It was October Half term. We’d arrived. Every step drew us closer and closer to Lizard Point, Cornwall. Mud squelched and puddles splashed as we made our way along the messy path.
We were surrounded by vast, steep fields as they twisted and turned, climbed and dropped, all trying to get a foothold on the peninsula. They were separated by messy hedgerows swarmed with brambles, making a perfect habitat for our smaller birds. A good example of these is the dunnock, prunella modularis and even better, we managed to flush a male as we walked past. As for the weather, we were able to cope.
As we took the steep, winding path along the sheer cliff face, the winds became violent and raging. If the fence wasn’t there, we’d probably have been be forced to take the big leap. We were lucky to find any good viewpoint at all as the cliffs were crammed with people. I focused in on the skerries to see if there were any birds. There was indeed two herring gulls, larus argentatus but that was not what I was looking for.
Suddenly, the bird I wanted to see hopped right into view. A rock pipit, anthus petrosus. These birds made their homes on tall, abrupt coats across northern europe. A scarce bird in the UK, it made me absolutely ecstatic to see these birds in such large numbers. About 15 were bounding around all over these unworldly rocks rising out of the ocean. The only surprising thing though, was that hardly anyone noticed them and walked straight past, oblivious of their brilliance.
But it wasn’t just the pipits that I was drawn to. Great black backed gulls, larus marinus wheeled in the wind, searching and scanning the cliffs. Another delight to see at this point (maybe even the highlight of the trip) was a grey seal. It’s curious eyes would stare into the binoculars and every so often, it’s head was swallowed up by the waves, only to pop back up again.
As we walked down to a particularly good viewpoint, I raised my binoculars to see what I could see before we headed back inland. Cormorants and shags were commonplace and black headed gull too. I got a call from the others and we started on the path.
As we walked, the cliffs were still visible and the winding path was still apparent. We could see the turning point back to the car park quite in plain sight. The only obstacle was a huge drop in the path corresponding to the cliff shapes here. Suddenly, a very distinctive call. 3 stonechats sat on an entanglement of bushes, grass and weeds. A constant reminder that if they lived here, we could definitely pass through. I took a deep breath, and started down the steps.
Underfoot, the stone was slippery and smooth, making it hard to get a grip. Finally, we made it to the path. I though the birds would be over by now but how wrong I was!
An unknown crow started calling from a field. I trained my binoculars on it and noticed it was quite strange. Even though it was silhouetted, the red bill gave it all away.
Chough
Automatically, I started screaming with joy. Lifer
The Bovey Birder 