January 2026

28th: Two great northern diver and 7 purple sandpiper around The Island.

27th. Tawny owl hooting close to the house.

26th: The third storm in three weeks arrives, and it has been raining incessantly. Some close-in common dolphins from The Island.

25th: A nice rainbow from The Island.

Big 'Garden' Birdwatch from the bedroom window: 1 great northern diver, 5 shag, 2 gannet, 16 herring gull, 1 great black-backed gull, 3 collared dove, 2 wood pigeon, 2 goldfinch, 1 chaffinch, 1 starling, 2 carrion crow, 1 wagtail sp., robin (heard), wren (heard). I missed a black redstart by minutes.

I visited the woodlands in Lelant Downs opposite the holiday park. I believe it is the 'Lower Hill Wood' at Trencrom. From the car the devastation caused by Storm Goretti looked substantial, so I ventured into the wood to take some photos.

The wood is small but beautiful and is very mossy with some Dryopteris affinis ferns.

The devastation is hard to capture on camera. Many of the old beech trees with their shallow roots were brought down.

I saw a firecrest, goldcrest, coal tits, long-tailed tit, nuthatches and heard a great spotted woodpecker around the Old Mill Riding Stables.

The first-winter Bonaparte's gull roosted on the rocks at Tolcarne.

Finally I visited the West Penwith moorlands and saw a hen harrier and a merlin. There's a roost of about 30 greenfinch in the area.

24th: Six purple sandpiper on The Island. Lelant Saltings. Two female shoveler and a big flock of golden plover.

23rd. Bonxie in the bay again.

22nd: Firecrest along Hain's Walk. Song thrush singing.

20th: Juvenile male black redstart, 4 great northern diver, 4 purple sandpiper, common dolphin and 2 harbour porpoise around The Island. The Aurora was still present this evening, though not as vibrant. I took some iPhone photos in Barnoon Cemetery, and heard a tawny owl male hooting from Barnoon Hill.

With the Plough above.

I then walked to Porthmeor Beach and up to the NCI Station with the Canon R5.

19th. Two bonxies, 5 red-throated diver and a black redstart from the Island today. Between 50-100 common dolphin too with crepuscular rays towards Godrevy. In the evening one of the most geomagnetic storms in recent decades occurred, and we were treated to an amazing Aurora Borealis in St Ives. It was amazing to see children being brought to The Island at around 22.30h in their pyjamas. In the last photo you can see the Pleiades star cluster top left.

18th.Two red-throated and a great northern diver from The Island. The bonxie put in its usual appearance, and there must have been 50-100 common dolphin in the bay.

I then visited the bird-crop fields Roundwood and Tregew National Trust land and heard two singing male cirl buntings, and saw at least one male and probably some females. I also saw firecrest (another at a different Tregew near Flushing), 100+ skylark, 50+ linnets, lots of chaffinches and 3 stock dove.

At Lelant Saltings I saw a firecrest, 15 goosander, curlew sandpiper, a black-tailed godwit, and the water pipit was below Birdie's Bistro.

17th. Bonxie close offshore chasing kittiwakes at The Island. Three purple sandpiper, and a harbour porpoise too. At Newlyn Harbour a little gull in winter plumage showed well. The great northern divers were confiding too. No owls flying near Land's End.

16th. Great northern diver and several pods of common dolphins seen from The Island on the morning dog walk.

15th. Female-type black redstart and 5 great northern divers around The Island.

14th. Some interesting gulls at Newlyn Harbour. Juvenile Iceland gull, adult yellow-legged gull and a hooded (second winter?) herring gull.

13th. No sign of the Iceland gull in a brief visit to Newlyn. Three great northern divers showed well.

12th. A great morning at Roskilly, near the Old Penlee Lifeboat Station outside Mousehole. The Pacific diver had disappeared for a few weeks, and yesterday there were two adults present, which remained today, including one bird that showed very well. there were also at least a dozen great northern and 2 red-throated divers present too.

Two Pacific divers with four great northerns.

In the early evening Liam found a gull with a dark grey back at Lambeth's walk. He concluded it was probably a herring x lesser black back hybrid, third winter?

11th. Hayle Estuary. The juvenile garganey, a greenfinch overhead, and I caught up at last with the water pipit, which fed along the wall on the Hayle side of the causeway.

10th. Hayle Estuary. Great white egret, curlew sandpiper, the juvenile garganey, and an adult ring-billed gull.

9th. 10+ fulmar, 5 Manx shearwater, 3 common scoter, bonxie and a harbour porpoise from The Island in NW winds. About 50 golden plover, a confiding grey plover, and several score ringed plover on the Hayle Estuary.

