Tuesday 29th September was dry and sunny as we headed down to West Cornwall on the train for a 2 night stay at St.Ives although the weather didn't remain that way for long. I jumped off the train at Hayle for a bit of birding while David carried onwards to Penzance where we eventually met up again before carrying on to St.Ives.
The tide was out at Hayle and I found no small waders at all but I did see 5 Grey Plover and 8 Greenshank along with the usual Oystercatcher, Redshank, Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit. There were 5 Little Grebe on The Carnsew Pool along with 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls while out on the estuary there were more Mediterranean Gulls amongst the roosting Herring, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls.
Ivy Bees were again seen feeding on Ivy flowers, many laden down with large amounts of pollen.
Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, 4 Shelduck and Canada Geese were also feeding and roosting out on the estuary and I easily found the reported 7 Pink-footed Geese roosting out on the mudflats amongst them. The Geese had been present for a few days and I probably saw 3 of them on my visit to Hayle last Saturday, they were asleep on Ryan's Field amongst a large group of Canada Geese and on my cursory glance of them I passed them off as Greylag Geese before moving on, a rookie mistake although in my defence I hadn't seen any reports of them being present, they were very obscured by the other geese present and I wasn't expecting to see Pink-footed Geese in Cornwall in September!
In Penzance a quick look at the rocks by the Jubilee Pool revealed a roosting flock of Dunlin, Turnstone and Ringed Plover but there was nothing out at sea in the flat calm conditions.
Onwards to St.Ives and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was feeding on buddleia flowers just below the balcony of our hotel room. Another one (or the same) was later seen feeding on buddleia flowers on our walk into town. A few Large Whites and a Red Admiral were also seen flitting about during our stay.
Turnstone, Oystercatcher, 2 Sandwich Tern, a Little Egret, Gannets, a distant Manx(?) Shearwater, 2 Grey Seal and a pair of very confiding Kestrels were also noted.
A nice break although the weather wasn't great at times with rain and showers but it was good to get away in these COVID-19 times.
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