I had the day free to myself on Thursday January 17th and with a favourable weather forecast I decided to visit Hayle and Penzance to do some birding. GWR had a train ticket sale on so I pre-booked cheap tickets for specific trains, something I don't usually do, but after a particularly exhausting 12 hour shift at work the day before when I had just a 15 minute break I was regretting my decision when the alarm clock sounded at 05:30hrs.
The 07:02hr train left on time and the journey to Hayle was uneventful but mostly because I slept all the way from St.Germans to Camborne (!) and on arriving at Hayle I headed off to Copperhouse Creek first as this is where the wintering spoonbill is most often reported from of late. It was cold and sunny and breezy but there was no sign of the spoonbill on the low tide although there were 2 little grebe in the harbour, a kingfisher along the quayside and some linnets flying over.
Female Wigeon, Copperhouse Creek
Onwards to the Carnsew Pool where 7 little grebe, 10 grey plover, a dunlin and finally the spoonbill were all noted along with wigeon, cormorant and redshank.
Spoonbill, Carnsew Pool
Spoonbill, Carnsew Pool
Moving on along the estuary to the causeway bridge and there were lapwing, teal, wigeon and around 80 golden plover roosting out on the mudflats close to the road. The roosting gulls were unfortunately much further away downriver and near to the opposite side of the estuary at Lelant so I had no opportunity to scan through them for the recently reported Caspian gulls or yellow-legged gulls. The only other bird of note was a flyby kingfisher and so I decided to leave earlier than planned and walked to St.Erth railway station to catch the bus to Long Rock.
Teal and Lapwing, Hayle Estuary
Teal and Wigeon, Hayle Estuary
Lapwing, Hayle Estuary
After getting off the bus at Long Rock by The Mexico Inn I walked back to Long Rock Pool where 6 tufted duck and 3 teal were noted and it was quiet too at Marazion Marsh where the best of it were 3 chiffchaffs feeding together along the railway line hedgerow. The walk along the coast path to Penzance was also quiet with the highlight being 2 adult winter plumaged Mediterranean gulls sat on the sea amongst a flock of black headed gulls.
A quick look at the rocks by the bus station was black redstart-less and so after grabbing a pasty from Rowes (very tasty) I walked on to the Jubilee Pool where there was a small roost of waders on the high tide - 4 oystercatcher, 11+ purple sandpipers, dunlin, ringed plover, turnstone and sanderling. Having dipped on black redstart by the bus station it was nice to find a smart male black redstart feeding along the beach here before it flew over to the small park on the other side of the coast road.
Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Sanderling, Jubilee Pool
Purple Sandpiper and Ringed Plovers, Jubilee Pool
Offshore there were 3 immature male and an adult male eider with shags and cormorants and 2 distant great northern divers. I also picked up a smaller diver swimming east across the bay, snorkelling as it went before I lost sight of it in the choppy waters. Unfortunately it was distant but it appeared to lack a pale flank patch and appeared small billed/headed but it was too far out to call - a black throated diver or more likely the elusive Pacifuc diver but who knows?
It was soon time to head back to the station to catch the train home and along the way there were quite a few turnstones running around the harbour car park looking for scraps of food and a beautiful cormorant drying its wings on the quayside that unfortunately had green plastic netting caught around its head and bill.
Cormorant, Penzance Harbour
Cormorant, Penzance Harbour
The train journey home was uneventful too and again I slept most of the way (from Camborne to Saltash) but it had been a very enjoyable day out.
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