Cornwall Holiday - Day Nine

Saturday was the last day of our holiday and we really wanted to have another go at finding an unusual migrant, so headed down to Rame Head. We were probably too late in the day (around 9:30am) as there was very little about. However this Common Buzzard was flying around calling very distinctly, and was joined by a second, we watched them for around fifteen minutes gliding around overhead:
















From Rame Head we went across to Penlee Battery Nature Reserve (http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/penlee.htm) which is a small nature reserve but was frankly excellent. There were a lot of warblers around. This ChiffChaff was very curious and got to within 2 metres of us:



















He showed really well and was for me the highlight of the holiday in terms of photography:















Further round the reserve we encountered a group of Goldfinch including this juvenile, who was checking out the juvenile Willow Warbler next to him:


















I could have stayed here for hours but we decided to crack on and head to Cotehele (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-cotehele/). We didn't go into the house but explored the grounds, having lunch down by the river, a very picturesque spot. We walked from the river up to a working mill, and bought some fresh ground floor. It is still a water powered mill:




















Cotehele for me had much more to offer than Lanhydrock in terms of location and opportunities to explore. Our final bit of birding was watching Coal Tits and Willow Tits flitting around the yews. While watching this group we were sure we could hear a woodpecker. We spent about ten minutes scanning the trees and eventually spotted a Nuthatch furiously bashing a nut against a branch - which was a first!