cliftonbirding: Mad weekend twitching

Saturday the 6th I met up with Darren, John and Stuart in Leeds for an early morning twitch down to Minsmere for a Western Swamphen that had been there all week, with a recent northerly dispersal through France it is deemed to have the best credentials yet to be accepted as a genuine wild bird, unfortunately despite seeming very settled and being seen up till dusk on Friday evening there was no sign of it Saturday, we spent the day in the area just in case it popped out but unfortunately it didn’t, highlights included a good selection of Waders from the East Hide plus several Little Gulls, a pair of Stone Curlew with a young bird from the North Wall and Dartford Warblers at nearby Dunwich Heath, Butterflies included Red Admirals, Painted Ladies and Grayling, Dragonflies included Brown Hawkers and Emperor.

Grayling at Dunwich Heath

a few Kestrels around but surprisingly we didn't encounter any Hobbies

Stonechat family

and young Dartford Warbler

Grayling at Minsmere

young Whitethroat

Sunday the 7th and Mark had arranged to go down to Cornwall with Dave and Bob from Rochdale, in a moment of madness I said I’d tag along, barely recovered from Saturdays trip it was another very early start picking up Dave and Bob enroute, I came around as we stopped at Gloucester Services for a pit stop then carrying on we arrived at Restronguet Creek near Falmouth by around 9-30, after much scanning I eventually picked out the long staying Dalmation Pelican sat sleeping on a buoy much to the relief of Dave who had been down and dipped it last weekend, we moved up the creek to get a bit closer and it eventually woke up, stretched a couple of times then dropped in to the water for a swim around, a fine looking bird although its highly likely not to be accepted, an insurance tick anyway. We had a little supporting cast to go for next although one or two of them had already moved on, it was on to Perranuthnoe next for the long staying Hudsonian Whimbrel, a few Whimbrel and Curlew were around Boat Cove as well as Little Egret and Common Sandpiper but despite extensive searching we couldn’t find the Yank among them, several Buzzards and a couple of Ravens patrolled the skies. With a stiff westerly breeze blowing we thought a seawatch might be good so we headed off to Porthgwarra, it was indeed pretty good there was a constant passage of Manx plus a few Balearic Shearwaters but unfortunately we never managed to see any of the larger Shearwaters or Storm Petrels that have been passing just lately. As always you make plans but time runs away from you and our original plan of catching up with the Cirl Buntings at Labrador Bay on the way back had to be abandoned, still all in all it was a nice day but maybe a weekend visit to this county would be a better bet in future.