National Trust

Cornwall – the South West coastal path

During the last couple of months I’ve had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time walking the coastal path between Penberth and Land’s End.  As well as all the wildlife that I’ve already documented I’ve been blessed with having to look out over the equivalent of landscape (and seascape) eye candy every day.

I’ve tried to capture some of the best moments, but this is all I have to offer…

28 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, Travels | Leave a comment

Some pics from my last two days on the Cornwall coast

So, my time walking and monitoring the coast of Western Cornwall has come to an end.  For now.  But the last couple of days have provided some of the best surprises.  Firstly the wind on Thursday morning provided a fantastic looking swell rolling into the beaches, where I was able to watch seals and cormorants swimming amongst the waves.  Then I spied a basking shark gliding about in the waves, the birds were all flying acrobatically in the wind, and one of the choughs performed an amazing roll and dive into the nest site at one point.  On top of all that I saw a bird that looked something like a stone curlew blown in with a flock of jackdaws.  It lingered just long enough for me to make out the two yellow lines down its back/wings, but then, as it flew away inland, its wings just didn’t seem dark enough.

Then, yesterday, the weather was still, sunny and hot.  I met Nic (Shanks, of the chough project) at our watch point and the little ones were still not out.  I’ll miss seeing them fledge.  Instead nature rewarded me with dolphins and a basking shark, and a clear view of the isles of Scilly.

I guess you’ll want to see pictures…

28 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Early morning is the best time

Walking anywhere during early mornings, is almost always rewarding.  This morning (before sunrise) and yesterday morning I’ve seen over 20 species of birds, at least 4 species of butterfly and numerous moths and insects.

We wanted to see what time the Choughs were getting up, it turned out to be 0536.  As a great example of how nature works I was able to watch as a raven came overhead, and the jackdaw’s started alarming.  Almost immediately the choughs appeared and immediately set chase after the raven.  Later I saw them mobbing a pair of peregrines that were carving up some prey on the rocks in the distance.  However, peregrines are a greater threat, and are treated with a little more caution than the ravens.

25 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

My first bit of rain in ages, and a fox and a seal

I haven’t seen much rain while I’ve been down here in Cornwall and, apparently, most of the South West is pretty dry.  When I left my camper this morning (after a day off) it looked bleak though.  The mist and rain persisted until after midday (although I’ve seen worse), and then it cleared into another beautiful, bright day.  The choughs were good, I saw a fox again, and watched a seal up close for a while.  My walk home was through wild flower meadows, with deep blue sea and skies, and the Scillonian slipping past on its way back to Penzance.

23 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Seals and rare flowers

It’s always fantastic to see seals, especially as they are shot in large numbers by fish farmers, within the law (please remember this if thinking of buying farmed salmon).  Seal numbers have declined enormously in the last 10 years, with harbour seal numbers halving in some parts of Scotland.  There are likely to be other contributory factors, such as reduction in food availability, but this is, in my opinion, a significant indicator of how we are mismanaging our seas.

If you haven’t already done so, read up about Hugh’s fish fight, follow the links on the site to the other organisations involved in marine conservation, work out whether you really need to eat (so much) fish (there are plenty of food stuffs that contain the oils thought to be so valuable in fish, e.g. hemp, flax, etc), and make an effort to find out where your marine based products are coming from.  Out of sight, out of mind, is this why we treat our oceans so badly?  Would people react differently if we were to trawl fields to catch lambs, and at the end of the field empty the net of all the birds, mice, voles, insects, etc, into a heap to die.

Anyway, I digress somewhat, apologies.  Today was a busy one.  All of the Cornish chough nests were checked out (not by me, I just met the team briefly as they passed on through), and seem in good order.  However, the latest expected date for fledging is now another two weeks or so, which might, sadly, be after I’ve left.  Further news will be available here:

http://www.cornishchoughs.org/

After an early start, I finished early so I comforted myself by taking some time out to go and view one of the rarest plants in the UK.  I’ll be impressed if anyone can tell me what it is (I do know what it is.  Obviously.)…

18 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

A trip to the lizard, and more of the sedge.

There was a chough team party down the lizard yesterday.  It was my first visit to the Lizard and it was great to make acquaintance (sort of) with the legendary Lizard pair.  The Lizard pair were the first pair of choughs to nest in Cornwall since 1952.  In 2002 they reared three young, and have successfully reared young each year since.  Apparently they are prone to showing off to the crowds, but today, they were very business like, and didn’t come close enough for me to get pictures.  Choughs are known to live up to 16 years, so hopefully they will be there for a few more years yet.

