Ring-billed Gull
Winter in Cornwall is a very under-rated time of year to visit one of the UKs premier birding counties. The south coast holds significant numbers of wintering divers and grebes and scarce and rare gulls and wildfowl are often found. The mild climate is often utilised by some unusual wintering species that may have arrived during the autumn migration or in cold weather movements from significantly further east. Our base is The Green Lawns Hotel in the town of Falmouth, which is an ideal base for visiting the area and which has the use of an indoor swimming pool and health suite included as part of your package. A telescope is an essential requirement for this tour. On day one we rendezvous at our hotel in Falmouth at 1300. Out first stop will be the very scenic headland at Rosemullion, where offshore seaduck could include Velvet Scoter. We take a leisurely look at Swan Pool, where good numbers of gulls congregate before going to roost and this may include Mediterranean or Iceland Gull. The surrounding area will be checked for wintering passerines that hopefully will include Common Chiffchaff, Yellow-browed Warbler, Black Redstart, Firecrest and Blackcap. The Penwith district warrants a full day of exploration as this is where we are likely to encounter over wintering rarities. Our target birds will include Iceland, Glaucous and Mediterranean Gulls, Water Pipit, Black-necked and Slavonian Grebes, European Shag and following the recent invasion, a chance of a Cattle Egret or two. Shorebirds should include Purple Sandpiper while recent years have seen rarities such as Long-billed Dowitcher and Spotted Sandpiper appearing. We may also encounter our first divers of the tour, with Red-throated and Great Northern most likely. At Hayle it would not be unexpected for a Green-winged Teal or American Wigeon to be present and Ring-necked Duck and Lesser Scaup have also been recorded on a few occasions at nearby Drift Reservoir. We will also check nearby Marazion Marsh for Cetti’s Warbler, Common Kingfisher, Water Rail and hopefully a Jack Snipe or even a Great Bittern. Around the Fal Estuary we explore sites such as Loe Beach, Pendower, Pennarrow Point, Portscatho and Rosevine, collectively known as Gerrans Bay and The Carrick Roads both on land and from a boat hired exclusively for our use. Grebes, divers and seaduck, many in breeding dress, should include good numbers of Black-necked Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser. Divers are a key feature, and this is an excellent area for Black-throated and Great Northern, with Red-throated being the rarest of the three! .We will spend the remainder of the tour birding at nearby Stithians Reservoir and Helston Loe Pool, where a wide selection of wildfowl might be expected. We depart at lunchtime on day four and will stop at Bowling Green Marsh in Devon for an hour watching the vast expanse of mud for a variety of shorebirds offering a fitting finale to a great few days in the field. We have chosen the dates for this tour to specifically coincide with the best time not only to observe a variety of divers, gulls and wildfowl, but to maximise our chance of connecting with the recent run of rarities Cornwall has enjoyed during February/March. Recent rarities and uncommon species we have encountered on this tour include Snowy Owl, Cattle Egret, Hume’s Leaf Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Siberian Chiffchaff, Ring-billed Gull and Velvet Scoter, while White-billed Diver, Ring-necked Duck and Dusky Warbler have also been recorded during this period.
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Introduction
