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.
Drift Reservoir: 3 Sand Martin, 4 Chiffchaff. (D Flumm)
Sancreed: male Shoveler, 26 Canada Geese, 2 Little Egret, 2 Snipe, 8 Chiffchaff. (D Flumm)
Marazion Beach: c130 Common Gull (J Hawkey)
Marazion Beach: 17 Ringed Plover. (S Rogers)
Newquay, Trenance Valley: 4 Tawny Owl. (S Grose)
Trenance Lake, Gannel Estuary: 1 Little Grebe, 1 Greenshank, 1 Curlew, 1 Redshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 5 Little Egret. (J Green)
Redannick; Truro: 1 Orange-tip butterfly,1 Sparrowhawk just missing it’s prey. (G May)
Port Navas: 1 Common Sandpiper, I Greenshank (D Collins)
Mousehole: 1s Yellow-legged Gull in harbour. (M Elliott)
Penzance: 1 Holly Blue butterfly (first of year for observer), Lidden area. (T Mills)
St Erth: singing Willow Warbler, 3+ Sand Martin, 1 Nuthatch at Tregilliowe Ponds. (R Veal)
Colan, Firhill Wood: 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Treecreeper, 3 Coal Tit., 9 Goldcrest, 4 Chiffchaff, 3 Song Thrush. (S Grose)
Lady Nance: 8 Skylark, 6 Buzzard, 3 Yellowhammer. (S Grose)
St Ives: 1 Iceland Gull, 1 Glaucous Gull, 2 Sandwich Tern from the St Ives window today (G Jones)
St Ives Island: 1 Guillemot, 6 Shag, 1 Cormorant, 2 Sanderling, 1 Oystercatcher, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 1 Iceland Gull, 2 Common Gull, 28 Herring Gull, 2 Lesser-black backed Gull, 2 Black-backed Gull, 42 Gannet, 2 Rock Pipit (P. Nason)
Launceston: Approx 150 Golden Plover pitched in three fields away to the north of our home (N Banks)
Cornwall Lockdwon Diary, Day 8
A different walk today. I took another quiet lane on the outskirts of Wadebridge. The light poured through the naked branches to the woodland floor – spotlighting the wild garlic that grows in every dank patch. We’re eating as much of it as we can. They say it has amazing health properties. Doesn’t cost anything either. The stream that joins the Camel in town gurgles happily, spreading sparks of sunlight as it goes.
I didn’t see much birdlife this time – Long-tailed Tits, now paired up and out of their winter gangs and Coal Tits which I rarely see other than at our feeders. I scan the trunks for a Treecreeper but to no avail. The trees look perfect for them but if they’re here I can’t spot them. I am struck by a recurring thought: in Nature nothing jars. Nothing is discordant. Nothing is out of place. Even fallen trees and messy tangles of brambles and nettle patches look as they should. But then, the eye catches something that truly does jar, stands out horribly from the spring greenery – a discarded lager can (almost invariably that wretched Aussie brand). The garish blue aluminium can, thoughtlessly hurled from a car window, will sit where it falls for year after year, looking and being an afront to Nature. Why, oh why, do people do it?
Simon Marquis ([email protected])
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