I also got the chance to meet the rest of the chough project team, and watch the sun set over the Lizard Lighthouse.

Today, back on my patch, there was a cold wind blowing in from the sea (there often is), and the choughs didn’t seem to be about much.  There was a bit of raven action at one point, and I managed to get a rather poor shot of the slightly illusive sedge warbler.

 

14 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Bugs and a sedge warbler

Today I follow the choughs about a bit to determine their feeding sites.  This should also give us a good idea of where they might bring the chicks when they fledge (which we’re hoping should be around the end of the month).  The birds are busy collecting food, but still take time to groom each other, with Mr Brownblue occasionally running over to Lady Whitebrown with a food offering.  Both the birds still look in top condition.

Today I saw, and heard, my first sedge warbler.  Excellent.  They have an incredibly complex and varied call (the RSPB recording doesn’t really do it justice, as it usually goes on for a lot longer), which makes them sound ever so slightly mental.

12 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

More sun, sea and sightings, peregrines included.

After a day off I’m obliged to wander the cliff tops looking out for choughs again.  Our pair are mildly agitated by what I’m fairly sure is a female peregrine today.  But she (the peregrine) doesn’t give them the same stick as in previous days.   My impression is that it’s the smaller male that seems to take pot shots at most birds.  Not that I’m able to spend time tracking the peregrines to know whether it’s just the one pair that I’m seeing, or how successful they are, but I get the impression that the male I’ve seen is a bit more laid back and mischievous than the female, who’s probably just battering prey out of the sky while I’m not around (peregrines tend to hunt early).

It’s a bit damp first thing today, but the sun comes out before I start walking, and I hear a plethora of bird song as I hit the coast paths.  Blackcaps, whitethroats, chiffchaffs, finches, tits, swallows, blackbirds, song thrushes, etc.  I’m lovin’ it.

11 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Saxicola Rubicola

Ha, Saxicola rubicola.  Such a quality name.  Saxicola means rock dweller, and rubicola means to drink red fizzy pop.  These birds are also known as stonechats, because they often make a call exactly like the sound of two small stones being knocked together.  On the coast they hang about in the scrub, eating insects; further in land they like heathland and small scrub.  Whilst walking this evening I was lucky enough to see male and female feeding a juvenile.  I’m afraid I only managed a decent shot of Mrs Rubicola, but I think it’s one of the most exciting photos I’ve ever taken.

The male, by the way, really is a striking fellow.  See a previous shot of him here (not the same one you understand, there are more than one pair in Cornwall, thankfully)

In other news, a peregrine was about today, at one point giving the choughs quite a hard time.  They both kept low on the rocks for a while, until it moved on.  It also swooped for a gull, and a house martin while I was watching.  It didn’t seem to be putting much effort in, just gliding along and then darting towards something before gliding on again.  Magic to watch.

9 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Getting carried away

I walk about in the sunshine wondering if all is ok (see previous entry).  Apparently the choughs haven’t been seen at their usual feeding site this morning.  But then I see one, and then the other.  In fact they spent a lot of the day feeding near me.  And it’s beautiful day, and I maybe get a bit carried away, taking pictures of everything I see…

8 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Cornwall choughs and species mission

I’ve returned to Cornwall to join up with the chough project again.  My role is, essentially, to monitor the young pair that I was observing before the Scotland trip.  I will be camping, and wandering up to 5 or 6 km of coastal path on a daily basis.  Why am I doing this?  Ha, you’ll see.

On my first day back I catch up with the male Brownblue first thing.  He seems well, and a little while later both him and Whitebrown are feeding within a few metres of me.  When I last saw them they had eggs, now they are parents.  We think it’ll be about 3 to 4 more weeks to fledging time.

I also see stonechats, whitethroats, kestrel, jackdaws and gulls a plenty.  And there are so many other species of plants, invertebrates, etc here that it gives me a great opportunity to indulge the nature geek in me.  It’s a great day right up to point where a raven comes a calling.  Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against ravens, (in fact, like all birds, they are my favourite bird) but they are known to take other bird’s eggs and young.  Our young choughs are well aware of this and make a point of attempting to beat the crap out of any raven that passes over their territory.  As they do this the raven glides along and skilfully performs its 180 degree evasion technique, where it turns upside down whilst flying.  It’s amazing to watch.

