HAYLE ESTUARY - COPPERHOUSE CREEK - CARNSEW POOL - RYAN'S FIELD - LELANT SALTINGS
WEATHER; cloudy all day, breezy. Top temp 16C
I drove down to hayle today from my hom,e in Somerset, I set out at 7am and made good time. I stopped at Siblyback Reservoir/lake to see it for the first time, quite afew good sightings had been made there in recent days. Today it was cold and misty with drizzling rain, such fun! I walked to where I could see most bird activilty and found a few species, mostly common birds, nothing like Red-rumped Swallow, Pectoral Sandpipier and Green-winged Teal that had been seen over the last few days.
After a coffee in the cafe I set off for Hayle where I met Mike and Lorna, my sole participants, at 12 noon. We had a great afternoon visiting all the good birding haunts around Hayle.
a Bar-tailed Godwit taken by Lorna at Copperhouse Creek
We started at Copperhouse Creek, parking at the northern end, away from the estuary, and we spent an hour or so walking the length and breadth of the creek, there was a rising tide and hence a lot of bird movement. In the scrub along the track we found a mixed flock of: Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, with Common Chiffchaff, Robin, and Blackbird in the same bushes.
a Sandwich Tern and a Mediterannean Gull in the background, at Copperhouse Creek
On the 'creek' we saw a few species apart from all the masses of gulls and geese. We picked out a few waders such as: Redshank, Greenshank, Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Common Sandpiper. We also found Little Egrets, Grey Heron and Cormorant. It was nice to see over 100 Mediterranean Gulls loafing on the marsh, a Common Buzzard and a party of 4 noisy Ravens were also noted.
a gloomy Copperhouse Creek this afternoon
At Carnsew Pool we added Little Grebe and saw a repeat of most of the Copperhouse birds except for the addition of a Grey Wagtail. Looking over the estuary of the River Hayle we found flocks of small waders, on the move because of the rising tide. A flock of Common Ringed Plovers with Dunlin also held a single Curlew Sandpiper and a single Ruddy Turnstone.
a Curlew Sandpiper with Common Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin, seen along the Hayle Estuary
At RSPB Ryan's Field we struck gold when I found a PECTORAL SANDPIPER! The hide was full of birders and I raised quite a stir when I announced the wader finding, we got everyone onto the American rarity. Mike and Lorna were made up with the Pec Sand sighting too, it was their 200th species of the year. We also added Kingfisher to the list and watched at least four Curlew Sandpipers with countless Redshanks, a few Dunlin and more of Ringed Plovers.
the Pectoral Sandpiper was quite distant you can see the white stripes on its back indicating that this is a juvenile bird
Pec Sand seen here with a Curlew Sandpiper (left) and a Bar-tailed Godwit behind
Pec Sand with two Curlew Sandpipers
three Curlew Sandpipers with a Redshank
From the bridge on the main road we scanned the Lelant Saltings, the tide was well in now with very little exposed mud, most birds were roosting where they could. We located a Spoonbill, at least 12 Little Egrets, dozens of Curlews and Bar-tailed Godwits, Greenshanks and Redshanks too. A good number of Eurasian Teal fed at the water's edge and a flock of 21 Wigeon floated around with nothing to do!
Eurasian Spoonbill with a Little Egret
A second visit to the hide produced better sightings of the Kingfisher which Mike had missed earlier. We then called it a day, it was 5 pm and the light was already fading.