Jynx'd again

An afternoon visit to Uskmouth and Goldcliffe paid dividends as I found a Wryneck at Uskmouth. 3 Yellow Wag's, inc a nice male, flew over.

At Goldcliffe, over high tide, highlights were 7 Curlew Sandpipers, 1 Ruff, 1 Spot' Red', 1 Wheatear and around a dozen Yellow Wag's.

Down Gower way

With a freshning South Westerly I decided to give sea watching from Tutt Head, Mumbles a go this am. After an hour I gave up - the highlight being a pair of Common Scoter!
From there is was over to Cwm Ivy to talk the long walk out to Whiteford. The Elder bushes just below Cwm Ivy were full of Blackcaps - at least a dozen - with a few Chiffies, Blackbirds and Song Thrush's thrown into the mix. The walk through Cwm Ivy woods produced little but on joining the main track to the point a Spotted Fly and a family part of Bullfinches livened things up a little. A juv' Green 'pecker on the saltmarsh was unusual, but not totally unexpected, but other than that little was seen on the walk out.
At the point, Oyk's dominated with smaller numbers of Curlew and singles of Turnstone and Whimbrel. Just round the corner 3 juv' Little Stints were found on the edge of the sandy beach, while 19 Eider loafed on a sand bar.
Lunch was taken by the hide, waiting to see what the tide pushed up - not a lot - a single Curlew Sand' and two Barwit's being the highlights.
Butterflies on the wing were mainly Meadow Brown and Common Blue, but a couple of Greyling were found.

Couple shots from Cornwall

 The Boys in Cot valley. The scillonian  and one of the many Clouded yellow seen.

Rhaslas and beyond

A morning visit to Rhaslas failed to connect with Mr Hogan, but did connect with his Garganey. No waders were found, but another birder had just been round and had flushed 3 Snipe and 5 Teal. The Wheatear's remain with a 1 calendar year bird along the haul road. The bog pools held good numbers of Emerald Damselflies, Black Darters and Brown China-mark moths, with at least 6 Emperor Dragonflies holding territory including a pair oviposting.

Mr Hogan was seen lurking around the pond later that morning as I returned from shopping.

A call in to see if we can get anything that could confirm whether the Little Owls, Mike found earlier this spring, had bred failed to turn up any owls. The tree did, however, hold a Spot Fly, Tree Pipit and juv Redstart. Nearby Buddlea's held 2 Red Admirals, 2 Wall and a Painted Lady, as well as numerous Small Tortoiseshells. The highlight, however, was a Yellow Wag seen briefly in flight and calling mixed in with a large flock of Mipits and Pied Wags. Unfortunately I couldn't find it on the deck.

Cornwall - part 3

Another lazy morning for our final day in Cornwall, saw breakfast at 7am, before heading down to Gwennap Head. With no more than a gentle Northerly breeze, we were not expecting too much from our sea watching session but it was a glorious morning to be out. As we set off from the car park in Porthgwarra we heard a Chough, but none of us managed to see it. This was followed by a fly over Grey Wagtail.

The headland was a blaze of purple and yellow with the heather and prostrate gorse in full bloom. Consequentially the air was alive with bees, hoverflies and butterflies, with numerous Clouded Yellows, Painted Ladies and Silver Y's being the Lepidopteran highlights. On setting down to sea watch I quickly connected with two Sooty Shear's not for out. Not long after Rob picked  up a dolphin and by the time we all got onto it, it was part of a pod of 15 - 20 Bottlenose Dolphins.  Another 4 Sooties and a Balearic Shear' a high flying GN Diver along with a showy Pom Skua were the highlights.

After Robs' treat of tea on the cafe we bashed the bushes along Porthgwarra valley with nothing to show for it. We decided then to try Nanquido valley, which again didn't hold out much in the way of bird life but 3 sparrowhawks passed over during our visit and telegraph poles on the hill side held a Great Spotted and Green Woodpecker. One, or more Yellow Wag was heard to fly over, but could not be found. A warbler in song near the old mill house had us going but we could not find it anywhere. It sounded like a Sylvia type warb, but not quite right for any of the usual suspects. Alas after 3-4 minutes it shut up and wasn't heard again. The Valley held a number of Golden-ringed Dragonflies and the second of our Rose Chafers (see photo's below), the first being found in the Cot valley.

And then on to the home journey, broken with a call in to Davidstow Airfield for a Buff-breasted Sandpiper that had come up on the info services earlier that day. There were some birders on the bird so we quickly got onto it - I think it's the first time I've ever used a scope to see a Buff-breasted as they are usually so close that binoculars are hardly needed. 3 Curlew Sand's that had been seen minutes before we arrived, couldn't be found before the small wader flock was spooked by a model airplane and took off to another part of the abandoned airfield.

same beetle

Cornwall Beetle

 The Beetle from Cornwall  is a Rose Chafer.