Anyway, last thing today there was a big commotion involving a raven, the choughs, some jackdaws and, I think, a kestrel, although I was surprised to see the kestrel flying away from the seen, as they usually don’t get involved.  As the raven flew away it clearly had something small and black in its mouth.  I couldn’t see what it was, but the other birds were disturbed.  Unfortunately, I had to leave shortly afterwards, so I walked home feeling a little worried…

7 May, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Saturn and into the night shifts.

So, for my last three days on the project (for now at least), I was down to do shifts into the night.  Once the pairs have laid eggs, the plan is to get 24 hour watches going on each of the nest sites (some mindless people still collect eggs, would you believe).  This requires a fair bit of man power, so if you’re reading this, and fancy getting involved, then please do.  Probably your best bet is to contact the Cornish Chough Project (http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details/223656-cornwall-chough-project).

Anyway, it just so happened that the last three days have been blessed with clear skies and much less wind than previous days.  In fact I’d go as far as to say it was hot during the day.  As a result, I managed to do some star gazing at night, and found Saturn through the RSPB scope I was using (16 to 20x).  Wow, I can’t believe how clear the rings are.  I’m afraid my digi-scope system just wasn’t up to getting a picture of it, but let me tell you, it’s an amazing site.

My shifts were to look after the young choughs, who are now showing all the signs of incubating.  She spends the majority of her time on the nest, coming out, mostly near the end of the day, to feed and partake in grooming sessions with him.  Usually I get to see this and it’s very sweet.  He makes some (although maybe not as much as we might consider appropriate) effort to make sure she’s fed well, and she often cuddles up to him, or grooms his back with her beak.

Meanwhile, he’s continuing to harass the local raven, although he now seems at ease with passers by.  Apparently ravens are known to take chough eggs, so I have to wonder whether his behaviour doesn’t just draw attention to the pair, or if he’s got the raven thinking that he’s not to be messed with.  We’ll see.

Tonight, as the birds were going to roost, I wished them the best of luck.  I’ve grown very fond of Brownblue and Whitebrown, and a couple of the local pairs of jackdaws (currently hauling large amounts of nesting material about, in a sometimes fairly comical way).  I’m hoping that I’ll get a chance to come down here again this spring.  In the meantime, if I hear any news about Mr Brownblue and Lady Whitebrown et al, I’ll add it to this blog.

8 April, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Adits and other holes

Today, whilst the pairs were being reasonably well looked after, I had a chance to catch up with the boys, and to determine whether the situation had improved for our lone female, Brownblack.  After a lot of traipsing about I determined that the boys look unlikely to pair up with our young lady.  At one point, after a break to explore one of the adits, the boys landed 8 feet up the slope from where I had emerged.  They then proceeded to get a bit jiggy with each other.  This made a fairly significant contribution to my deductions.

I did see her following them, at a distance, towards the end of the day.  But there was no significant interaction, and, unfortunately, no sign of the unringed chough seen in previous weeks.  ‘Unringed’ has apparently been spotted further up coast recently.

This part of Cornwall is littered with old mine related buildings and shafts.  I have an insatiable urge to look down every hole, or walk into every adit.  I can’t work out where this comes from, but given the slight feeling of disappointment I felt after exploring some adits today, I can only assume that, subconsciously, I had been hoping to find Mines of Moria style caverns backing away for miles underground.  Unfortunately, it seems our Cornish mining ancestors were less interested in creating Tolkien-esque underground chambers, and more interested in scraping out more for less.  Still, the leftover workings, stained walls and apparent maze like quality to the tunnels continue to leave me fascinated.

5 April, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

A ring ouzel! Where are you now, Nick Baker!?!

Today, the skies were blue and so was the sea.  On the way to my office, with a cliff top view, I stopped and gave a lift to a pretty lass who was doing some painting for someone nearby.  On site, I found myself a seat in the sun and watched choughs, wheatears, and then my first ever ring ouzel, for the afternoon.  Not to mention the jackdaws acrobatically flying amongst the rocks, and the gannets diving out to sea, and the raven wafting by, and the kestrel hovering gracefully looking for prey, and the occasional pleasantry with a passer by.

So, it looks like our more mature pair (Mr Redred & Lady Blueorange) are beginning to sit on the nest.  She was spending up to half an hour spells on it while I was watching today.

