Other Lizard Wildlife

Summer can be fairly slow for birds, so here's a sample of some other Lizard wildlife snapped with the phone cam (hence the poor quality). Not too great on non-birdy IDs, think I've got them all right now, but any comments welcome. Cheers Tony & James for putting me right

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Bog Asphodel
















Four-spotted Chaser















Slender Club-Rush






























Green-winged Orchid

July sightings

July is generally a quiet month, but as proved quite good at least insofar as I've seen a noteworthy bird almost evertime I've been out. It started with a Storm Petrel fluttering past Lizard Point on the 7th, with a Balearic Shearwater past there on the 12th offering nice comparisons with the Manxie it was with. There also seems to be quite a few Med Gulls around, with two 1st winters at Swanpool on the 9th and a near-adult on the Penryn River on the 18th and loads reported elsewhere in Cornwall. Apparently a very good breeding season on the continent. Wader numbers picking-up too, with a Green Sandpiper on Ruan Pool on the 17th and a Greenshank on the Penryn River on the 15th and 18th. Curlew and Redshank increasing in numbers there, with about 20 of each, but no other wader species bar a Common Sand

Seawatching

I've never been the biggest fan of sea-watching in the past. I've done, my bit and scored stuff like Cory’s in Norfolk, but I don’t really have the patience to sit there for hours on end waiting for the unlikely to happen. Somehow in Cornwall, sea-watching takes on a more appealing dimension. I suppose the main reason is that you're far more likely to actually find a decent bird. 710 Cory’s flew past Lizard Point in 6 hours last year and you’ve actually got an outside chance of scoring a Fea’s. I think another reason its appealing at the moment, is that there's Scottish Football Association else around at tis time of year, but July is actually the peak month Cory’s. To be honest though, thus far, my struck rate with rare passerines has been nil (hence the lack of updates) and so far and virtually everything noteworthy I’ve found has been at sea: Sab Gull in April (the 1st British spring record for several years) and more recently Bal Shear & Storm Petrel – common birds here, but novel enough for me to keep me interested. Anyway – as a guide to what to go for when and how likely you are to score have a look at the charts above (click on it for a legible version). Numbers are mean number of records per day in Cornwall based on submissions to Birdguides.