There was a confiding shag near the sluice gates too.

8th: Storm Goretti created a sting jet, gusts reached 111mph on The Island, and sustained hurricane-force winds resulted in tiles off roofs all over St Ives. The town was cut off by fallen trees, and here's a tree on the B road to Penzance, still not cleared by 12th. This was the worst storm I have experienced, and the tree damage in West Cornwall was severe.

7th. A nice male black redstart on the rocks at Tolcarne. Kingfisher and a peregrine catching a feral pigeon here too. I also saw ca. 50 purple sandpiper at Battery Rocks, Penzance, the greater scaup and goldeneye at Longrock pool, a female marsh harrier and great white egret at Marazion Marsh.

6th. Lots of ice and hail around Helston, though conditions warmed in the sun later. The two lesser scaup flew onto the icy boating lake at 09.45h. Two goldcrest and about 10 shoveler also there.

It took me about two hours to see the Pallas's leaf warbler at Penrose Estate. Other birds included 3 firecrest and a blackcap.

The lesser yellowlegs continues to show well in the creek on the Truro River near Tesco car park.

Final stop was Tehidy Country Park to see the female ring-necked duck that I missed on 4th.

Lots of tame grey squirrels and rooks here too.

5th. Grey wagtail in Trewyn Gardens and a female-type black redstart at the top of Barnoon Hill. The adult ring-billed gull was off Lelant Station, and an adult Caspian gull distant from the Saltings. Kingfisher present too.

3rd. Mediterranean gull from The Island. Two great northern and two red-throated diver.

2nd:About 20 common dolphins and 3 harbour porpoise in the bay. Two great northern and two red-throated diver, a bonxie and 2 chough. A juvenile peregrine flew past carrying prey - maybe a turnstone.

On the Hayle Estuary I saw 5 redhead goosander and two adult yellow-legged gulls. A grey seal was in the estuary and rested near Birdie's Bistro.

1st: Great northern diver off The Island, and a possible whale sighting at dawn. No sign of the dusky warbler at Boscathnoe Reservoir, though great spotted and green woodpecker, and a nuthatch were present along with a chiffchaff. Greater scaup drake and female goldeneye at Longrock Pool, and a female marsh harrier at Marazion where several thousand starlings formed a murmuration. The highlight of the day was a red-necked grebe off Mousehole.

2025 was a strange year. I saw 235 bird species in Britain, one of my best year totals. The year started well, with four new birds in the first four months: booted eagle, least sandpiper, broad-billed sandpiper and Alpine accentor. After that I saw no new species, and the year ended with several dips including two attempts with the lesser crested tern on the Exe, missing it by about 3 minutes on the second attempt and being held up by floods on the first. There was some great birding in Cornwall - my favourite three birds of the year were the booted eagle (shame about the viewing area next to an A road though), Alpine accentor and the steppe grey shrike. I got decent photos of all of these. Other Cornwall highlights included a distant Pacific diver, yellow-browed warbler, Iceland, glaucous, Caspian and ring-billed gulls, an influx of hoopoes, a confiding wryneck, red-necked and grey phalaropes together at St Gothian Sands, 3 dotterel together, pectoral sandpiper. ring-necked duck, and an elusive blue-winged teal that gave itself up on one day. Two lesser scaup and a lesser yellowlegs stayed into 2026.One highlight for me has been seawatching off St Ives. The October 4 watch was a classic, with strong NW winds following a westerly. There is now a small group of keen birders in St Ives, and we managed 2 Leach's petrel, 200 storm petrel, 31 great shearwater, 225 sooty shearwater, 1000 Manx shearwater, 22 Sabine's gull, 5 juvenile long-tailed skua, 3 Pomarine skua, 139 Arctic skua, 102 great skua, 55 grey phalarope, and over 200 terns on that incredible day. On another day we saw 47 Sabine's gulls! Two snow bunting stayed for a week on the Island in November. Other Cornish wildlife highlights included Risso's dolphins giving great views in St ives Bay, adders in Cornish hedges, and the sea daffodils at Marazion. Around Bristol, lesser scaup, the June desert wheatear, buff-breasted sandpiper, red-backed shrike, turtle dove, white-tailed eagle, a big influx of glossy ibis and the Temminck's stint at Slimbridge were all great to see. Hetty moved to a bungalow in Bristol with a nice garden - I've so far seem about I've found about 550 species there including 42 bee and 32 hoverfly species during a long, hot summer. I enjoyed seeing and photographing insects, my favorites being the large scabious mining bees at Lelant Church. I retired in November and will now hopefully be able to spend more time outdoors.