A new challenge in 2025

 

Hello and welcome to the first post of 2025 on this new blog about my local patch birding.

I have twitched birds before but I haven’t for many years now as I really enjoy watching all the local species. 

I think you become a much better birder watching normal things and learning the behavior, movement, plumage and 

calls. If you master these things with the common things, when a rarer bird does appear or call you are in a much 

better position to know it is going to be something different. My self found list is far more important to me then any 

other list and in fact I’ve just dismissed my all birds seen list.

So my challenge is try and find in my chosen area (which can be found in the my study section and pictured below) 

as many species as I can. 

This is a 10km circular with my house smack bang in the middle. Apart from birding very local to my work in the 

North Cornwall area, all my birding will be taking place within this area (with a twist). The twist is that I'm going to 

try and see 200 birds in one year or at least get as close as possible to it as I can. It’s very possible I may never but I

 am going to try and hopefully you’ll follow along with me.

 

January 1st came and I had to go into work but I did manage to get my first bird of 2025 singing on a light in the 

car park, a (1) ROBIN.

 

January 2nd was again a work day so no local birding until driving home going through the village of High Street I 

saw a (2) Barn Owl gliding across the road in a spot I've seen before. It was a cold clear night so perfect for hunting.

 Not a bad bird to get in the area so early on.

 

It wasn’t until the 5th January until I got some time to bird watch from the garden and I could add

 (3) House Sparrow (4) Herring Gull (5) Woodpigeon & (6) Collared Dove.

 

6th January would finally be a day I could go birding for the day and start to get some various ticks. From the garden

 early in the morning I was able to add (7) Coal Tit, (8) Blackbird & (9) Jackdaw.

I then made my way to Menagwins Sewage Treatment Works just outside St.Austell to look for some local and 

over-wintering birds. Sewage works might not sound very nice but for birds they are very important. They are 

normally warmer and also a place that attracts flies which is a perfect food source for birds. I was really hoping to 

see a possible Yellow-browed Warbler but alas no bird was found.

The highlight was the above very attractive (10) Firecrest but it was joined with a supporting cast of  

(11) Long-tailed Tit, (12) Chaffinch, (13) Black-headed Gull, (14) Great Tit, (15) Blue Tit, (16) Chiffchaff, 

(17) Pied Wagtail, (18) Dunnock, (19) Meadow Pipit, (20) Carrion Crow, (21) Goldfinch, (22) Goldcrest, 

(23) Buzzard, (24) Wren, (25) Grey Wagtail, (26) Rook, & (27) Grey Heron.

 

This spot is really good for Dipper and despite watching the river for half an hour (which empties out in the sea 

at Pentewan) I had no luck today. 

It was due to rain in the afternoon but I decided to visit the local port of Charlestown in St.Austell Bay to look at 

the sea. It was absolutely flat calm and even with the naked eye I could see some birds out on the water. 

Out in the bay using the scope I was able to locate (28) Shag, (29) Cormorant, (30) Great Northern Diver, (31) Black-throated Diver, (32) Fulmar, (33) Gannet, (34) Red-throated Diver and a really great tick of (35) Red- necked Grebe which I could easily spend all year not seeing so happy with this one.

Then the heavens opened and I got absolutely soaked so it was back home to warm up. I did get a bonus bird with

 the cheeky (36) Magpie on a roof across the road.