MARIZION MARSH
WEATHER: thick cloud cover, foggy to start with very light drizzling rain.
It was not the weather fort birding really, but it was our last day and we had some time left so why not? Three of the group had to go early to catch trains home, so just after breakfast Mary walked into Camborne Town centre to catch her train and I dropped Debbie and Brenda off at Hayle to catch their train. That left just the five of us to go onto Marizion Marsh for a last minute spot of birding.
We were hoping to see the Juvenile Purple Heron that had been present for the last couple of weeks but we had not sign of it. In fact, the marsh itself was very quiet. Grey Herons and Little Egrets were the main sightings with Moorhens and Mallards in the pools.
a lovely wader scrape in the middle of Marizion Marsh held one single Little Egret
At the main pool viewed from the road-bridge we saw Kingfisher again, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Moorhens and a Coot.
On the scrubby areas we saw a lot of Stonechats, the Whinchats had gone, also Greenfinches, Meadow Pipits, Linnets and Goldfinches. Walking around the reedbeds we heard Cetti’s Warbler and saw plenty of common species such as Dunnocks and Robins.
Stonechats are very common on Marizion Marsh
It was the beach that gave us three new species for our trip list! Despite there being lots of dog walkers with several dogs out of control chasing waders and gulls we managed to find: Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Sanderling (a new species for the list), Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Curlew and our first Grey Plover.
The tide was quite low and out on the sands with dozens of G BB Gulls and Herring Gulls we found four Sandwich Terns and half a dozen Black-bellied Brent Geese. Out on the water we found three female Common Scoter and the rocks were covered with gulls, Cormorants and Shags. Gannets were diving for fish out in the bay.
Around 11am we had a quick cuppa coffee before setting off back to the hotel where the tour was officially over at 11:30am.
We had seen 95 species over the week and despite missing some of the star birds everyone said they enjoyed the trip especially the scenery in the small coves that we had visited. The weather was terrific throughout which made a huge difference to our enjoyment, everyone went home happy.