Cornwall - The Lizard

Saturday was a glorious day. The six-and-a-half-hour journey to Lizard Point was well worth the hard slog, the M5 is particularly soul destroying but it is from Exeter where the journey really starts.

Overlooking the cliff face onto the sparkling sea, the hoards now sporadically spread across the clifftop path from the Point to Kynance Cove.






Sunday was the day when the weather turned up. By association, it was the day when the birds turned up. The howling mild South-west breeze churned up the sea, buffeting against the cliff face, and where hardened day-trippers still in summer plumage battled the elements unperturbed by the frequent heavy showers.



Seabirds were piling past. Visibility was sporadic, determined by the pulsating showers. Hundreds of Manx Shearwater scythed effortlessly through the storm, twisting between the surf with utter contempt.

The passage of birds was relentless. The key was to keep an eye out for something unusual, to keep optics as dry as possible, and to resist the urge to pop into the café for a cream tea.

You lose count really, but Manx Shearwater passed by in their hundreds, the dirtier Balearic Shearwater count was twelve, with three dark Sooty Shearwater piercing through like arrows. My first ever Great Shearwater in British waters numbered fiver, a much more elegant flyer. It seemed so easy for them.

Sea-watching was broken up by inevitable trips to the café, and shelter from the rain. There was more to be seen though. My favourite seabird, a lone Great Skua sauntered past, some distant terns, but a few closer in revealed Arctic Tern and Sandwich Tern. A few small groups of Kittiwake including juvenile birds were regular. Two Red-billed Chough rolled through and settled on a nearby cliff. So charismatic.

A small pod of Common Dolphin drifted by and up to five Atlantic Grey Seal were bobbing/lounging around off-shore.

There were local Raven and a male Sparrowhawk causing mayhem amongst groups of Linnet, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, and Swallow.

There were still a few Butterfly on the wing that included Red Admiral, Wall Brown, and two pristine Small Copper.



Yes, there were Cream Teas, Ice-Cream, wonderful ‘home-cooked’ foods, the resulting bulging belly, but it wouldn’t have been Cornwall without them.

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