On Saturday, 2nd Feb a dozen hardy souls joined Jen and I for a morning stroll around the reserve, commencing at the hide at Ryan's Field where a Kingfisher put in a fast fly-by for some. A cold northerly wind accompanied us as we took in Lelant Water and Carnsew Pool but with so many birds on show at this time of year, I would like to say we hardly noticed it - and at least it stayed dry.
With the tide receeding at the main estuary, Lelant Water, the wildfowl and waders became more active and followed it down across the mud. Hundreds of Wigeon and maybe a hundred Teal were feeding actively close to our group now gathered at the Hayle Causeway - the wall at the river there at least giving us some shelter as we scanned through the flocks. Amongst the waders, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwits, Lapwing, Dunlin and a couple of Grey Plover showed well but when they all suddenly flew up in a panic, we searched for the cause and were not surprised to find a Peregrine as the culprit. What was perhaps surprising was that it had flown in, taken a female Wigeon and was now sitting on the mud right in front of all 14 of us plucking it - and nobody had seen it coming! Obviously the female Wigeon hadn't - but I felt a bit sheepish that as the main leader of this group I hadn't either!
From the north shore of Carnsew Pool, we located the Black Swan which had been present for a week or so in the company of a couple of Mute Swans. I explained of course that this bird hadn't flown here from its native home in Australia but more likely from the Paradise Park zoo opposite! On the Pool itself, a group of four 'redhead' Goosander were present and as they are quite a rarity in this part of the world I was keen to obtain better views for the party so we walked around to where they had beeen loafing just off the south shore. No sooner had we done this, the birds began diving and feeding and became even more difficult to see. An adult Mediterranean Gull followed their progress from the air, probably hoping to catch a fish displaced by the diving ducks. We turned our attention to the Little Grebes instead and a collection of waders including a group of ten Turnstone feeding amongst the rocks forming the banks of the Pool. A number of Redshank now joined some of the waders already mentioned above as the tide dropped further and started to feed actively as the mud became exposed. With food in our minds too now and lunchtime approaching we headed back to the carpark, warm cars and hopefully the promise of a warm lunch ourselves.