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Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 11:08 am Post subject: Chuffed.

I didn't go looking for them, but took a telephoto just in case, & glad I did.
Choughs became extinct in Cornwall in 1973.
The last successful mating prior to that was in 1947.
The bird sits atop my countries coat of arms & for someone as passionate about his homeland as he is about nature, seeing one stirs my emotions in many ways.
With sympathetic land management through use of grazing animals to reduce scrub cover.
& ironically also the 2001 foot & mouth outbreak which left the cliffs very deficit in humans, a few returned from Ireland & stayed .
One pair bred the following year, & have bred every year since.
There are now at least three breeding pairs & over eighty birds resident in the county.

I spent the weekend 'down west' as we say here, on the north coast above St Just on the Penwith peninsula.
Primarily to photograph the landscape.
On Sunday morning whilst I was packing away my tent I heard their distinctive call & looked up to see seven birds flying overhead.
Spent two delightful hours watching & photographing.
Light levels where low so photo quality suffered but to see nearly a tenth of Cornwalls chough population in one go has affected me.

The scenery.
Cape Cornwall.

Disused mine working.

& the birds.

More about my national bird & its return to its homeland.

hots

Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 397
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 11:16 am Post subject:
That's just wonderful! Made my day. We holiday for one week a year and it's always Cornwall for us, heavenly county. Never seen a chough, but it's on my bucket list. Thanks for the picture.

earthyvirgo

Joined: 24 Aug 2007
Posts: 7972
Location: creating prints in the loft, Gerlan

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 1:14 pm Post subject:
Fantastic. We have them up on South Stack (Anglesey), I hadn't realised they'd gone from Cornwall. EV

Hill farmer

Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 49
Location: North Oxfordshire

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 1:26 pm Post subject:
I have never seen one and I live right on the North Cornish Boarder . Thank you for the Pictures - I will keep an eye out for them

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 1:42 pm Post subject:
Living where I do, I've become quite blas� about seeing choughs. We see them most times we go for walks on the cliffs and on one memorable day, we had a pair in our fields.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8942
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 2:30 pm Post subject:
I remember watching them in Nant Gwtheyrn. fantastic birds

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 3:07 pm Post subject:

Hill farmer wrote:

I have never seen one and I live right on the North Cornish Boarder .
Thank you for the Pictures - I will keep an eye out for them

You will have more luck seeing them farther West. All of the breeding birds are still on the Penwith peninsula, although you might be lucky & see a visitor from farther north.
At least two of the seven I saw where unringed so are either young from a nest not monitored (unlikely) or visitors from the north.

Bodger wrote:

Living where I do, I've become quite blas� about seeing choughs. We see them most times we go for walks on the cliffs and on one memorable day, we had a pair in our fields.

I know they are quite common on the Welsh, Irish & Manx coast.
They have so much association with my homeland & our past industry.
All of the Cornish pairs nest in disused mine shafts.
One of the first things taught to me at school was about the bird on the coat of arms & the meaning of the fifteen spots.
It would be wonderful if this was because of reintroduction but for it to happen naturally is fantastic.
A few months ago I was ready to sell up & ship to foreign shores.
This one encounter has made me question that.

More of the scenery.

stumbling goat

Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1990

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 4:46 pm Post subject:
Really nice pictures, the low light adds to their appeal. Have seen Chough in Cornwall and Pembrokeshire. Good to hear that they are on the increase. sg

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46238
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 9:23 pm Post subject:
choughs are ace ,i met one in 1987 at porthkernow so im not certain they were "extinct" but tis good to see there are more of them . iirc there were a few around botallack in the early 0ies,those are probably rellies

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 9:34 pm Post subject:
Just goes to show what happens when grazing stock are excluded.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 9:36 pm Post subject:
We get occasional visitors from Ireland & Wales. Resident wise (prior to 2001) the last pair died in 1967 & 1973. The last successful breeding in 1947. All according to the RSPB. I'm still grinning.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 9:46 pm Post subject:

Ty Gwyn wrote:

Just goes to show what happens when grazing stock are excluded.

I haven't said they should be, you know I support conservation grazing.
The stock where excluded by the farming community because it made management easier, not from lack of demand.
& one of the main changes is farmers using different worming regimes.
Ivomectin leaves cowpats completely sterile & lifeless.
A lot of the Choughs food is found under cowpats.
Sympathetic farmers are worming their stock when they are off the cliffs so no residues remain when they return.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46238
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 9:57 pm Post subject:
rare but rare can easily be mistaken for none thinking of rare a spring visit to look at the cliffs from portheras (park at chy rose or walk in from pendeen) towards the boat house/pendeen lighthouse(from the beach ) might get you a good place to photo perigines.tis a bit dangeroos so be careful.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 10:01 pm Post subject:

Tavascarow wrote:

Ty Gwyn wrote:

Just goes to show what happens when grazing stock are excluded.

I never said you did,just pointing out the folly of the reduce the ruminants call by the global warming crowd.

I read the article in your link regarding the worming,
I would imagine the amount of salt blowing in on the wind on them slopes ,that worms would not be a big problem,
When is the grazing period on these slopes?

GrahamH

Joined: 23 May 2015
Posts: 523

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 15 10:40 pm Post subject:
Beautiful pictures Tavascarow. The light levels have given a wonderful soft look. Why on earth would you want to leave your piece of heaven?

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