at the south-eastern end of the valley as we had seen a few good birds in there over the years. Almost the first birds we got onto were a pair of Firecrests flitting through the depths of the damp tamarisk bushes only 5 feet away. Occasionally we got a glimpse of their bronzy capes and brilliant white eye stripes.

We then walked up the road alongside the bushes and Jon located a further 3 or 4 Firecrests amongst a mobile tit flock.

On the other side of the valley a Black Redstart was hawking for flies from the wires by the coastguards house and yet another Firecrest was seen in the “Dr.’s Garden”.

Walking over the moors we noted a Merlin and two Kestrels but no other migrants. The ground was littered with the caterpillars of Fox moths, so much so it was difficult not to walk on them at some points.

We arrived at ‘the Top Pool’ (SW365 224) after a long trudge over the moor, in blistering sunshine having seen very few birds for the past hour or so.

Jon and I went down to the poolside and immediately both of us picked up on a loud and, to me, unfamiliar call coming from the bushes on the other side of the pool. “What on Earth’s that?” I asked (or words to that effect), “I’m not sure” came Jon’s reply, “but it reminds me of a Greenish Warbler I heard a few years ago” he continued. “Nah, it’s too late for Greenish, must be something else” I suggested. Anyway, the bird continued to call intermittently as we scanned the bushes getting glimpses of Chiffchaff and our first Yellow-browed Warbler of the week.

Eventually after about ½hour Ray and I both latched onto a phyllosc. that was in the area of the mysterious calls, although it was partially hidden by the dense foliage, I could make out that the bird’s structure was very similar to a Chiffchaff and that it had a ‘whopping’ supercillium with just a small dark patch on the lores. I immediately called “Greenish” but no sooner had the words come out of my mouth than it dived back into cover. The bird continued to show briefly, and tantalisingly, over the next hour enabling us to cobble together enough features to identify it as a Greenish. You can imagine how Jon gloated, having identified it on call using his memory of a bird he saw several years previously. Still, it WAS late for a Greenish!

 We then trudged all the way back to the car park, seeing nowt on the way, but we didn’t care!

Our next stop was Cot Valley, one of my favourites.

There were several parties of tits and crests in the area, all calling and making a right racket, but we didn’t pick up on anything unusual so we wandered down the road to where another Yellow-browed had been seen. It now started raining and we took what shelter we could, overlooking the area where the bird had been seen, but there appeared to be nothing there at all. After about 15 mins. I suggested we have a closer look at a particularly inviting sallow bush, as the bird may have been in it’s depths. We crossed the stream and approached the bush to within 5 metres, but still could see nothing. So, in desperation, I started pishing (and ignored the derisive comments from my fellow birders) almost immediately the Yellow-browed called from the depths of the bush and a further 5 minutes later gave excellent views as I continued to make a variety of ridiculous noises by kissing the back of my hand! The smart-arse comments soon stopped after that and I was regularly asked to repeat the performance throughout the week (with no success I should add!).

Another excellent day.

More beer then.

Day 4 – Tuesday 14^th. October 2003

Another busy morning in the moth traps and surrounding vegetation, the highlights being another 2 Convolvulus Hawks, a well-marked Delicate

and a new species for me in the form of a couple of Buff Footmen (Footmans?).

Following breakfast we drove down to Penberth, (SW402 227) another valley with a variety of hedgerows, bushes and wooded hillsides. Again there were lots of common birds calling – Siskins, Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Meadow Pipits, tits etc but nothing of particular note apart from yet another 2 Firecrests, this was getting ridiculous! In recent years we have only averaged about 3 a week!

We then drove across to St.Levan, (SW381 223) but the wind was making it difficult to see anything as most of the birds were deep in cover and all we recorded was a movement of pipits and Skylarks.

After an excellent pasty for lunch in St.Just, (SW371 316) I got a text message from Mark Tunmore, the Editor of Atropos, saying that he had a moth for us to look at over on the Lizard. We arranged to meet him at 2pm (allowing us time to call in for the long-staying Ring-billed Gull in Helston on the way).

We arrived at Helston boating lake (SW654 272) and I immediately located the gull on the far side of the pool as it fought with other gulls being fed on bread by the locals.

Keren dashed back to the car to get a loaf we had just bought and started to throw chunks of it onto the pool at our feet. The very first bird it attracted was the Ring-billed and it proceeded to give stunning views for the next 40 minutes. It was while we were watching the RBG that Jon pointed out another grotty brown juv. Gull on the pool and my immediate suspicion was that it was a Yellow-legged Gull – the tertial pattern and bill shape seemed right to me – but Jon was concerned about its headshape being too ‘sloping’. After about 10 minutes the bird swam onto a small island in the middle of the lake and allowed direct comparison with juv. Herring Gulls. I remained in the YLG camp, but Jon was firmly(ish) entrenched in the Caspian Gull camp. Certainly, the bird did appear long-legged which I believe is a feature of Caspian.

 We eventually arrived at Church Cove (SW716 126) on the Lizard at 2.20pm (following some heated discussion as to the identity of the mystery gull) and were greeted by Mark who was wearing a broad smile on his face.

“Have a look at this then boys” he said (causing some brief consternation!), and produced a Death’s Head Hawkmoth.

Happy with the moth we walked back up to the car park, but not before another Firecrest flew across the path in front of us!

As it was still early we decided to head for Helston Loe pool (SW649 258)to look for another long staying American bird – a Black Duck, and probably the rarest bird in Cornwall at the time.

2 hours and a long trudge down to the pool later, we were watching a Male Black Duck over ½mile away in it’s all it’s glory. OK, it was crap really – basically a big dark female Mallard with a yellow bill!

