Cornwall - Fri 5 Apr to Fri 12 Apr

A week in Cornwall with the family and it was good to get out and about and actually see some decent birds after the recent poor returns at Sutton Bingham. We started the holiday with a slight diversion off the A30 to Dozmary Pool where a very smart drake Ring-necked Duck was present with a pair of Tufted Duck, a great start to the holiday.

A trip to Portscatho in the afternoon on Saturday from where we walked across to Porthcurnick Beach and a chance for a seawatch, which was pretty productive in windy conditions. A total of six Great Northern Divers were present whilst there was a constant trickle of birds flying west, including a flock of twelve Common Scoter, ten Kittiwakes and thirty Manx Shearwaters plus a lone Fulmar. Plenty of auks also passed through, the majority being Guillemots.

It was pretty much more of the same over the next couple of days, with Portscatho producing a Black-throated Diver on Sunday as well as four Sandwich Terns and three Mediterranean Gulls.

Monday was extremely stormy and produced over three hundred Manx Shearwaters flying west from Porthcurnick Beach.

As the winds dropped a scan of Gerrans Bay from Pendower beach on Tuesday morning yielded around twenty Great Northern Divers.

A visit to Ruan Lanithorne on Wednesday wasn't overly productive despite the low tide, but a couple of Greenshank and a lone Redshank were present along with two distant Grey Plovers and over forty Shelduck.

On the Thursday, our last full day on holiday, a morning trip to Portscatho produced seven Sandwich Terns and two Mediterranean Gulls flying round, whilst a Black-throated Diver and three Great Northern Divers were out to sea. In the afternoon I headed to Towen Beach where a summer-plumaged Red-necked Grebe was present and four Cirl Buntings were seen in the hedgerows. Stopping off at Pendower two Slavonian Grebes showed well, if somewhat distantly, rounding off a great family holiday with just a bit of birding thrown in!