The Safari has had a week down in the south westernmost corner of sunny Cornwall, well it was sunny when it wasn't mizzly; Wifey even caught a bit of a suntan!
The drive down to a family overnighter near Plymouth gave us 21 Buzzards and absolutely no Kestrels in pretty good conditions for raptor spotting. Dead things spotted included 2 Badgers, 2 Foxes and 4 Grey Squirrels. The following day we drove the length of Cornwall seeing just one Buzzard and again not a single Kestrel. Death on the roads was represented by a Fox, a small deer, probably a Muntjac, a Grey Squirrel and a Badger. A stretch of legs for Monty on Long Rock beach at Penzance gave us a Wheatear dropping out of the sky and into a small thicket of Brambles adjacent to the railway track. Arriving at the cottage once unpacked we gave Monty another stretch of his legs around the old tin mines where we saw our first Kestrel of the trip riding the updraughts from the cliffs. Around the village we came across Jackdaws, Blue Tits, a Chaffinch, Carrion Crows, House Sparrows, Goldfinches, Collared Doves and Herring Gulls.
First thing every morning we were at Pendeen lighthouse seawatching except the first morning when we watched from the clifftop at the village a short walk from the cottage. Although early in the morning it was sunny and warm but quite hazy out to sea. Another Wheatear appeared right by us and had we had the camera with us would have been added to the SD card. 2 Choughs cavorted noisily around the cliffs. Out to sea there was a bit of action to our left with a feeding frenzy going on, Gannets diving, Kittiwakes in attendance, Fulmars looking interested, Shags leaving the rocks and going in that direction and Manx Shearwaters coming in from all angles. We initially thought the commotion was being caused by a pod of dolphins but having not seen any breaches apart from a nose we now think and that's been confirmed by some of the local watchers was what we were (not) seeing were actually Blue Fin Tuna. A first for us in British waters.
Down on the rocks a Peregrine was perched up doing nothing in particular while back in the village a Curlew flew over us and Rooks had appeared.
In the afternoon we had a wander up the coast a few miles to the beautiful Portheras Beach, a typical sandy Cornish cove with big Atlantic breakers rolling in. Sightings included a Buzzard, Stonechats, a Swallow, and a Whitethroat. Invertebrates were represented by good numbers of butterflies, Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, Common Blues which maybe we should have taken a closer look at all week as some may have been Silver Studded Blues. Around a small spring and stream were a handful of Beautiful Demoiselles and out at sea Wifey spotted a bottling Grey Seal.
Not a bad start to the week.
We spent a couple of hours at Pendeen Lighthouse the next morning, 07.00 to 09.00, it started slow and we missed the first Sooty Shearwater that went through. There were two 'tracks' the seabirds were taking one just behind the rocks a few hundred yards off the cliffs and the other about half a mile or so further out, we were looking at the 'wrong' track for the Sooty but never mind we had another two dozen go past with the Manxies once they started moving at around 08.00. Yes that's probably more Sooties in one watch than we've ever seen combined over the years of visits to the east coast in autumn.
Everything was a bit far out for photography and the light wasn't the best but seeing as we didn't have a Kittiwake for our Challenge so we had to try.
A Fulmar proved a little easier being much nearer
We could hear Rock Pipits all around us when the mizzle started to descend, one was kind enough to land on the wall around the lighthouse garden quite close by.
Inshore and in the range of visibility there were good numbers of Shags, many Gannets a few more Fulmars and only a couple more Kittiwakes and a Razorbill. Four Herons were washed off the far side of the offshore rocks by a particularly large swell.
e had planned to stay a little longer bit the mizzle closed in even further becoming more like proper fog and it was just as we were contemplating taking down the scope one of the remaining two other watchers called out Balearic Shearwater. Luckily we hadn't dismantled our kit and got fairly good views of this LIFER as it shot through close to the cliff face below us. Once it was out of sight e packed up and left but really should have stayed a few more minutes as we learnt the following morning that we'd only been gone three or four minutes, and probably not quite back at the car park, that another Balearic Shearwater and one we really hope to see this holiday having only ever seen one before, a Great Shearwater had gone through...so annoying but that's the thing with seawatching - you just daren't turn your back!
Ravens cronking to each other in the gloom around the mines was atmospheric.
The second morning we only managed 07.00 to 08.30 at the lighthouse, it started mizzly with poor visibility and got progressively worse! Only about 200 Manxies went past with the wind in the wrong direction (too much south) for this site, a few Fulmars and Gannets cruised about best of the rest were singke Common Scoter, juvenile Mediterranean Gull, and a Kittiwake, somehow we dipped the only Sooty Shearwater of the morning. A Kestrel was around the cliff edge.
More exciting than the sea were the cliff tops which were totally festooned with a myriad of cobwebs like a carpet of gossamer holding all the vegetation together - proper autumnal it was.
