Cornwall - 18.10.25

Sadly my flight left on time and with it the end of my trip. But I wasn’t to 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!