Mullion Village via Polurrian Cove

Monday 20th April 2015

I hate to boast but it was another beautiful day here in Cornwall so we made the most of it by having two walks.  This morning we walked from our holiday cottage along the coast to Polurrian Cove - we thought it would be quiet along the footpath today with it being a Monday but this section of the path must be popular as we passed loads of people and plenty of dogs!  

Looking towards Mullion Island in the distance.

An example of the abundance of flowers that I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Looking back at Polurrian Cove.

Doesn't this footpath look lovely?  Well, it smelt revolting - a mixture of horse poo and wild garlic!  A workman had been out strimming the edges of the path and had chopped up masses of wild garlic, resulting in the terrible smell.

Only in Cornwall!!!!

Mullion Church - St Mellanus.

We had a look round this lovely old church but on the way in we saw a couple of bird nests in the porch, one with a blackbird in residence.

There had been great efforts to stop the birds nesting in the porch, with lots of chicken wire trying to stop them. this had definitely failed!

Mullion Church is beautiful and the pews amazed me, they were from the 13th century, absolutely amazing!

On the way out of the church this little bundle of loveliness had left one of the nests in the porch.

We then wandered on back for lunch before going out again for walk number two...........

A Six Mile Circular Walk from Mullion

Sunday 18th April 2015

This afternoon we went for a walk along the Cornish coast that we did in two parts last year.  We walked from our holiday cottage the short distance to the coast and on to Poldhu Cove.

Our home for this week.

Overlooking Poldhu Cove.  Today there was still an easterly wind but the waves were quite large and impressive, quite a contrast to last evening.

Sand martins at Church Cove. (Last year they were at Poldhu but they seem to have moved on to the next cove round this year)

Sand martins lined up at the entrances to their holes, they were all taking off together then landing at the same time - odd.

Church Cove.  We saw a small lizard as we walked out of this cove, presumably enjoying the sun too!

At Halzephron Cove we saw this sparrowhawk fly out from the cliff below and land in a tree, where it saw us, watched for a while then flew back to the cliff.  On our way back we saw birds that we have seen before in this area, stonechats, perched high on bushes singing.

Lovely old stones along the footpath, with Porthleven in the distance.

In Cornwall there are many wind turbines, these we can just about see from our holiday cottage, but this was taken on the coast path.

A field full of lovely ladies, well lovely as long as I'm not in the field with them!

We then walked on back passing golfers still out playing on Mullion Golf Course and back passed the impressive former hotel on the cliffs that is now a rather posh looking care home and back to Mullion.  A lovely six mile walk in fantastic sunshine, a brilliant start to the week.

Evening Sun at Poldhu Cove - Cornwall

Saturday 18th April 2015

We are staying once again in a fantastic holiday cottage at Mullion on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall.  The weather forecast for the next five days or so is brilliant so we are hoping to get out walking along the South West Coast path. This evening we had a quick stroll along the coast to Poldhu Cove, for a bit of fresh air and my word was it fresh, and very windy!

There has been a brisk easterly wind all day so because of the wind direction the sea was fairly calm this evening.

Late evening sun.

The cliffs are covered in flowers, and I am fairly clueless on flowers so I wouldn't like to guess what they were, but we did see plenty of primroses and violets, a few early bluebells and in one spot lots of cowslips.

Just how I like beaches, fairly empty of people!

Walking back up the beach I spotted this large bird pecking around.  I instantly thought it was a raven and having checked it when we got back I am fairly sure it was, it took off shortly after I took this photo and it's wingspan was huge.

Dancing Ledge in the Mist

Thursday 9th April 2015

What difference a day makes!  It was still warm today but misty right on the coast.  My mother in law's house is about a mile from the beach at Swanage and was in bright sunshine but right on the coast it was a case of we could be anywhere here, can't see a blooming thing!  We drove the short distance to Langton Matravers, parked near Spyway Barn and walked down to Dancing Ledge and into the mist.

At Dancing Ledge there were a few climbers out, rather them than me! 

The photos don't do the mist any justice, but just off of the coast here at Dancing Ledge a fishing boat passed close by, we heard it but didn't see it first nor last.

We went down to a small disused quarry to find a geocache that hasn't been found for a while and luckily found it straight away (as the clue to find it wasn't a whole lot of good - 'under a rock' - we were in a quarry just imagine the number of rocks there!

rocks everywhere!

