A week away in Cornwall to recharge the batteries, especially as our planned break back in October was cut short due to car issues, basically it blew up!
As with all family holidays, this was a strictly no birding...but obviously that wasn't quite true! In fact we did our first bit of birding on the drive down, stopping at Dozmary Pool where I connected with three Ring-necked Ducks, of which one was a very smart drake. A large flock of Golden Plover were wheeling around overhead and at least one Goosander was on the nearby Colliford Lake. Not a bad journey down to Cornwall.
The first full day and we stayed local, a trip to Portscatho produced a Black-necked Grebe close inshore, which I saw several times over the course of the week, and two Sanderling on the beach. A single Mediterranean Gull was also present. I then had a quick scan over Gerrans Bay from Pendower where I saw two Black-throated Divers and a few Great Northern Divers as well as a couple of Razorbills. It was pretty much more of the same the following day, except I found a drake Common Scoter off Porthkurnick beach.
On Tuesday we headed down to west Cornwall for the day, where a quick stop at Lelant Saltings produced a Glaucous Gull amongst the gathered gulls, but I was unable to find the adult Ring-billed Gull. After a nice day out I went along to the railway bridge on the A394 to stake out the roost site of the long-staying Booted Eagle. After a thirty minute wait I connected with my target and finally added Booted Eagle to my UK list (payback after missing the Chew Lake bird many years ago).
Over the next couple of days I spent most of my time checking out the sea, with a couple more Common Scoters and three Slavonian Grebes off Portscatho. Along with some commoner stuff it was a brilliant non-birding holiday.
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