Cornwall - 12.3.12

The Night Heron, Purple Sandpiper and Long-Tailed Duck.

The first port of call was the jubilee pool again where as the tide was just starting to go out the exposed rocks had attracted a lovely group of 18 Purple Sandpipers which eventually flew round to just infront of me and another birder present. Shortly afterwards the other birder picked up a bird out in the bay and watched it crash land into the water. I got on it and was delighted to see it was the female Long-Tailed Duck that had gone missing for a few days. Whilst watching that I suddenly noticed a small pod of Dolphin sp splashing about just off the harbour. I'll have to try and ID them to species though!

As I was preparing to leave and thinking of where to go to next the pager bleeped telling me of a Night Heron that had just been found at Kenidjack Valley. Well thats where I was going sorted then! After 10-15 minutes I was on site but having to guess where to go until I bumped into the finders of the heron and told me where to go. I found the spot and down in the valley bottom by the small stream sat motionless the Night Heron. Amazingly it was less than a mile from where I saw my first 10 years ago and I think I was only the 3rd person to see this bird which was the first in the UK this year!

I left after a while and headed out to Pendeen Watch. Unfortunately the fog that had been around all day was still around and so limited the distance off shore. Even so it still produced a couple of year ticks. 2 Kittiwakes were sat on the sea and 15 Fulmars were sat on the cliff face. Whilst looking out to sea 3 small groups of LBB Gulls flew past and it was the 4th small flock that caught my attention when right at the front was a large all white gull. It was a 1st winter Glaucous Gull!! Not a bad self found!

The final stop of the day was to Sennen Cove. This only produced a single year tick in the shape of a Guillemot but another small pod of mammals showed briefly and I think these were Harbour Porpoises but again i'm going to have to look them up first!