Sunday 11 October 2020

Cornish Choughs on Newquay headland. 10th Oct 2020.

 


I'd heard on Facebook that there had been some Choughs around the Newquay area... they are gradually spreading up the North coast having initially bred down on the Lizard.

So I popped out to east Pentire headland between Fistral beach & the Gannel at Crantock and lo and behold there were 6 Choughs feeding on the short cropped grasses on the clifftop.

They were concentrating on feeding & oblivious to all around them. Peoples dogs bounding around & holidaymakers taking pics of the view & selfies with the waves in the background etc.

Always exciting for a Cornishman to see our "National" bird, but to see 6 together... Wow!

Anyway here are a few photos....












Cornish Grey Seals at Polzeath, 5th October 2020.

 

Juvenile Female Grey Seal


As our regular seal survey out of Padstow was postponed due to fierce North Westerly gales we still needed to complete a land survey of this part of the North Cornish coast for our annual census of seals for the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust (CSGRT).

I was asked to cover the section between Pentire Head at the mouth of the Camel estuary & Port Quin bay beneath the Lead mines car park near Polzeath.

I got lucky!

It was blowing a hooley from the NW but luckily I found some seals in the lee of the headland, 2 of which were "bottling", 1 was a large male that only surfaced a couple of times and the final one was a beautiful juvenile female that decided to haul out onto rocks just below where I was positioned on the cliff edge.

She took no notice of my presence despite a strong wind blowing in her direction and proceeded to clamber about on the rocks and attempt to go to sleep. This proved difficult as it was very awkward terrain & it was at low tide so as soon as she got comfortable the tide started to flow & eventually wash her off the rocks.

I took a few video clips and lots of photos...

Here is the link to the video on my YouTube channel.


https://youtu.be/9ias7_oizWA

Here are some of the images from my afternoon.....


Juvenile Female Grey Seal

Juvenile Female Grey Seal

Juvenile Female Grey Seal

Juvenile Female Grey Seal

Juvenile Female Grey Seal

Female Grey Seal

Female Grey Seal

Female Grey Seal

Female Grey Seal

"Bull" Male Grey Seal