And our young choughs are surely incubating eggs now, as she is spending more time on the nest than not.  This evening, they both spent time near base together.  He passed her food on a couple of occasions and she spent a little time grooming him, at one point with one of her feet on his back.

To be fair to Nick Baker, his work for the RSPB has been to identify breeding pairs of ring ouzels, and their nest sites.  From his talk on it at the RSPB pre-Christmas South West regional meeting, this seemed to involve him hunkering down for hours trying to work out where the birds were flying to, which he did with some success (http://www.nickbaker.tv/blog/).  All I had to do was sit around in my usual spot and ‘my’ ring ouzel just flew on out from under a nearby rock.  It was pretty unlikely to have been thinking of sticking around, let alone nesting here, as their usual habitat would be uplands, somewhere like Dartmoor.  Still, I was lucky enough to be able to watch it feeding for many minutes during the afternoon, and then again in the early evening.

4 April, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB | Leave a comment

Dive bombed, ravens and jackdaws

On Wednesday, during a couple of days off, I popped into Aylesbeare to pick up the chough project landrover.  Most of the winter management work has now stopped for spring, so as not to disturb birds nesting, etc.  So, most of the staff and Wednesday volunteers appeared to be working about the yard, carrying out maintenance or updates on the infrastructure.

Then on Thursday, on my way back South, I met up with Ray Piper, the Lantra trainer who had trained us during our tractor course, for a days Mule (the Kawasaki 4 by 4 version) training.  This involved driving the Mule up onto Dartmoor and then through terrain that you would ordinarily consider off limits for vehicles.  It’s all about momentum, top stuff.

Since then I’ve mostly been watching the young pair.  She (Whitebrown) is now spending as much time at base as she is away.  This is a new nest site, and it’s impossible to see where the birds go when they fly into it, but we have to assume that she’s now sitting on at least one egg.  As far as we know none of the other nest sites are at this stage.  This pair, maybe because they are so young, are doing this a little earlier than expected.

Our man, Brownblue, is still having a go at passers by, sometimes even if they are nowhere near the nest site.  As much as this is quite entertaining it means that I sometimes have to explain to people what’s going on, and ask them if they’d be kind enough to let him have his way.  Everyone seems to have an appreciation of the birds (there are information boards on the walks), and are happy to have seen them, so it’s generally a pretty nice thing to have to do.

However, Brownblue isn’t getting things all his own way.  Yesterday I’d spotted a Peregrine about on rocks a couple of times, which the choughs are usually wary of.  Seemingly with good reason, for as they both flew away from the nest site yesterday afternoon, he suddenly twisted and dived, dropping amazingly quickly down towards the sea.  As he went below the cliff line I just managed to catch a glimpse of something dropping after him.  Although I didn’t manage to identify it at the time, I can only assume that it was the Peregrine, as I know nothing else likely to do this.  Anyway, I stood there wondering if it was possible that he might have been caught, or even if he, or his assailant, had not pulled out of their dive before hitting rocks or the sea (they were already flying quite low).  Thankfully I spotted Brownblue on some rocks a few hundred metres down the coast.  He then flew slowly back to meet up with our lady, who had taken refuge on rocks up the slope from me.  They spent some time reassuring each other, and tapping beaks, and I wondered what he must be thinking as they flew off together.

3 April, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Getting jiggy…

So the sun isn’t always shining down here.  On Sunday I spent my shift peering into the fog for a glimpse of our mature pair, redred (see pictures from last entry) and blueorange.  This pair have a good history of getting away broods (http://www.cornwall-birding.co.uk/category/choughs/), so the fact that I barely saw them all day is not too much of a concern.

Yesterday I spent time watching the young pair, who were mostly out feeding all day, but are spending a bit of time around the suspected nest site.  Back at the Vean, I did see what I’m fairly sure is a female black restart, so that was cool.

Today, the weather was pretty bleak to start with – 100% cloud, visibility maybe 5-10Km.  Again, watching the young choughs, they are spending more time nearer their base, and our man, brownblue, is getting quite fiesty with anyone that comes near.  This involves him landing within maybe 20 feet of them and calling whilst occasionally pecking the ground.  Invariably this leads to people stopping, pointing at him, and then standing there taking pictures.  He’s a bit of a character, I have a bit of a soft spot for the little fella, but he doesn’t do himself any favours.

Still, he must be doing something right, because our lady, whitebrown, made it quite clear, with a fair bit of stooping and wing fluttering, that he was the man for her.  Jiggyness ensued, although I must admit, I didn’t have to look away for too long.

