The first of the Great Black backed Gulls ringed on Looe Island that went to Spain has returned to the island. The bird was ringed on the 13th June 2010 and was seen in north west Spain in 2011 and 2012. Assistant Warden Claire Lewis recorded the bird (which is identifiable by the numbered ring on its leg, L:AH1) back on Looe Island on 25th April 2014. Although cross channel movements are quite common this is thye first time a […]

Drakes Island is again under threat from the hotel development. In spite of serious concerns by Natural England, English Heritage, RSPB, Cornwall and Devon Wildlife Trusts and Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society, the developers are still pressing for planning permission from Plymouth City Council. Drakes Island is the only nesting site of Little Egret in the Tamar Valley. It also supports a winter and high tide roost of almost all the egrets that use the Tamar Valley ie 70-80 […]

Photo by Sue Sayer, Cornwall Seal Group http://www.cornwallsealgroup.co.uk/ A Great black-backed Gull ringed as a chick on Guernsey  in June 2010 has been sighted on Looe Island and may possibly breed here this season. If so it may well be the first recorded instance of breeding emigration of a Great Black back from Guernsey to England. The bird was sighted at Downderry in September 2010 and was seen several times at Looe in 2012 and 2013. Identified by the inscribed […]

Helene Jessop, Assistant Conservation Officer for the RSPB at Exeter has provided me with an update on the seabird wreck in the eastern Atlantic following the winter gales. A conservative estimate puts the figure at a staggaring  30,000 birds.  In Cornwall the following were reported c1,400 birds of 15 different species, with more than 1,300 auks (mostly guillemots, with smaller numbers of razorbills and more than 50 reported puffins) and also shag, kittiwake, black-headed gull, common gull, herring gull, lesser-black […]

Heronries Survey At the recent joint CBWPS/BTO/UoE conference (where I gave a presentation on GBBs) the CBWPS launched the 2014 Cornwall Heronries Survey which aims to visit all of the recorded heronries in the county to confirm their current status. Some are undoubtably historical and will be unoccupied, but a full audit of all of all of these sites is long overdue. The Tamar Valley is an important county site for Herons and there may be new heronries tucked away […]

Mark Grantham has put the following post on his west Cornwall Ringing Group blog. Tony Blunden took the photos. ”The last couple of weeks have seen large numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls (and the odd Iceland and Glaucous Gull, and even a smart Kumlien’s Gull!) gathering on the reef at Lizard Point. There seems to be an endless stream of colour-ringed birds in amongst them as well, with birds from as diverse places as Norway, Wales, Channel Islands and France! […]

Here’s a new petition on the Avaaz Community Petition Site, and we thought you might be interested in it: Save Britain’s Barn Owls Barn owls, a majestic icon of the British countryside, are dying off in their thousands. A changing climate and habitat loss is part of the picture, but Britain’s barn owls are also being killed by powerful rat poisons being used on farms across the country. When owls eat poisoned rodents, they ingest toxins which can cause internal […]

Many of you will have heard of the plight of thousands of seabirds affected by the recent storms. The RSPB reports that over 800 birds have been found exhausted or dead in the south west including 227 from Cornwall and 174 from Devon. The casualties are mainly auks but have also included Kittiwake, Shag, Great Skua and Manx Shearwater. In addition 200-300 auks have been reported washed up in south Wales. However these figures are small compared to the situation […]

Having spoken to the boat operator at lunchtime today who considers that the weather will ease tomorrow morning we are going ahead with the trip as planned. This decision takes into account the fact that the wind is going round to the west and the river is fairly sheltered from winds from that direction.

The forecast this weekend is not bad considering what it has been like recently. Sunday is likely to be better than Saturday. The trips will go ahead unless the skipper believes there is a risk or conditions are too bad to view the birds. Birdwatchers are a hardy bunch!! A decision will be taken on Friday evening or early Saturday morning if the weather is dire and we will contact all passengers only if the trip has been cancelled. The […]