by Greg Lee
If yesterday was somewhat surprising for exceeding expectations for birds seen across the island, today was very much on par with what could be expected in a horrendous storm with heavy precipitation. That being said, I did intend to commit to the census and at least wanted to give Millcombe a try. I caught up with Tim Jones looking offshore and spotted a few of the sparse seabirds moving across the waves, mainly auks, Kittiwakes and a couple of Gannets plus an unexpected party of six Lesser Black-backed Gulls, presumably birds that will be choosing to overwinter in the South-west. Hayle or Newlyn would be my preference, if I were a gull. I was surprised to pickup at least five Goldcrests on call but the rest of Millcombe was very quiet, which I expected. The Nearctic rarity wasn’t hiding in Smelly Gully, nor were any scarcities that I could see. With the rain becoming unbelievably heavy as I walked up to Government House, I took the executive decision to cut it short and grab a hot drink. However, I didn’t quite give up yet as by 10:30, it seemed the rain had somewhat lightened, but as I took the path heading west, I was getting hit in the face by stinging rain with little to show for it except to Redwings on the way up to Old Light and the Starling flock feeding in the fields. Just one Blackcap and three Chiffchaffs were seen today, whilst a lingering poor Swallow was flying around over Millcombe.
This is where census ended as I realised anything more would be futile today. Also, in a side note, I chose one of two eventualities. There are two types of socks in a welly, the kind which stay up and keep your feet warm and the kind that slip down your feet around your toes and are useless toe-warmers. I chose the latter today which also made things a little less comfortable, so I was glad to exchange these for some proper thick, wintry socks. The rest of the day was spent trying to get through the stack of ringing data that was left to digitise. With well over 1200 individual records to input.