Sutton Bingham - Mon 26 Oct

A return to the patch today after a week's holiday and water levels were still really low. A Great White Egret was present on West Pool before it flew across to the main reservoir and a Coot was off the northern causeway.

But nothing else of note this morning.

Cornwall - Sat 17 Oct to Sat 23 Oct

A decent week in Cornwall with the family for some much needed downtime which involved several Cornish pasties, a couple of cream teas and quite a bit of coastal walking. There was still time for some birding and a few decent birds were seen over the course of the week.
A walk down to Porthcurnick beach turned out to be well worth it with two Chough feeding in the field behind The Hidden Hut.

Another decent walk to Towan beach was also productive with a couple of Cirl Bunting seen, though these were a little distant and I only had my binoculars, hence the dreadful photos.

I did spend quite some time seawatching from our apartment, which was pretty useful as it meant I didn't have to stand on a windy headland to see what was out in Gerrans Bay. Despite it being arguably too early in the year for much in the way of sea birds, there was still some interest with a few auks and Common Scoters passing through westwards and six Great Northern Divers on the water.

A flock of around thirty Turnstones were on the rocks off Porthscatho and a couple of Curlew and a lone Redshank were also noted and four Sanderling were seen in flight. There were also good numbers of Mediterranean Gulls, with a peak count of eighty-five.
However, the highlight of the week was arguably a couple of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna that were seen breaching in Gerrans Bay, something I'd never seen before. So, all in all a lovely week away.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 11 Oct

Three Egyptian Geese were present on Friday and a pair of Stonechat were on West Pool yesterday.

A lunchtime visit today was pretty productive with highlight being a flock of around 180 Golden Plover over the ridge at the southern end of the reservoir. The five Teal and two Ringed Plover were still present along with around sixty Meadow Pipits.

A single Common Sandpiper was at the northern end from the Fishing Lodge and two Wigeon (five were present yesterday) were also seen.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2026 now at 113 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 8 Oct

A very quick visit this afternoon turned out to be pretty good by recent standards. At the southern end of the reservoir there were two Ringed Plover present, loosely associating with a few Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits.

There were also five Teal but not much else so I went up to the northern causeway where I picked out three Wigeon.

I then had a bit of a surprise as a small wader suddenly flew in towards me before backing and flying down the arm...it was a Dunlin, my first of the year!

Sutton Bingham year list for 2026 now at 112 species.

Sutton Bingham - Sat 3 Oct

I appreciate there has been a lack on content posted over the past couple of weeks, that's simply because I've not really had much to report. September went out with a whimper, with little of note seen at the reservoir.

I thought that today was going to be the same, but a pair of Egyptian Geese off the northern causeway just about warranted a blog entry.

Nothing else today, but one lives in hope.