To Botallack and back

The Safari has been away for a few days down to the far south west, just about as far south west as you can get. Since we've been back we've been on family duties with another terminal illness which ended with the inevitable conclusion yesterday. No matter how prepared you are it's still a shock to the system. Processing the holiday snaps and blogging has necessarily taken a bit of back seat. 

We went down to the Cornish tin mining village of Botallack in the heart of Poldark filming country, although he wasn't there at the time showing off his poor scything technique and 'his' mine is nowhere near there being half way between Helston and Falmouth. Cornish tin has been sought after since the Bronze Age over 4000 years ago and has its value led to the trade and immigration of people from all over Europe well into the Iron Age.

Most of what remains around Botallack is late 18th and 19th Century workings.

We were hoping to get several year birds and a good few pics for our Year Bird Photo Challenge but the weather conspired against us despite the sunny sunshine in the pic above, that was the exception rather than the norm. The norm looked more like this...

It doesn't look too bad in the village but out on the cliffs you couldn't see down to the sea much of the time. And when you could the light was very poor.

We did manage to add Fulmar (158) and Shag (159) to our  year list and we were very lucky to be alerted to the presence of a very swift Hobby (160) hurtling over the garden of our cottage by the alarm calls of the local Swallows.

Breaks in the weather enabled us to get very distant and grotty pics of

Fulmar (YBC #129)

Gannet (YBC #130)

Kittiwake (YBC #131)

 and

Manx  Shearwater (YBC #132)

We also go an awful pic of a House Martin (YBC #133) which we had to replace once back in Lancashire with a much better effort which at least shows their lovely blue sheen and white rump - the original didn't!

A couple of sunny days at the end of our week had us on the cliffs looking singularly unsuccessfully for Adders, which the locals repeatedly warned us about particularly with respect to sniffer here-there-and everwhere-Monty, we didn't even find a Common Lizard!

The wildflowers were good though with Bluebells still in good fettle, Red Campion coming through, the Gorse was a blaze of yellow and the scent of Coconuts from it was heady. Sea Campion and Thift were also in bloom.

One of the Gorse bushes was covered in the thin strands of the parasitic plant Common Dodder. unfortunately we were a couple of months too early to see the small white flowers.

 Birds up on the cliffs included a pair or two of Ravens

Innumerable Jackdaws our best views of sky diving Choughs - ever - - by a mile, but we had the wrong camera with us and nesting Fulmars.

Raptors were represented by a Peregrine Kestrels

A very foggy hour saw a loose flock of about 25 Swifts and a few Swallows going south hugging the edge of the cliff.
Also out there were a few Linnets and a family of very unapproachable Stonechats. 

Doh - right at the limit of the macro lens

With the sun not being out much we saw few insects other than bumblebees. This Small Copper would have provided a better pic had Monty not wound his lead round our legs as we were trying to get in a better position to show both its wings.

We saw few other buttterflies up there, just a couple of Common Blues and a pair of very fast swirling brown things - (Small) Pearl Bordered Fritillaries? Talking of Monty we took him down to the dog friendly beach near Penzance most days where he had a whale of a time mashing up seaweed

While we watched his antics we had a go at some stone balancing

Shoulda gone for 15 layers + the base stone

Half way through our balancing act a Painted Lady butterfly flew across the beach and settled briefly  on a nearby Dandelion, we're pretty sure it had just come in off the sea after crossing from France! We grabbed the phone for a pic but after a very quick slurp of nectar was on its way again up and over the railway line and heading ever onwards to the north.
A day trip to St Ive's had us trying to do some serious art - well you have to in this artists' town

Fore Street - where it all happens

Arty harbour - must go when the tide is in next time!

Our last day in Cornwall had us chatting to the locals at the garden gate when something moving in the grass by our feet caught our eye. A Fox Moth, a bit bedraggled but not a bad find and apart from a couple of Light Brown Apple Moths and a White Shouldered House Moth (in the cottage - where else!) we saw no other moths.

On our last walk on the cliffs we spotted a bizarre wall, there's always a wall, why do humans have the need to build them everywhere? What on earth was the purpose of this one. A bit of a scary build for someone too we reckon.

It was high above the world famous and often photographed Crown Mines who's shafts extend out under the seabed.

Not a great place to be working in a fierce Atlantic storm

And our week away ended with a bit of a sunset

Keeping our usual journey statistics we had the following in our nearly 1000 mile round trip of mostly motorway, although the drive down wasn't good weather for raptors to be up and about:-

Kestrels just 1!!!!! Buzzards 16

Dead things: -  

Badger 8, 

Fox 4

Hedgehog only 6 - where are they - what have we done?????

