Birding in Lockdown: Links to Garden Lockdown Listing League and our Birding Ideas Page, helping to make the most of extra time as a result of the lockdown.
Late news, 15/4, St Mawgan: Red Kite over at 20:15, departed to the north east. (L Curry)
Looe Island: 2 Bar-tailed Godwit. (C Lewis, resident warden on the island)
Trannack: Red Kite over at 10:15. (D Wright, D Rogers)
Stratton: Red Kite over. (B Bryne)
Tywardreath: Swallow on overhead wires at bottom of Southpark Road. (R. Barlow)
Porthgwarra: 1 Ring Ouzel, Siskin, Bar-tailed Godwit, 12 Wllow Warbler, 3 Wheatear & Silver Y moth. (M Wallace)
Pendeen: 2 Ring Ouzels on hill behind Pendeen Church. (P Clement)
Kenidjack: Male Pied Flycatcher. (S Williams)
Mayon Cliff: 2 Ring Ouzel. (P Taylor)
Penzance: Red Kite over Heamoor. (P St Pierre)
Crantock Beach: 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Sandwich Tern. (S Rowe)
Morrisons car park Long Rock: 14 Whimbrel over mid afternoon. (J Eaton)
Lamorna: 1 male Redstart at Carn Barges & 1 Wheatear at Tater-du. (M McKee)
Swanpool: Male & Female Eider still present, 1 Rock Pipit, 8 Sandwich Tern, 2 Blackcap. (P Oldcorn)
Black Head: 4 Sandwich Tern, Common Whitethroat, 2+ Great Northern Diver, 9 Guillemot, 2 Razorbill, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and 2 Kestrel together flew along cliffs across the bay and inland at Charlestown. (D Cooper)
Chenhale Farm, St Martin: 5 Greenfinch (first on the farm for a few years). (M Nattrass)
Crowlas: 1 Red Kite over 17:00. (R Veal)
Trenow Cove: 17 Whimbrel, 5 Little Egret. (J Hawkey)
Marazion Beach: 21 Whimbrel, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 SandwichTern. (J Hawkey) 30+ Sandwich Tern and 25 Whimbrel on Hogus Rocks. (S Rogers)
Marazion Marsh: 1 male Wheatear. (S Rogers)
Eastern Green: 13+ Sandwich Tern on Cressars. (M Elliott)
Newlyn Harbour: 1 Eider (imm male), 2cy Glaucous Gull and Yellow-legged Gull still present. (M Ahmad, J Hawkey)
Downderry: Moving east early morning 180+ Gannet, 1 Shelduck, 22 Common Scoter, 2 Sandwich Tern, and a Common Gull. Onshore 4 Whimbrel. (A Payne)
St Ives Island: 5 Wheatears, 1 Purple Sandpiper (G Jones)
St Ives: A flock of 14 Ring Ouzels, 10 males and 4 females at Buttermilk Hill, I just sat on a rock and watched them feed around me for two hours, they were still feeding until dark, also 5 Wheatear, 1 Hobby, male, 1 Cuckoo, 14 Linnets, 12 Meadow Pipits. (V Stratton)
Cornwall Lockdown Diary, Day 24:
I mentioned the New Naturalist series the other day. The books are rightly praised for their rigorous science, excellent photography and iconic cover illustrations, since 1985 designed by Robert Gilmour. Before that – and truly the originators of the distinctive style – were Clifford and Rosemary Ellis. So famed are the NNs that there is now even a book about the books. An erstwhile Cornwall Birds trustee (Rosemary Parslow) is the author of volume 103 The Isles of Scilly, but the current lockdown reminds me of book no 2, written by John Buxton and published back in 1950. It cost 12/6d – or 62.5p! Today you’d be hard pressed to buy a decent first edition for less than £100.
Buxton’s monograph was The Redstart. It is based on the observations he and his comrades made while prisoners of the Nazis in WW2. What else was there to do to while away the months of confinement but watch the birds that lived their lives just outside the men’s cells? It is a compelling piece of scholarship, but it is also a love letter to Nature. The final sentence is straight from the heart:
“The bird remains ultimately as unknown and as unknowable as ever, and the most I could hope to achieve was to show a few of my fellows how much delight is to be had from watching a little bird with its red tail constantly aquiver.”
Simon Marquis ([email protected])
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