Wednesday morning was very very quiet at the lighthouse, the only bird of note was a Merlin shooting through which we totally missed. There was hardly a Manxie to be seen and the '8 O'clock conveyor belt' of them we'd noticed on the last couple of days never got going.
An afternoon sightseeing trip took us to Porthcurno and Porthgarra were we could see a huge raft of thousands of Manx Shearwaters and hundreds of diving Gannets from the seat at the top of the cliff by the cafe while we ate a gorgeous pasty and drank a nice cuppa. With only our bins we even managed to pick out a Sooty Shearwater from the throng. There was plenty of splashing going on too and in the absence of seeing any dolphins breaching we can only imagine it was another pack of Blue Fin Tuna.
The lighthouse beckoned again on Thursday morning and this time the Manxie conveyor belt was in full flow, there were huge numbers passing through, but it was all Manxies try as we might the assembled seawatchers could only pick out a couple of Sooties, no Balearics or Greats were in the constant stream of Manxies, all very disappointing, we felt sure there'd be something out of the ordinary out there. Best of the rest, a Rock Pipit, four Kittiwakes, and four auks - that's all!
The afternoon saw us take a trip down to the Lizard peninsular and Kennack Cove in particular, there's not many dog friendly beaches in SW Cornwall during the summer season and this was one of the few. In the corner of the cove the tide had ashed up a big wrack of seaweed among which a family party of Rock Pipits was eagerly hoovering up the multitude of seaweed flies. They were quite confiding allowing fairly close approach with the 300mm lens unlike the dozen very wary Ringed Plovers that were perpetually spooked by the other families and dogs on the beach, we tried to keep well out of their way so they could get a few minutes feeding in before the next gaggle of punters came along and flushed them.
A Mediterranean Gull caught our attention but we didn't see much else although to be fair we weren't looking too hard.
A quick sightseeing detour took us to the picturesque fishing village of Coverack where we found this lovely lichen encrusted bench by the car park. Strange it should be so well vegetated in such a busy location right by the car park and overlooking such a beautiful view but for whatever reason very few people appear to sit on it now.
Friday we didn't go to the lighthouse but took a morning's boat ride out around Mount's Bay with very excellent Marine Discovery tours out of Penzance - we'll tell you all about that in our next post.
Twas a good trip
The early start on our last morning didn't give us time to go to the lighthouse so we had to make do with a wander round the lanes and mines finding several Stonechats a distant and flighty Whinchat and after other mornings out round the same area with Monty and seeing one maybe two Blackbirds, this morning there were at least 10.
Leaving the cottage we had a bit of time to kill before being able to bunk with the family again on the way home so had a tire Monty out walk on Long Rock beach where we saw a Sandwich Tern - still not got one for our Challenge! - and a rather odd fish, a Grey Trigger Fish. A species that has been moving northwards from the Mediterranean in response to climate changed warmer waters and has now even made it as far north as the Hebrides off Scotland. But it's OK cos Donald Trumpton says there's no such thing as Climate Change - sorry Don the poikilotherms of the animal kingdom are proving you a liar.
The journey from Penzance to Plymouth with a detour via Fowey (pronounced Foy for those unfamiliar with Cornwall and its sometimes odd pronunciations) gave us just two Buzzards and again not a single Kestrel in reasonable weather conditions. carnage on the roads gave us the first of only two Hedgehogs of the 1100 mile round trip - no sign of any recovery of numbers in the SW where thousands of non-TB infected Badgers have been 'culled (= killed/slaughtered/destroyed) so maybe the Badgers aren't the reason Hedgehogs are so scarce as the 'county set' keep claiming. Also noted were a single Fox, Grey Squirrel and a Magpie - don't off see them squished they're usually pretty adept at getting out of the way at the last minute.
The main drag back to Base camp up the M5, M6 and M55 gave just four Buzzards and yet again no Kestrels - where are they all??? Badgers numbered three casualties, Foxes two, the second Hedgehog, a Barn Owl and unexpected six Grey Squirrels probably representing post breeding dispersal of young animals.
On a lighter note live things noted other than the Buzzards v Kestrels competition were few and far between apart from numerous and ubiquitous Woodpigeons we only had the only Jay of the holiday, a Cormorant and a Stock Dove all see flying over the M5.
And so back to Base camp and 'normal' whatever that is.
But the big news is Base Camp is being packed up and moved elsewhere - not far and hopefully slightly nearer the sea...not that we're that far from it now! Yes the For Sale sign will appear imminently.
Where to next? There's a lot of decluttering to take up our time but big winds forecast next week could mean the chance of those ocean waifs Leach's Petrels
In the meantime let us know who's passing the lighthouse in huge numbers in your outback.
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