BIRDING NEWS

Early 2010 saw our stats counter surpass the 300,000 mark, which averages out at about 100,000 hits on the Cornwall Birding website per year since it was founded in July 2007! That was achieved by just short of 70,000 of you logging on from 143 different countries! In 2009, 34,740 of you visited the site 145,775 times, including a whopping 1,670 on January 17th (something to do with a well publicised Grey Phalarope death no doubt!!). We have already had 23,089 visits this year, so it looks like 2010 could easily see more milestones surpassed and get us closer to the half a million hits mark!

A massive THANKYOU to all our visitors and regular contributors for your support. We hope you continue to use and enjoy the site.

Paul, Ash and Mark.

PS: Apologies for the lack of Monthly Bird Reviews in the last 5 months. They will be back up to date shortly!

Polbathic - *LITTLE BUNTING* again at Sconner lake, (along river Lyhner) feeding in set aside field in hedgerow (opposite Sconner farm) this morning, tho’ elusive. Park Carefully

Bodmin Moor - *LESSER SCAUP* (drk) still at Colliford lake at north end at Loveny NR this evening, viewable from cattle grid on road to Dozmary pool at 1252hrs tho’ distant , Access south of A30 at Jamaica Inn. No sign of Black Duck (ad.drk)

Sennen - *CATTLE EGRET* (2) still in field by Brew farm. Long-tailed Duck (1w.drk) still in Sennen cove off beach cafe

Newquay - Bittern flew over reedbed at Porth reservoir at 0845hrs

Drift - Black-necked Grebe still by hide at Drift reservoir. Also Whooper Swan (ad) and Barnacle Goose (3)

Marazion - Bittern (2) and Water Pipit still at Marazion Marsh RSPB, tho elusive. Black Redstart on Marazion beach (Thanks S.Williams)

Penzance - Iceland Gull by swing bridge in the dry dock area and Purple Sandpiper by Jubilee pool (Thanks S.Williams). Black Redstart still on Eastern Green beach

Newlyn - Iceland Gull (juv)  in harbour briefly this afternoon

Torpoint - Ring-billed Gull (ad) at marine drive at 1150am. Also Pale-bellied Brent Goose (5). Egyptian Goose on millbrook pond by Doctor’s surgery this morning and Spotted Redshank on Millbrook lake this morning (Thanks T.Twiggs)

Looe - Eider (1w.drk) at St Georges Island this afternoon (Thanks T.Twiggs)

Siblyback - Smew (redhead) still on Siblyback reservoir at NW end

Camborne - Greater Scaup still at Tehidy CP on main lake. Shoveller (8) and Peregrine at Pendarves woods  (Thanks S.Taylor)

Stithians - Goldeneye (1), Great Crested Grebe (2), Gadwall (5) and Water Rail (Thanks S.Taylor)

What is Nest Box Challenge?

Putting up a nest box is great fun; however the fun is only just beginning! To get the most enjoyment out of your nest box, take part in Nest Box Challenge (NBC) on-line. You can do your bit to help the BTO monitor the breeding success of birds in Britain’s green spaces by recording the activity of the adults and the contents of your nest box at regular intervals during the breeding season. Cornwall Birding will be taking part this year monitoring 30 boxes that have just been supplied to Tregenna Castle, St Ives. The boxes supplied by HandyKam and Cornwall Birding will be put up along the wildlife trail at the Castle over the next few days by staff there and monitired by us at Cornwall Birding. We will hopefully have plenty of updates for you throughout the breeding season!

Now is a great time to get those bird boxes up and partake in the Nest Box Challenge. Why not make the job easier by monitoring your bird box from the comfort of your own home! Click on the link for HandyKam in the right hand side of the header (above) to see their full range of superb camera boxes. They make someone an ideal birthday or alternative valentines day present!!

Anyone interested in an organised birding trip on the Carrick Roads, Famouth to see the wintering divers grebes andsea-duck in Feb/early March? Preliminary equiry indicates price of £36 for two hours in RIB with toilet. Contact Roy Phillips. 01736 351793

The latest results from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) show Britain’s birds are flooding into gardens, as food in the countryside becomes harder to find under the blanket of snow and ice (RBA). Click HERE for further information.

A Cornish birder currently serving in Helmand Province, Afghanistan recently purchased one of our Cornwall Birding baseball caps! To follow his, and other Army birding exploits have a look at the Army Ornithological Society’s website. Some mouthwatering locations and birds, although, personally, counting Sooty Tern chicks on the Ascension Islands would be prefferable to a tour in Afghan! Best Wishes to all our visitors currently serving with the forces abroad. And hope you got your cap Richard! Stay safe.

