Dartmoor Redstarts

A trip in April to Emsworthy mire on Dartmoor with friends to look for some of our avian summer visitors, a few Cuckoos were around but always a bit distant for any photos ( still not got a decent photo of a Cuckoo),but the stars for the day were the Redstarts with seemingly good numbers having already started to set up territory and start nest building. The male really is a very smart bird and they were in good voice as the female went about collecting nesting material.

Two trips to Marazion

Marazion seems to have turned into our go to place in the van when we have a few days to spare, we took two recent three day trips, one in March and another in April,staying at Dove Meadows campsite which is right next to the marsh and just a short walk to the beach, this suits us both as I can spend early mornings and evenings birding and looking for wildlife to photograph and at other times popping down to the Lands end area or having or look around Penzance via the bus. I saw quite a nice selection of birds including the rare Savi's Warbler, ( no photo though). NIce to see a few Whimbrel on the beach

along with a few Dunlin, Sanderling and a nice summer plumaged Knot.

Other commoner species photographed included Cetti's and Reed Warbler,

Great Egret ( am I including that with the common species now!),

Green Sandpiper,

Carrion Crow,

Canada Goose,

Linnet

and Stonechat.

Early Butterflies.

In April the first Butterflies start to show, with Orange Tip ( photographed at Roadford lake) and Speckled Wood ( in our garden.) both posing nicely.

Hoopoe

Its been a really good spring for Hoopoe's in Cornwall and Devon with several turning up at various locations. This beauty was at Marazion in Cornwall. It would have been nice to have been a little closer but it is what it is, still nice to see the bird well.

Long Tailed Duck

This Long Tailed Duck had been on the boating lake in Newquay for some time, showing quite close to the footpath, I'd meant to go weeks ago but never got around to it somehow, but decided to take a look on the way home from seeing the Alpine Accentor. Thankfully it was still present and showing well.

Alpine Accentor.

4th March. Word of an Alpine Accentor (Prunella collaris) at Aire point ,Gwenver in West Cornwall was very unexpected and would be a lifer for me, so had to go and take a look. A walk from Nanquidno in warm early spring sunshine I saw a small group of birders on the coastpath some way ahead and hoped they were watching the bird, thankfully they were on the Accentor albeit a bit distant but still nice views in someones scope, a really cracking little bird, the pictures in the fieldguides not doing it any justice at all. It took flight and went around the rocky headland,I had a celebratory coffee and decided to follow the others to see if it was still showing. A good job I did as it was much closer allowing for some nice photos. After some good views I decided to start the walk back to the car, and could'nt believe it when it landed on a rock practically right next to me giving me the chance for some much closer photos ( I still had the 1.4 converter on so it pretty much filled the frame). Brilliant. This was only the third record for Cornwall and only the thirty second for Britain, they are a bird of alpine regions of Europe, I never expected to see one on the Cornish coast.