Postcards from Cornwall
Common Starling, basking in the predominant weather of our Cornish holiday - hot, dry and sunny Wall - still extremely scarce in Surrey but easy enough to find north of Bude I was pleased to stumble across several plants of the declining 'arable weed' Field Woundwort Olearia solandri (Coastal daisy-bush), established in the sand dunes at Bude Never need an excuse to take a picture of a Wheatear - they presumably breed on the clifftops close to Bude It was good to see Bude birder Harvey Kendall (here on the right), who on this particular occasion joined me to watch a juvenile Marsh Harrier that was hunting over the lake and farmland behind the bungalow in which we were staying. I first met Harvey (and his son Ian) back in 1979 at Dungeness. We were able to reminisce and catch up over several cups of tea throughout our stay. The harrier was a Maer Lake tick for him, and one gripped back on his son!