Cornwall - 18.10.25

Sadly my flight left on time and with it the end of my trip. But I wasn’t too sad as there was still some potentially good birds to see in Cornwall on the way home!

Once I’d reached my car and cleaned the salt spray off the windows I headed straight to the Hayle Estuary where from the road I quickly saw the year ticks of Curlew Sandpiper and just my 3rd ever White-rumped Sandpiper which frustratingly spent most of the time I was there asleep. A Spotted Redshank and Brent Goose were notable as were 20+ Mediterranean Gulls and a Peregrine that swooped in but failed to catch anything for breakfast.

Spoonbills

From the hide at Ryan’s Field 2 Spoonbill were doing what they do best and sleeping. I then stopped off at Philp’s Pasties to grab a couple to take home and from the car park was a 3rd Spoonbill feeding in the channel.

It was then onto Truro Tesco’s where after parking in the store car park I crossed the road and joined 3 birders. Quite quickly I re found the juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs as it probed the sticky mud. As I turned around to leave I bumped into Paul Freestone who helped me with directions for my next stop.

Baird’s Sandpiper

My final stop before heading for home was Colliford Lake. This was a new site for me but with Paul’s directions and help from a couple heading back to their car I quite quickly got onto my 3rd ever Baird’s Sandpiper that was hanging around with 3 Ringed Plover in the near gale force wind.

I arrived home just before 5pm having seen 129 species on Scilly which had risen to 142 after my Cornish stop offs and a Great White Egret over the car near Huntspill in Somerset.

An excellent couple of weeks with a lifer, 2 Scilly ticks and 21 year ticks in total. Plus it was great seeing familiar faces and meeting some new ones. Roll on next year!