I’d been watching it come over the sea for some time and at half one there was a break in the weather and the sun came out.  Visibility was excellent, maybe the best it’s been while I’ve been down here. All the lighthouses, etc, in the distance were clearly visible, the sea became a deep azure blue, to mirror the sky.  All the local birds, gulls, jackdaws, the choughs, pidgeons, took to the air and were all whirling up and up, and we were all suddenly very happy.

The choughs seemed especially upbeat, circling higher than I’ve seen them go before, and then flying sensationally together, before she went back to base.  He came over and checked me out, still rising up and diving and spinning in the air, before heading back.  I said hello and suggested that he calm down around people, but, he probably wasn’t listening…

29 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Choughs and kestrels

So, we’ve been concentrating our monitoring efforts on the non-paired choughs for the last few days, to see if there were any likely pairings appearing.  But, alas, it seems not.  Our boys still seem very close, and the lone female doesn’t seem to be able to attract their attentions for long enough.

This looks like it might be quite frustrating for her, as she, today, took to flying about with large bits of nesting material in her mouth, whilst performing aerial acrobatics.  Quite spectacular acrobatics.  At one point she stole up to a kestrel, that was just minding her (I’m fairly sure it was a female) own business, bumped her from above, then dived down below and around her.  It was spectacular stuff, but neither the kestrel, nor the boys seemed particularly interested.

Also, the unringed chough, that appeared to be hanging around with these three, hasn’t been seen for a few days.  So, it looks like that story might not break, which is a shame.  However, I could be misreading all these signs, and it might all mean something entirely different…

I’ve managed to get some quite interesting shots of the kestrel by, in some cases, combining my camera with the RSPB scope.  Later today, I saw two of them fly up to a roost site, possibly a pair, although it was getting a bit dark to tell.  They really are incredible to watch whilst hunting.  Once I’ve trained my binoculars on them, it’s possible to see that they hover in exactly the same spot, by judging it against the background.  How do they now how to do this?!  Amazing.

26 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | 2 Comments

Young choughs

I spent today watching the young choughs affectionately known as brownblue and whitebrown.  Catchy names, I know you’ll agree, but I don’t have the job of naming the choughs yet.  As I mentioned in my last post, all of the choughs that grew up in Cornwall have been ringed.  Coincidentally, the rings on these choughs match their names.  Brownblue is the male in this pair.

These guys are young, just two years old.  So this is the first time they’ve looked like they might nest.  They seem to be very close.  After even short spells apart they’ll spend time reassuring each other by being close and occasionally tapping beaks (possibly food is passed between them, but I haven’t been able to see this for sure).  While they’re foraging they’ll occasionally run towards each other and tap their beaks in a fashion that looks very much like they’re kissing.

By the end of today, our lady was spending a little time on her own in the area where we think the nest might be.  At this point our man spent his time calling and generally looking a bit restless.

23 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | 2 Comments

Off to Cornwall again then…

So, my next role brings me back to Cornwall, just two weeks after I was last here.  I call by the Marazion office again, but this time to meet up with the RSPB’s Claire Mucklow and the Cornish chough project.  I get a little bit of time to look around the Eastern part of the reserve, and see the usual array of passerines.  It still makes me smile hearing how loud the Cetti’s warblers are.

Once our hire van has turned up we head out to a place called Botallack, where I’ll be staying.  The Botallack Vean is a National trust property – they are also involved in the project – as is a lot of the land on Cornwalls South Westerly tip.  Nic, the project co-ordinator and I, go out to see if we can see one of our chough pairs, and they duly oblige with a fly-by as we are out walking.  Good start.

Day 2, and I’m shown another pair, who are apparently young but enthusiastic, and then an assortment of other choughs, including a couple of males who seem to be quite close.  So close in fact, that they seem to be ignoring the attention seeking actions of a local female.  They become known as the ‘boys’.  They like flying along cliffs in formation, especially with ravens and occasionally kestrels.

There is also one unringed chough about, which we are really hoping will hang around.  All the locally born choughs were ringed in the nest, hence we know what sex they are.  As with any small colony, it would be great to get some new blood involved to prevent the potential for issues arising from a small gene pool.

At the end of my second day, the sun is going down over the sea, the pipits are flying around me as I sit on my rocky outcrop, watching 4 choughs.  It’s a lovely evening, hello Cornwall, hello choughs.

22 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Travels | Leave a comment