Christine's walking & birds blog

We've just returned from a short break in Cornwall. We'd booked a room at the Old Quay House, Hayle, and as this looks out over the mudflats of the estuary I'd also hoped to do some digiscoping. This proved impossible as we found we'd left the telescope and tripod at home!

On the first day we drove to Porthgwarra. We followed the coast path eastwards as far as Minack Open-Air Theatre, seeing fulmar, shag, ravens, and a bunch of speckled stonechat fledglings fluttering over the tops of the bracken. 

We then walked westwards from Porthgwarra, passing a group of sea-watchers huddled in the lee of the rocks on Hella Point. Flocks of gannets in all plumages were passing below, and Greger pointed out a smaller bird flying low over the water. My first shearwater. I couldn't identify it any further, but Greger was very cheerful and said he would tick it as just a shearwater.

We walked as far as Gwennap Head, taking the lower path to skirt around the Funnel - a huge hole in the ground which I think is a collapsed cave. There were climbers at the foot of the cliffs (composed here of wave-washed blocks of granite), while from the sea came the eery moaning of the Runnel Stone buoy.

In the evening we walked round to Lelant Saltings and took the train to St. Ives - a beautiful approach to a beautiful place. It was a madhouse. Our favourite restaurant - Alba - was full, and so were two others we tried. (It was a two-hour wait to get into a pizza place!) Then we found the Lighthouse. When the waitress plonked our bottle of white wine down and Greger asked for a cooler, she brought a plastic child's seaside bucket full of ice. An ironic touch, presumably. My food was okay - Greger's, not so much. Afterwards we walked round the harbour and along the pier, where some fishing boats were being unloaded; and there in the half-dark, among all the onlookers and strollers, were two turnstone.

The second day was also bright and sunny. We parked at Godrevy Point and walked to Hell's Mouth. We lingered above Fishing Cove, debating whether it was worth taking the steep path down for a swim - and decided against it.

Birds were scarce. We saw a wheatear at Hell's Mouth, a distant peregrine and a kestrel; and we walked back towards Godrevy Lighthouse in a strengthening and irritating wind.

At Godrevy Point I indulged in a bit of gentle rock scrambling and spent several minutes staring at some "strange" birds which turned out to be female house sparrows.