Birding highlights in West Cornwall January 2023

 New Year's Day weather was dull and grey with heavy rain by mid afternoon. Mid month was stormy with heavy rain and localised flooding. Month end continued overcast with a light north easterly airflow.

Seawatching started well with three Sooty Shearwater and 28 Manx past Porthgwarra. An unseasonal Euro Storm Petrel was also seen. Not to be outdone, a Great Shearwater was seen from Pendeen. This bird presumably being the single seen in St Ives Bay just before Christmas.  The normal scarce gulls were recorded including the adult Ring-billed, three Caspians and Yellow-legged Gulls at Hayle plus Iceland and Glaucous at Newlyn. A juv American Herring Gull was found at Drift and later relocated at Tolcarne on the 5th and 6th.  A third year Azorean Gull was found by Richard Augarde and Brian Mellow in Newlyn Harbour on 15th Jan. Whilst "only" a subspecies of Yellow-legged Gull, Azorean is a great rarity and created quite a bit of interest.

A significant number of divers were off Wherrytown on the 1st including 16 Great Northern and single Red-throated and black-throated Divers. The month end saw a high count of 62 Great Northern Diver, nine Red-throated and five Black-throated Diver in the Perranuthnoe area.

The wintering Little Bunting near Cot Valley was also recorded on the 1st. And just for company, it was joined by a second bird on the 6th and both remained together with 15 Reed Buntings until the month end.  As mentioned in previous posts, West Penwith is clearly a regular wintering area for this species. Two together have been recorded previously in Cornwall, but a third would be unprecedented.

Slightly outside of the West Penwith area, a female Ring-necked Duck was found at Helston boating lake on the 3rd Jan.  It went missing mid month but returned on the 18th.  This unassuming municipal site has an uncanny knack of producing quality rarities. Nearby at Stithians Res., a drake Green-winged Teal was found on the 5th.  Perhaps both arrived from the States together?

Fem Ring-necked Duck, Helston, courtesy Alex McKechnie.

The first major rarity of the year appeared in St Ives Bay on the 5th. An immature Black-browed Albatross was seen close in from the island (100m) but it headed NW, only to be spotted later from Clodgy Point. What a find.  The species clearly enjoys Cornish waters in winter. The last was seen on 8th Feb 2019 from the Lizard.  The St. Ives bird was also seen a week previously at Quiberon, France. With an adult seen regularly at Bempton and another adult in the Northern Isles last year, this sub adult bird effectively means there's at least three Black-browed Albatross' roaming the NE Atlantic.

Same 4th Yr  Black-browed Albatross, left Quiberron, France, and right, St Ives. Images from Twitter and Dave Oats.

 

Sooty Shearwater, west past Pendeen Jan 13th, S Rogers.

A mini arrival of Grey Phalaropes occurred in the second week of January.  A single was seen off Pendeen followed by two together at St. Gothians and another single at Stithians. I can't recall one ever being recorded at this inland site.

A strong westerly wind on the 13th produced a Black Guillemot and Sooty Shearwater off Pendeen. The Grey Phalarope continued to entertain birders at St Gothians.  The continuing strong westerly on the 15th pushed a single Leach's Petrel in to St Ives Bay. A Little Auk and a Puffin passed Pendeen.

An Azorean Yellow-legged Gull was found in Newlyn Harbour on the 15th. News of a juv Sabine's Gull at Carnsew Pool was received a day late on the 18th. Apparently there was confusion on the id, despite a good photo being taken. True winter records of this species in Cornwall are exceptional.

A mini pelagic trip around Mousehole on the 22nd produced a very close Little Auk and great views of Glaucous Gull.  An adult Kumlien's Gull was found on St Clements Isle on the 24th and again on the 29th at Drift.

Little Auk, Roskilly, Jan 2023, pic courtesy M Spicer.

An Isabelline Wheatear was found at Holywell on the 21st though not identified until 23rd.  This is the third record of Isabelline Wheatear in Cornwall.  The last record was in Oct 2016 when one was present for one day on Godrevy Head.  The first record was another one day appearance at Church Cove on 29th October 1996.

Isabelline Wheatear, Kelsey Head, pic by Mike McKee.

Bird of the month: Isabelline Wheatear at Kelsey

Runner up: Black-browed Albatross at St Ives.

Drake Ring-necked Duck shows his ring

Its not often that you see a Ring-necked Duck's ring...but yesterday this adult male in full summer plumage at Penhalvern was displaying to a female Tufted Duck and showed us everything it had!  This is most likely the same drake that was displaying to Tufted Ducks at Stithians Reservoir last year.  There are currently two wintering males in the county with another also seen yesterday at Par.

Drake showing the purplish-brown ring at the base of its neck

Ring-necked Duck at Par today

I went to Par beach pool today and stumbled across this drake Ring-necked Duck. It's the first time I've seen this species here. Whether or not this individual is the same bird from St Gothians, I'm not sure? It remained quite close to the island at the back of the pool, so was always distant.  The images below are 50% crops taken with an 840mm lens.

Ring-necked Duck displays to Tufted Duck at Stithians Res.

Cornwall's wintering Ring-necked Duck was today seen courting this female Tufted Duck at Stithians Res.  He couldn't keep his eyes off her but she didn't take much notice!  The display included head flicking, neck stretches, skypointing and spraying water, all very similar to a Goldeneye's courtship behaviour. 

All images taken with a Nikon D300s, courtesy of Kate Jones.

Drake Ring-necked Duck at St. Gothian Sands NR.

This handsome drake Ring-necked Duck was originally found at Stithians reservoir by Brian Mellow.  It then relocated itself at St Gothians on Wed 26th Jan (CCBarnard).  This ever improving site has proved popular with ducks during this winter: 26 Gadwall, 8 Shoveler, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Goldeneye, Smew, Goosander, Scaup, Pochard, 84 Tufted Duck and of course the Ring-necked Duck.

Ring-necked Duck breeding habitat is wooded lakes in the northern United States and Canada. They overwinter in southern North America, usually in lakes, ponds, rivers or bays.

Ring-necked Duck is a rare but annual vagrant to Cornwall.  There are approximately 60 records.  Ten birds appeared in 2006 alone.

Porth Reservoir specialities

Ad. male Ring-necked Duck above with female Tufted Ducks.   Porth Res. is a favoured location for Ring-necked Duck and many of the county's 60 or so records have been found here.  Below are three male and three female Goosanders which made a few fly-pasts but failed to settle.  Goosanders are scarce passage migrants and winter visitors to Cornwall.