Cornwall

Days 3 to 5

 

Day 3

Penzance / Marazion / St Ives

Today decided to get the day bus ticket and head for Maraxion Marsh to see if I could see the Spotted Crake that has been around for a while arrived at about ¼ past 11 and stayed at the spot till 2 o’clock no sign of the crake birds seen included Common buzzard, Water Rail, Sedge Warbler, Swallow, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Cormorant, Wigeon, Canada Geese plus a selection of Gulls I was in two minds whether to come today as I was told there was ringing going on early morning if there was it had finished when I got there but no one else was seeing the crake after yet another pasty and coffee at the cafe by the bus stop I then got the bus back to Penzance on arriving at the bus station the open top bus that does the sightseeing tour was there so I thought I might as well take that back to St Ives 2 and half hours through some nice scenery just after we left Pendeen I had 2 Choughs flying along the cliff tops plus more Swallows after a look at the time table I realised that It would drop me of outside my B&B so ending a long and enjoyable day

Day 4

St Ives / Lelant Saltings

Bit of a lay in today did not go out till 10 walked into St Ives along the road as it had been raining over night and was told the coast past would be very muddy in places was told would take 30 to 40 minutes to walk into town well 20 minutes later I was there then the short walk out to the head, on arriving there were a couple of birders already set up I asked what had been seen so far this morning about a hour before I got the they had a Long Tailed Skua, Grey Phalorpe through so I set up the scope and the first bird I was put on was a Bonxie (Great Skua) we had more Sooty Shearwaters, a few Baleric Shearwaters and of course Manx Shearwater the count on manx was about 10,000 a hour going through they just kept coming I was there for just over two hours just as the birds got a bit quite someone spotted a pod of 9 Harbour Porpoises this was followed by 3 Basking Sharks of witch one came in close, after this we then spotted 2 Sunfish ended up with 4 Bonxies other birds included lots of Gannets, Sandwich Tern, Mediterranean Gull, Kittiwake, Fulmar, I then went off for a pub Lunch then got the train to the Lelant Saltings by now the tide was coming in so I spent some time till all the waders had been pushed of the mud by the tide Birds included Wigeon, Grey Heron, Little Egret, selection of gulls Black Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Whimbrel, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, As the tide got higher I found the best vantage point was from the station platform at least I could sit down then realised that I would have to wait over a hour for the next train to Carbis Bay so got the next one to St Ives and came back so another good days birding and nature watching

Day 5
After breakfast had a walk along the cliffs at Carbis Bay then back to catch my coach  so ending a week in Cornwall