We walked as far as Seacombe then headed inland where the mist lifted and it was blue sky and sunshine once more, although

looking back the mist is rolling in and following us!

Climbing up and looking across, it is just possible to make out the strip lynchets on the far hill top.  During the Middle Ages, farming was one of the most important livelihoods in Dorset,  and traces of Medieval farming practices still exist today in the form of strip lynchets.  These were artificial terraces created so the steep-sided slopes could be ploughed.

We had to walk through a field of cows, not something I am overly comfortable with, especially as this lady was on the move, but only to the water trough.  Safely behind a wall I took this, then she......

......had a good old scratch!

We joined the Priest's Way again and wandered back to the car, spotting this weather vane on the way and

a jackdaw with albino tendencies?

Another very nice walk made up of two halves, misty and sunny!

Welcome Back Swallows & A Tatty Buzzard!

Wednesday 8th April 2015

We had a fantastic walk along the Purbeck Coast this morning, topped off by seeing our first swallows returning.  We left Swanage, passed Belle View Farm, crossed the Priest's Way and headed out to the cliffs, where we sat in the sunshine waiting.... and waiting until we saw 3 swallows in an hour!  I don't think you could class them as flooding in yet, but they are flying in in ones and twos!  

A patch of primroses in the sunshine alongside the footpath.

Not a breath of wind or a cloud in the sky.

The lambs we saw a couple of weeks ago are filling out and looking less fragile, but just as cute!

First sight of the sea.

We sat overlooking the sea from high up on the cliffs, keeping an eye out for swallows and watching this fishing boat.

The gorse looked stunning in the sun, it's definitely at it's best at the moment, smelling delicately of coconut.

After nearly an hour of watching, drinking coffee (eating biscuits of course) and lazing about we carried on along the south west coast path as far as the lighthouse at Anvil Point, where we took a higher path back along the cliffs.  We saw another eight swallows ducking and diving around at this point, it's good to see them back.  We also saw a seven spot ladybird, another thing for us to report on the Springwatch survey along with the first swallows and

hawthorn flowers.

The lighthouse from a different direction to usual.

This peacock butterfly was very obliging and stayed put whilst I took it's photo, normally out comes the camera and 'see you later butterfly'!  We saw a few peacock and tortoiseshell butterflies today, the sun obviously brought them out,

The sea in the bay was flat calm, perfect.

Back in the garden after a bit of lunch two or three seagulls set off a bit of a hullabaloo and were up above bombing a buzzard, who appeared to be taking very little notice of them!  On closer inspection of the buzzard in this photo it has a tear in it's wing, I hope it doesn't hinder it in any way? (it didn't appear to)

We saw so many different birds today I decided to note them down, and I think it's quite a good list for a short walk of just under four miles.

rooks                                                    chiffchaffs

jackdaws                                              kestrel

crows                                                    herring gulls

magpies                                               swallows

sparrows                                              shags

starlings                                                cormorants

wood pigeons                                       guillemots (5 in a line)

robin                                                      black backed gulls

chaffinches                                           blackbird

blue tit                                                   great tit

wrens                                                    skylarks

buzzard

Black Swans - River Itchen - Northam

Friday 3rd April 2015

My husband frequently passes a large flock of swans on his way to work in Southampton and a couple of days ago he saw two black swans in amongst the group.  This was too good an opportunity to miss and as he saw them again early today, we went along late morning to have a look and sure enough there they were, in amongst the mute swans on the River Itchen.  They were a little feisty now and again, pecking at other swans if they got too close to them but on the whole all was calm!  I had a quick swan head count and there were about fifty, not bad for the centre of town.  

 I haven't seen black swans in the wild before, they were a bit smaller than the mute swans with curly tail and back wing feathers (there's probably a technical name for these wing feathers but I don't know it!)

Here they are showing off their very flouncy tail feathers, and don't those beaks look gorgeous, the red is unbelievably bright with a white stripe.  

They were quite vocal and made a very odd noise, the one on the right is in the middle of making the said noise.

Showy!

Last years cygnets are still quite blotchy brown and white and some of them were......

......being picked on by the adults (front left!)

This is a relaxing spot, despite being on the edge of an industrial estate and it was well worth the visit today.

I looked black swans up in various different bird books without success (and where's Chris Packham when you need him!) so I then tried the internet where there was lots of information and there is a good  RSPB  article here (although it is a bit old, from 2007)