Stoat 1

Our general appraisal of the English countryside is that it offers very little by way of habitat or food for much wildlife at all. The number-plate of the car had barely a squished insect on it on our return and we don't think we needed the windscreen squirter all holiday - where are all the insects - never mind the biodiversity, where is the bioabundance???? Green it might be but it's also a biological desert, there's probably more life in the depths of the Sahara!

Where to next? We've had a couple of extra days off and been a couple of places we can tell you about next time.

In the meantime let us know who's being digging all the holes in your outback

Wax off - wax on

The Safari booked a day off yesterday and minutes after having it Ok'd by the boss on Tuesday afternoon news of a flock of about 50 Waxwings in the neighbouring town broke. Well that was fortuitous! No need to make any difficult decisions about what to do or where to go. We had already planned a chill-out day around a safari somewhere but this news was just what we wanted. 

Tuesday had already seen us looking at a Borage plant still in flower and then watching a Black Headed Gull with an unseasonal almost total brown head in the melee after the last scraps of DB's lunch she was launching skywards over the seawall. Every winter there always seems to be one whose moult is highly retarded or overly advanced. Also slightly unseasonal were a good number of Daffodil sprouts sprouting tall above the soil.

And then back at Base Camp we saw the first green shoots of our Spanish Bluebells.

Anyway after a few small household chores yesterday waiting for the morning rush to die down we then pointed the car eastwards, half an hour later we were pulling up in a parking space to see a small cluster of birders stood close to a berry-laden roadside tree looking very odd and out of place amongst the hip and trendy university students making their way to lectures in the adjacent building...talk about sore thumbs! Trouble was none of the half a dozen or so birders ever lifted their bins once while we were walking towards them - a sure sign of chit-chat and no birds to be seen. Sure enough the word was there were some but they'd gone to who knows where. Other birders arrived who'd gone to look at nearby who-knows-where type places but without success.

Eventually news broke that two had been found at a 'traditional' berry-tree lined street not too far away. By the time we'd driven round there they'd done a bunk over the houses not to be seen again. Many years ago we almost bought a house on that street

Two Waxwings had been seen there not long before we got there but had disappeared over the rooftops. The local bloshy Mistle Thrushes might have had something to to do with it as we watched them successfully defend their precious berries against a party of marauding Blackbirds several times. 
With no sign of the Waxwings news came that there were others a mile or so away...off we went and bingo - success. Driving down the small street we looked up at four smallish birds in the top of the tallest tree.

Every twenty minutes or so they'd drop down into a scratty Rowan tree with hardly any berries left on a tiny street corner amenity planting where they gave pretty stonking views.

They are gorgeous aren't they - and just a bit better for their unpredictability rating.

Somehow we managed to only get pics of the juveniles and not the adults with the bright yellow wing patches - doh!!! We'll just have to go back!
Also in the tree briefly was a berry eating Blackcap.

Got one

Gone!

At work a walk to the shop for the crew's milk had us notice that our mystery local bird lover had been back and put out the feeders for the winter. Good on them. The 30 or more local House Sparrows are grateful too.

Where to next? Might have a look at the Starling murma=uration onm the way home tomorrow if the weather is OK, bit of a sunset would bee a bonus too.
In the meantime let us know who's sporting the natty tufts in your outback.

Macro fun in the grand estate

The Safari didn't get out today. We failed to get out of bed early enough to get out on safari before the rain started....Not good. Once the rain came it lasted throughout a dismal morning but once the sun came out around lunchtime we were busy with errands and chores so still unable to get out.

The only way we could really get out, other than to the shops and returning to Base Camp after one of the trips a Swallow (Garden #25) flew over us as we were unloading the car. We also 'think' we heard a Willow Warbler somewhere close while concentrating on other things but didn't hear it again when we were listening so can't add it to the list.

We added a couple of insects to the garden's list for this year, a worker Early Bumble Bee and a Tree Bee which went into the gap under the eaves of the kitchen roof again.

Once we'd seen the Early Bumble Bee we decided to grab the camera and have a mooch around to see if we could get a pic of it. Unfortunately we only saw it once more and then only briefly. So what else could we find to point the lens at?

British Bluebell

Spanish Bluebells

Hoverfly sp in British Bluebell

Cowslips

The hoverfly above

Same one again - Platycheirus sp? P. peltatus??

Dog Violet

Saxifrage sp

So there you have it a quick wander round the (not so) grand estate at Base Camp.

Where to next? We've got a bit of driving to do tomoz so there'll be a Buzzard v Kestrel update coming up.

In the meantime let us know who's making the most of the spring flowers in your outback.