Award winning wildlife documentary maker, Patrick Morris, will be talking about his experiences as part of the BBC Natural History Unit making ‘Wild Africa’, ‘Galapagos’ and most recently the ‘Birds’ and ‘Primates’ episodes of the BBC Lifes series currently on TV.

An absolute must for bird and animal enthusiasts.

Friday 29th January, 7pm
Matthews Hall, Topsham, Exeter
Tickets £15 to include a glass of wine.

All money raised will go to support the local Hospice services.

Call 01392 688020 for tickets.

Ignore yesterdays message! Carbis Bays finest young birder, Ash Hugo has very kindly agreed to take over the bird sightings for the forseeable future. So please continue to send your sightings of rare and scarce birds to us at CORNWALL BIRDING. We are always looking to expand other areas of the website so if you feel you could contribute in other areas then please feel free to send your site guides, trip reports, reviews, ID articles etc. to us.

Thankyou to all our regular contributors for your patience during this transition and to our visitors for your continued support  and we hope to be back to full strength VERY SOON.

Paul and Ash.

The final trip of 2009 on 30th December, saw all on board enjoy great views of Spoonbill and Avocet along with plenty of other wildfowl and waders. Next trip is 30 Jan 2010 and tickets are available from Bruce Taggart on 01752 829163.

May I take this opportunity to wish all our visitors a very Merry Christmas and a Bird filled New Year! A massive thankyou to all our contributors in 2009, for your bird sightings, articles and superb photographs. They are all very much appreciated and go a long way to keeping Cornwall Birding the premier county birding website. Thanks also to those who have sent some very kind and constructive comments, I will be keeping up the good work into 2010!

Best wishes, Paul.

PS. Im away from now until the new year and Im having a break from the website. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Gary Prescott is at present a 53 year old special needs teacher but next year will face an exciting challenge: Read more »

During the recent influx of Spoonbills to the county, there was one particular individual seen on the Camel Estuary that appeared to have a broken leg. Does anyone know the whereabouts of this bird now? Or do you know when it was last seen. The Environment Agency would be happy to undertake a post mortem of this bird should it be found deceased. Please e-mail with any info.

Read more »

The PACIFIC DIVER remains at Carnsew Pool, Hayle, arriving with the high tide and showing well, although spending much time feeding. A Great Skua and GN Diver were off Gorren Haven on 21st (Thanks D.Payne). A Goosander and twelve Purple Sandpipers were off Battery Rocks, Penzance on the 20th (Thanks S.Williams) and 34 were there on the 23rd (Thanks LGRE). An interesting report on the 23rd concerned a possible MASKED BOOBY that flew past Cape Cornwall at 13.45hrs. Elswhere, there were plenty of GN Diver reports and the Whooper Swan remained at Drift. Spoonbills were at Wacker Quay, Antony (4) and Dinham Flats (5).
Also at Carnsew Pool on the 23rd November was adult and first-winter Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Shags, 5 Little Grebe, 15+ Mediterranean Gulls, 1 Sanderling, 16 Turnstone, 23 Ringed Plovers, Dunlin and Curlew (Thanks LGR Evans). Seawatching at Pendeen on the 23rd produced 10 Great Skuas, 293Kittiwakes, 1,000+ Common Guillemots, 33 Northern Fulmars, 2 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater and 100+ Northern Gannets (Thanks LGR Evans)

PACIFIC DIVER, Carnsew Pool, Hayle. Superb images kindly suplied by Matt Sallis (click to enlarge)

Nanquidno - **VARIED THRUSH** at Nanquidno today!!! (In 1982!) Just a reminder that theres always time left for a ‘biggie’ to turn up! The famous Nanquidno bird was found today in 1982, and still remains, the first record for Britain. It stayed in the valley until the 23rd November. Where will the next one be?

Thanks for your patience this week we are now back from a fairly uneventful week on Scilly and will be back to full updates soon. Sorry for any inconvenience.

With rarity season now upon us we thought it might be a good idea to re-vitalise the monthly bird competiton with the October emphasis on rarities. Entries to reach us by 1st December 2009 and the photo must have been taken in Cornwall during October 2009. Only one entry per person please! We are offering a prize to the winner of  a place on board a Cornwall Birding Pelagic in 2010! The winner will be announced on New Years Day 2010. Good Luck!

Pure Cornwall is an exciting new company for Luxury Holiday Lets, Sales and Management coming soon to Cornwall in association with Cornwall Birding. Register your email at www.purecornwall.co.uk for the chance to win a lovely Cornish Hamper.

We still have four places left on our latest date on board the Golden Princess from St Ives. To join us on Saturday 5th September please see ‘Pelagics’ link above for details. This is likely to be the last trip until next year.