Chough hunting in Cornwall, 21st May 2005.
A coach load of us went off to find the Choughs of Cornwall. As ever we had tough shoes and wet weather gear. In the event the heavy rain fell while we ere in the coach approaching the Lizard and just after we arrived, giving us an excellent excuse to indulge in scones, tea and coffee.
On our walk down to the cliff we saw two Choughs flying just overhead, on a food hunt, which was a good start. A pair of Choughs is nesting in the rocks, and there is a good viewing place to see them coming and going, while feeding their young. They are the county bird of Cornwall, and left there for a while, so there was great excitement when they returned in 2001 and the first pair to breed was in 2002. At the moment this is the only breeding pair, but there are others around, so let’s hope that they start soon. They are also breeding in Wales. They are birds of the cliffs and rocks and breed in crevasses. They eat beetles and grubs, and have long curved bills to hunt them out. The Chough is a member of the crow family, being black with a red bill and feet. Their flight is unique, being graceful, it does a few beats of its wing and them glides onwards, with outstretched pinions, the ends of the primaries being well separated from each other. Its wings close as it drops towards the ground, then a few more beats and it recovers its original height. We watched them returning to the nest, then flying along near the top of the cliff front.
I particularly enjoyed watching the Jackdaws playing on the breeze. They glide, swoop and gain height so effortlessly. I was sorry to read that they are the main enemy of the Chough, competing for space and nesting places.
I was pleased to see and hear so many Whitethroats, with their rather harsh song. They are dainty little birds that like brambles and nettles. It is reassuring that something likes brambles and nettles! They were being very obliging and singing on top of the brambles rather than from the middle of the bush.
Out to sea there were 2 Kittiwake, which I think are the prettiest of the gulls, with black ends to their wings, which make them seem daintier than the other Gulls. There were also lots of Shags and a few Cormorants.
At the end of a lovely walk along the cliffs, we saw a Stonechat sitting on a fence, and also 2 Linnets, which were looking much pinker than usual, seeming to be less of a boring brown bird than usual!
We went to Windmill Farm, which is a newly set up nature reserve, and a SSSI. It is about 200 acres and is slowly being brought back to what it was before the war, when they started to farm it intensively. They are doing it naturally, and planting areas with food for the birds, and last winter were rewarded with large flocks of finches. It was a case of hearing the birds rather than seeing then. We heard lots of Willow Warbler, not a sight though, and also Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings in the area where they have made new ponds with some reeds.
This is a project in its infancy, and I look forward to seeing how it has developing when I return in about 5 years time.
Number of species seen: 34
Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order
BOU order Pheasant Fulmar Gannet Cormorant Shag Kestrel Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Kittiwake Collared Dove Sky Lark Swallow House Martin Rock Pipit Pied Wagtail Wren Dunnock Robin Stonechat Wheatear Blackbird Sedge Warbler Whitethroat Chiffchaff Willow Warbler Magpie Chough Jackdaw Carrion Crow House Sparrow Chaffinch Greenfinch Linnet Reed Bunting Alphabetic order Blackbird Carrion Crow Chaffinch Chiffchaff Chough Collared Dove Cormorant Dunnock Fulmar Gannet Great Black-backed Gull Greenfinch Herring Gull House Martin House Sparrow Jackdaw Kestrel Kittiwake Linnet Magpie Pheasant Pied Wagtail Reed Bunting Robin Rock Pipit Sedge Warbler Shag Sky Lark Stonechat Swallow Wheatear Whitethroat Willow Warbler Wren