A Game of Two Halves

In essence - lovely in Saltash, foggy at Rame, sunny at Forder, still foggy at Rame.
 The wind has moved around to the east- only slightly but it's amazing how it gives you that extra 'pep' with the expectation of finding good things. There were  certainly more birds around the church today than I've seen all week, including a fine mixed group of Goldfinch, Chaffinch and, thankfully, Greenfinch - a species we've seen all too little of this year. The star bird however had to be the Firecrest flitting around the holly and sycamores

I didn't get a photo but it does give me the opportunity to show this from earlier in the year.

Down at Forder the sun was out bird activity was high with good numbers of Goldcrest and Tits, including some new Coal Tits. Three male Blackcap were also new so I have high hopes for this site over the next few days.
I've been looking for opportunities to photograph common birds as I think we tend to neglect them at the expense of more glamorous rarities, so it was nice to have the opportunity, albeit brief to grab a couple of shots of this:

Back up at Rame Head and the fog was persisting making finding anything very difficult. The Yellowhammer group was in its usual place but sadly today without any accompanying Cirl Buntings. The Meadow Pipit group has built up to around 50 birds so I'll be keeping a close eye on those over the next few days. The resident Kestrel was also loafing around the Coastguard station, occasionally dropping to the ground for worms. She is getting remarkably used to humans and allowed me to get nice and close for this shot: