Well, it had to be done! For years I had thought of twitching Cornwall for seabirds and today I did it. Over the past few days the weather conditions had been excellent for seawatching in the southwest with large numbers of Cory's and Great Shearwaters passing the Cornish headlands, two species I had yet to see in Britain.
Dunc Poyser, Mark Hawkes and another guy called Simon picked me up mid-evening from Arlesey. We drove overnight down to Cornwall, arriving at Pendeen bleary eyed at half past five, with the first glimmer of dawn in the sky. Despite the good trip, we all felt our nervous anticipation dulled by the weather; it was calm, the big winds had frustratingly abated. As it got light, we, along with a handful of other seawatchers scrambled out of our cars and down to the rocks near the lighthouse. We set up our scopes and soon managed to pick out the white forms of Gannets over the dawn sea. The Gannets were tiny, I was looking too far out, so I trained my scope on a nearer patch of sea, which was gradually becoming bluer as the skies lightened. Suddenly, the first group of Manx Shearwaters banked into view and I called 'Manxies, going south', as they cruised past the rocks just offshore. These were much closer than I had expected. Manxies were coming past continually, in ones and twos and occasionally small groups, flashing white undersides and then almost disappearing as their black backs blended in with the dark ocean. I got on an all dark, larger bird, powering south - Dunc called it 'Sooty Shearwater south'. More Manxies came through and then our first Balearic Shearwaters began to appear, dusky underparts separating them from their pied Manx cousins. Three species of shearwater in twenty minutes, not too bad then. Mark suddenly shouted 'large shearwater!' but alas, in the excitement, had mistakenly called a Gannet. More Manxies streamed past and a few Euro Storm Petrels flitted past through the wave troughs, flashing tiny white rump patches.
Shortly, Mark redeemed himself, exclaiming 'Cory's!' and for a few panic-stricken moments I scanned hastily about. And there it was! I had been looking too far out, but here was this bulky pale-billed shearwater, effortlessly gliding past on the same close line as the Manxies. It's flight action was very distinctive, being remarkably slow, on bowed, forward-held wings. In the two or three minutes it took to pass the watch, it only flapped twice! It gradually headed south, A
A few minutes later, one of Mark's friends called 'Great Shearwater!'. This bird was further out and was really only identifiable by its different flight action, size and capped appearance. Its flight was much more reminiscent of a Manx Shearwater, being much more dynamic than the Cory's. It powered past and vanished. Brilliant! Five species of shearwater in an hour including two new species for me. After another hour, with more of the same species, things began to calm down and we decided to pack up. The only other birds of note were one Great Skua and a couple of Sandwich Terns.
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Having decided it was quietening down at Pendeen, we decided to give it a go at Porthgwarra, so we drove round there. Things were still happening at the 'Gwarra' and in two hours we had at least nine Cory's Shearwaters, six Greats, over 1000 Manxies, two Balearics, a Basking Shark (!) and a juvenile Peregrine. Not too bad for calm conditions! Presumably these were birds reorientating after the strong winds earlier in the week.
Next up, we headed to Marazion Marsh near Penzance, a place famed for being a regular stopover site for Aquatic Warblers, which breed in eastern Europe and then pass along the coasts of the Channel in the late summer. A quick walk failed to produce an Aquatic Warbler, though we were not entirely surprised as early morning is apparently better. We did see a yellow, streaky 'Acro' but it disappeared into the reeds before we were able to make it into anything better than a juvenile Sedge Warbler...
We decided to head east for home, calling in at Wembury in Devon on the way. A thorough search of the area yielded good views of a pair of Cirl Buntings, which was fantastic as it was only the second time I had seen these rare and beautiful birds. An excellent bonus!
Further into Devon we drove, to Kingsbridge and one of the most surreal twitches I've been on! While waiting for the adult Rosy Starling to fly in and perch on its favoured pylonm we were treated to a live band playing a selection of indie and rock classics acorss the road at a village fete! As time went on, I began to feel the noise from the band and drunken revellers was the reason the starling hadn't appeared, but then a large flock of Starlings suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They all landed on the pylon, and to our delight, among them was their pink stink cousin. Quite a nice adult though the pink was fading slightly, although it had a smart long crest and was presumably a male.
We had a quick dash to Exeter next as the light ebbed away. We found ourselves on a large heath at dusk and to end this amazing day watched two Dartford Warblers hopping about in the heather. What a fine end to a cracking day!
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