Welcome to Birds of the Lizard Peninsula

Summary It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that 2025 was the Lizard’s finest year on record for rarities. The peninsula delivered an extraordinary five Megas :   BAROLO SHEARWATER , SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL , FORSTER'S TERN , STEPPE GREY SHRIKE and, in all probability, BAND-RUMPED PETREL , alongside a few other major rarities that didn't quite get clinched: Black-billed and Great Spotted Cuckoos and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. As if that wasn't enough, 17 other BBRC raraities grace

A puzzling Subalpine Warbler (or two)? On 2nd May 2025, Dave Collins turned up a cracking Subalpine Warbler just north of Kynance Cove....

January As is usual on New Year's Day, everyone bird-brained scrambled to assemble their shiny new year lists. Last year's pair of...

In a bid to stave off ongoing controversies about what constitutes the Lizard Bird recording area, a new map has been created showing this

January As is typical of the first few days in January, birders were out in force and quite a few scarcities were found. Seawatching from...

Ilya Maclean January As is characteristic of New Year's day, most of the Lizard birders were about and about, and quite a few good birds...

Ilya Maclean On the morning of 5th Sep 2022 I arrived at the Most Southerly Point at 07:20am, shortly after Paul and Joe. It seemed...

January Probably the first good bird of the year was an Iceland Gull past Lizard Point on the 1st (I Maclean) and a Glaucous Gull at...

Andy Pay I remember Monday 8th March 1988 was cold, as it always is on the Lizard when there's an east wind at that time of year (we were...

Dave Collins Hot on the heels of what appears to have been the first sighting of Brown Booby in Britain in Kent on 19 August 2019,...

Dougy Wright Rufous Bush Chat – Treleaver, near Coverack - 22nd Aug 2021. So, I had been to down to my local patch, Windmill Farm...

Ilya Maclean - 18th April 2020 April 2020 was a bit of a strange month birding wise. The whole of the UK had just gone into lockdown as a...

Not much is known about the birds of the Lizard (or indeed across Cornwall generally) prior to the 16th century. Skeletal remains of...

Systematic Gamebirds 1. Red-legged Partridge 2. Grey Partridge 3. Quail 4. Pheasant 5. Golden Pheasant Wildfowl 6. Brent Goose 7. Canada Goose 8. Barnacle Goose 9. Snow Goose 10. Greylag Goose 11. Pink-footed Goose 12. Tundra Bean Goose 13. White-fronted Goose 14. Mute Swan 15. Bewick's Swan 16. Whooper Swan 17. Egyptian Goose 18. Shelduck 19. Ruddy Shelduck 20. Mandarin Duck 21. Garganey 22. Blue-winged Teal 23. Shoveler 24. Gadwall 25. Wigeon 26. American Wigeon 27. Mallard

Little Auk Alle alle Scarce migrant and winter visitor, most commonly after strong winds. All records listed (singles unless otherwise...

Little Auk Alle alle Scarce migrant and winter visitor, most commonly after strong winds. All records listed (singles unless otherwise...

Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus Scarce migrant, but increasing. Only recorded this century: 2007: 2 on Grade Marsh and 5 more at Hayle...

Osprey Pandion haliaetus [BoCC5: Amber] Historically, this species was moderately common as a migrant in Cornwall, and it has been known...

Ring-necked Parakeet Psittacula krameri As one of the best-known invasive species in the UK, its origins have been the subject of much...

Coal Tit Periparus ater The historic status of this species is unknown with certainty though there is some suggestion that it may have...