We headed back through Penzance and called in at St.Mary’s Church (SW475 300) to see the two juv. Rose-coloured Starlings that had taken up residence amongst the common Starling flock and, yes, they lived up to their nickname of “Fawn Yawns”.

Another excellent day. More beer then.

Day 5 – Wednesday 15^th. October 2003

The winds overnight night had swung round from the south-east into a more easterly direction and this was reflected in the moth traps this morning with nothing new being caught and a dramatic reduction in migrant species.

We headed off west in search of shelter in from strong winds, but decided, as we were passing, to call in to St.Levan again in the hope of locating the Wryneck that had been reported from there yesterday evening.

As soon as I stepped out of the car, I flushed a bird off a dry stone wall and as it flew down the path away from us I called “here it is”. The bird then showed extremely well for the next hour or so and we even managed to show it to BF’s very own Darrell Clegg who turned up to see it. “You owe me one now, Darrell” I said. Little did I know……

After watching the stunning Wryneck for a while we decided to do the long walk down to the bottom of Kenidjack valley (SW362 325). Why, I don’t know, all that had been reported was a Yellow-browed Warbler and it seemed a long trek just to see something we had already seen twice this week. Still, walk it we did and got brief views of the bird as it flew between bushes in very high winds. We also got good views of a couple of Pied Flycatchers, but they were right next to where we had parked the car!

Giving up on Kenidjack because of the wind, we retired to the King’s Arms in St.Just to plan our next move – I think a couple of beers were consumed as well. “Sod it! let’s go back to the cottage and make ourselves a cream tea”, I suggested. So whilst Keren went shopping for the scones etc I made a quick call to Birdline Southwest just to make sure we weren’t missing out on anything (spending all this time in the valleys means that the pagers that Jon and Ray carry, often miss messages). Imagine the panic when the first bird on is a female Penduline Tit at Land’s End, (SW347 249) just 6 miles away!

We arrived on the scene to be greeted by that man Darrell Clegg, who had decided the best way to repay the Wryneck was to find a serious rarity. Unfortunately the bird wasn’t on show and we had a 2 hour wait watching the willows and phragmites beds getting battered by a particularly blustery wind! We did manage brief views of yet another Yellow-browed Warbler. Eventually, though, the bird showed really well as it held on for dear life in the violently swaying undergrowth. I’m not sure where the ‘female’ bit came from, as it was clearly a juvenile but nevertheless a smashing little bird and, remarkably, I even managed to get a couple of photos.

A lot more beer then.

Day 6 – Thursday 16^th. October 2003

Another poor morning in the moth traps. These easterly winds really are no good for bringing migrant moths.

After breakfast we walked down to Penberth from the coastal footpath and were rewarded with brief views of another Wryneck, but very little else of note.

Another long walk followed this, as we did the Polgigga circuit (SW376 238). This proved to be completely useless (as usual), but we did hear a Yellow-browed Warbler.

There then followed a brief walk round Nanquidno whilst we waited for the Pub to open, followed by Lands End again for the Penduline Tit but no luck.

Day 7 – Friday 17^th. October 2003

Our last night’s mothing session again failed to produce anything noteworthy, thank God for the great start to the week.

After breakfast we went on a local walk round the Trevescan area where we were staying but saw nowt special apart from the usual Blackcaps, Goldcrests and tits etc.

As we only paid a brief visit to the Hayle on the first day, we decided to head over that way this morning as the high tide would coincide with our arrival.

Almost the first bird I got onto was a drake American Wigeon, and whilst not in full plumage he was still a fairly distinctive bird amongst his commoner Eurasian counterparts. Ray then picked up a sleeping, adult, Mediterranean Gull . Another birder came up to us to say that he thought he might have found a Green-winged Teal and as soon as I got onto the bird I was able to confirm his i.d.  As with the other American duck we had just been watching, it wasn’t in full plumage. But the lack of gold border to the green head patch and the presence of a small white stripe at the side of the breast were diagnostic, still it was a good find amongst a flock of over 300 Eurasian Teal.

After an excellent couple of hours we headed south again and called in at Drift Reservoir (SW436 288). Over the years Drift has had some excellent birds, but on this occasion the best we could manage was another 1^st Winter Med. Gull.

As the winds had dropped a little, we decided to give the Penduline Tit a third and final go to see if I could improve on my photos from Wednesday, but again the bird was not to be seen, so we headed back to the cottage and packed our gear away ready for the long journey back up to Merseyside the following day and the ferry back to the Isle of Man on the Sunday.

All in all, just what I want from a week’s holiday – good mothing, excellent birding, lots of beer and, occasionally, pleasant company.

Moths Recorded During the week:

Rush Veneer  x98

Turnip moth  x24

Common Marbled Carpet

Snout

Rusty Dot Pearl  x40

Feathered Ranunculus

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Beaded Chestnut

Black Rustic

Angle Shades

Cosmopolitan  x14

Common Wainscot

Sq Spot Rustic

Light Brown Apple moth

Grey Pine carpet

Autumnal Rustic

Large Yellow Underwing

Lunar Underwing

Rosy Rustic

Brimstone Moth

Dark Swordgrass  x5

Aclerys Variegana

Buff Arches

Straw Dot

Scarce Bordered Straw  x15

Agriphyla Tristella

Common Plume moth

Vestal  x12

Convolvulus Hawmoth  x3

Silver Y  x11

Palpita Unionalis  x1

Red Line Quaker

Pearly Underwing x11

Shuttle Shaped dart

Brindled Ochre

Burnished Brass

Brindled Green

Small Mottled Willow  x4

Small Fanfooted Wave

Flounced Chestnut

Buff Footman NEW

Vine’s Rustic

Gem  x6

Delicate  x1

Green Brindled Crescent

Satellite

Feathered Brindle

Garden Caret

Chestnut

Large Ranunculus

Birds Recorded During the week: