My 2 weeks of annual leave from work eventually had to come to an end but with a glorious day of warm sunshine on Monday 11th October I took a pre-night shift walk at Wembury before my return. It has been a lovely break from work, not particularly birdy but with some nice sightings anyway (a nice White-tailed Lapwing being the highlight!), and nice to feel a little more my normal self instead of the usual knackered, grumpy, impatient and fed up version that work brings out in me. Having a 2 week break has really felt like being let out of a cage and I really, really, really don't want to get back in it but there you are.
Anyway, the walk at Wembury was glorious, it was a beautiful day and quite warm in the sunshine. There was little bird movement overhead but plenty of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were still feeding in the fields with Meadow Pipits also feeding along the beach.
Meadow Pipit
The tide was very high and at The Point only 10 Oystercatcher were roosting with 3 Curlew and 3 Little Egret while offshore a lone Gannet was seen in the flat calm conditions. An adult Mediterranean Gull flew past and later 2 adults and 6 1st winters were seen resting on the emerging rocky shore, numbers have certainly now dropped from earlier in the autumn.
I spent some time around the pine trees at The Point and was pleased to find around 20 Chiffchaff flitting about, they were very mobile with a few calls and some singing heard. At least 6 Blackcaps were also seen but they were much more skulky, at least 2 males and 4 females were present. The highlight though was a very tardy Garden Warbler which flew across the brambles before disappearing into cover. It eventually reappeared to investigate some blackberries before flying off again, a late date for one and only my second sighting of one at Wembury.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Coal Tit, a Song Thrush and Cirl Buntings were also seen around the pines along with Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Robin, Blackbird and Great Tit.
A late Meadow Brown, 2 Small Copper, 2 Comma, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Large and Small White were also seen and all were enjoying the warm weather along with Ivy Bees enjoying the Ivy flowers.
Comma
Ivy Bee
The only other birds of note were a Ringed Plover flushed off the beach by the usual dog walkers and a Wheatear feeding in the horse field, presumably the same bird as seen here on last Saturday.
And so a very enjoyable and successful mornings walk before my return to work.
Saturday 16th October and with the weather remaining warm and calm and settled and a Little Stint at Hayle being re-identified as a Semipalmated Sandpiper I decided to go and have a look for it. I set out on an early train in very foggy conditions but by the time I arrived at Hayle for the low tide at around 09:30 the fog had cleared.
I walked over to the Carnsew Pool first where the Semipalmated Sandpiper has mostly been seen and very easily found it feeding out on the mud with Dunlins, smaller and whiter underneath than the Dunlins and quite often heading off to feed on it's own. The small waders were all very twitchy though and regularly took to the air before eventually resettling on the mud, a female Sparrowhawk was briefly seen in hunting mode flying low along the side of the Pool but no other raptors were noted to cause such nervousness.
I had some great scope views of the bird out on the mud, at times it was relatively close as the waders moved around the exposed mud but it was still too distant for any half decent photos.
Semipalmated Sandpiper with Dunlins
Semipalmated Sandpiper - courtesy of Paul Taylor @Tay_PJT on Twitter
More birders were arriving to view the Sandpiper and it was beginning to feel a little too twitchy for my liking so I decided to head over to nearby Copperhouse Creek for a look around where the highlight was a Black-tailed Godwit seen feeding out on the mud.
I headed back to the Carnsew Pool but I couldn't relocate the Sandpiper, presumably it was tucked up asleep amongst the roosting Dunlins and out of sight and so I headed up to the Causeway Bridge for a scan about. The tide was beginning to head in and on the rapidly diminishing exposed mud I found the usual birds - Mediterranean Gull, Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck, Mallard, Canada Goose, Greenshank, Lapwing, Bar-tailed Godwit, etc. - with the highlight being 2 Ruff feeding close to the bridge.
Greenshank
Ruff
Ruff
Ruff
Back to the Carnsew Pool and the Semipalmated Sandpiper was again easily found busily feeding with the Dunlins on the rapidly decreasing amount of mud but after a few minutes a low flying Black-headed Gull spooked all the waders and off they flew upriver before landing on the mud near the Causeway Bridge!
With the Sandpiper having flown off and the tide heading in it was time to head home on the train but it was good to catch up with the Semipalmated Sandpiper (my 3rd one ever and my 2nd at Hayle after last years September bird). And it turned out to be a 14 wader species day with 4 Grey Plover, 4 Ringed Plover and a Snipe also seen on the Carnsew Pool along with a flock of around 100 calling Golden Plover flying over.
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