Great Northern Diver at Long Rock Pool, Cornwall

This adult Great Northern Diver is a real poser and showed exceptionally well today at Long Rock Pool.  It seems to like following a circuit round the edge of the pool.  Every ten minutes or so it swam to the extreme south west corner to within 15 yards of me.  Unbelievably, it then called twice.  I have only heard the call on tape so was surprised and pleased to witness this today.  

 

The bird is just starting to moult out of summer plumage and this seems quite late.  I have only seen first winter birds previously in the Autumn.  I normally only see adults in full summer plumage in Cornwall in late Spring.  So, with the calls and this plumage at this time of year, does seem unusual. 

According to BWP though, post breeding adults start the moult from late July to early October; the moult is complete from October to January.

 

The species mainly breeds in Iceland and Greenland.  Approx 150 birds regularly winter around the Cornish coast with the highest concentration being from Gribbin Head to the Helford.

 

Grey Plover at Davidstow

After a fairly quiet day down West on Saturday, I decided to check out Crowdy and Davidstow today.  There were very few waders at either site but six Ruff and a Dunlin were seen at the back of Crowdy Res.  At Davidstow, one Ringed Plover flew high over calling but Brian Craven put me on to this confiding Grey Plover.  Based on the streaking on the lower flanks, the black spangling on the upperparts tinged with yellow, I'm judging this is a first year bird.  This is the first one I've seen here, or come to that, at any inland site. 

Grey Plover is a world-wide species, breeding in the high arctic tundra and wintering as far south as Australia, South America and South Africa. The species breeds from its second year. First year birds remain on the wintering grounds until mature enough to breed.  Numbers in Cornwall have seriously declined over the last ten years.  eg in 2009 just 18 birds were recorded wintering in December compared to 160 in 1999.

Daurian Shrike at Pendeen

A few more images from the stunning Pendeen adult male Daurian Shrike below.  This bird must rate as my best (so far) of 2013.

All images are cropped heavily as it always remained fairly distant.  The light conditions were harsh as well, so these are the best I could muster. (All copyright please).

Cape May visit in September

The images below were taken last month on a two week trip to Cape May in New Jersey.  The place is a world class migration hotspot for raptors, passerines and waders.  This is the second time I have visited Cape May.  Whilst this visit was decidedly quieter than last year (because we didn't get a full blast of the famous north west cold front) we still saw a lot birds.  A small selection is shown below.  I will show the rest at a slide show due in January at Chacewater on Friday 17th Jan.

 

First year Chestnut-sided Warbler - seen daily in small numbers.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo with a green tree frog

Common Nighthawk at a day time roost

First year Black Skimmer, one of around a 1000 birds on the Cape May beach.

Adult male Blackburnian Warbler, less than a handful of this most desirable dendroica were seen.

Adult male Prairie Warbler - who says autumn warblers are dull!

First year American Redstart - abundant.

Adult Black and White Warbler - seen daily in decent numbers.



Adult male Yellow Warbler

First year Piping Plover - seven of this endangered species were seen at Stoney Harbour beach.

Adult Caspian Tern at Stoney Harbour - seen daily in small numbers.

Western Sandpiper - just this individual was seen.

A very showy American Bittern  delighted all.

Daurian Shrike at Pendeen, Cornwall

On Friday, an adult Daurian Shrike was found near the coastguard house at Pendeen.  I managed to see it well today along with thirty or so other birders this morning. This is a stunning bird and a great find.  They are surprisingly unusual on mainland Cornwall.  In fact this is my first for the county, with all my previous records being on Scilly.

In addition to the shrike, the area was also good for three Wrynecks, two Whinchats, a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Snow Bunting.



(Wryneck image taken at Botallack a couple years back.)

Lesser Yellowlegs and Black-winged Stilt at Hayle Estuary

I passed by Hayle Estuary this morning to look at the Black-winged Stilt.  It was feeding close to the bridge on the causeway.  After a few minutes I noticed some Redshank fly in.  A closer look revealed a similar sized wader with long yellow legs.  I spoke to a chap beside me and he connected immediately.  A good job too as within a few brief minutes it flew off by itself round the corner towards the Lelant Saltings.  Myself and Laurie Williams searched for it but could not find it again.

I managed a few brief photos, as shown below:

White-rumped Sandpiper at Davidstow

On Saturday, Colin Selway found a moulting adult White-rumped Sandpiper with Dunlins and Ringed Plovers at Davidstow disused runway.  I decided to take a look today and fairly soon found several birders looking at it.  My mate Bob Bosisito and Pete Rosevear were also there and they informed me they had also seen a Baird's Sandpiper there on Saturday as well.  Both are superb finds and obviously turned up during the torrential rain over the weekend.  For some reason, all the waders seem to be feeding in the middle grass areas and not on the runway edges, so are some distance for viewing and indeed finding.  Among the Dunlins is a small, relatively pale Dunlin as well as the White-rumped, plus another small calidrid which I just couldn't pin down properly.  I've seen at least nine Bairds previously but White-rumped Sandpiper is decidedly rare in Cornwall.  From memory this is only my third.

Juv Dunlin also taken today for comparison.  Note the extensive dark mottling on the belly and flanks.

All images taken with Nikon D7100, 600mm F4 from car window. All images cropped to an inch of their life and reduced in size.

Pectoral Sandpiper movement in Cornwall

The last couple weeks has seen a decent movement of Pec's through the county with no less than seven birds seen already in the period.  The early Autumn migrant at Maer Lake was presumably a failed breeding bird. 

 

(all sightings updated to 9th Sept)

1 Maer Lake, 8th and 9th July.

1 Treraven Meadow, Wadebridge, ad. 21st and 22nd Aug.

1 Walmsley Sanctuary, 26th Aug

3 Sibleyback Lake, 3rd Sept

1 Stithians Lake, Golden Lion end, juv. 5th Sept.

2 Upper Tamar Lake, 7-9th Sept

1 Gannel Estuary, 9th Sept

 

In addition, recent sightings of Lesser Yellowlegs and Buff-breasted Sandpiper bodes well for the Autumn ahead...

 

Pectoral Sandpiper at Davidstow in 2011 (C. Steve Rogers)

Basking Shark and Minke Whale on the Mermaid Pelagic off Land's End

Along with the seabirds seen today several interesting Basking Sharks and a Minke were seen from the boat today.  Also a Sunfish put on a decent display jumping out of the water whilst the Minke breached several times.  The Basking Shark came really close and was unperturbed by our presence.

Land's End Pelagic on the Mermaid today

Today I went on a Pelagic trip from Penzance, round Land's End and on to Pendeen.  The main intention was to search the large Manx flock which has been around the Pendeen to Land's End area.  There were several separate flocks totalling a few thousand birds, some including Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters.  One juv Black Tern was also seen.  Sadly no large shears were seen, or any petrels or skuas.  Presumably the static weather requires a change to bring in new birds.