July 2013

Between 21 July and 3 August we were in St Ives. I managed an hour or so's sea watching on aboout 7 days, and saw a basking shark (22 July), up to 3 bottlenose dolphins, a harbour porpoise (31st), 2 Cory's shearwaters (31st), sooty shearwater (1 August), Balearic shearwaters most days (maximum of at least 6 on 26th with 2 circling around a basking shark on 22nd), pomarine skua (24th), up to 20 common scoter (24th), and 2 whimbrel (1 August).

10th. Another attempt to see the Ham wall little bitterns in the evening. No sign is a 2-hour watch, though one was seen 40 mins before I arrived. The second male was calling in an area east of the breeding pair however. We did see 2 great white egrets, 3 little egrets, 2 marsh harriers, 2 common terns, a hobby and a green sandpiper. A little owl was calling on the outskirts of Catcott village.

2nd. A departmental residential away-day at Folly Farm. Marc Holderied and I went bat detecting on a windy and cloudy evening. We detected 6 species - common and soprano pipistrelles, noctule, Daubenton's bat, Natterer's bat and lesser horseshoe bat.