I knew that there were different birds I would find on the coast. I was hoping to possibly see razorbills and kittiwakes, and for non-bird animals, there was a possibility of seeing seals.
I didn't get to see seals or razorbills. I suspect that I did see kittiwakes nesting as I came across a fairly large flock of nesting birds on a somewhat distant set of rocks at Sennen Cove Beach that was mixed with greater-black-backed gulls and herring gulls, and according to one of the signs at Land's End as to the birds you can spot, apparently there is a large flock of kittiwakes that mixes with these others at their nesting site. Even with my zoom lens, it wasn't enough to get a clear enough shot of the birds, and the fact that it was sunny meant their white feathers reflected too much light for me make out enough detail when I zoomed in. They look similar to herring gulls. But one bird I was not warned about, that did not appear in the list of birds I might see, was the gannet. I was looking out at the sea when I saw a huge white-ish bird flying over the water. Its head and neck were not like a heron, so I knew that wasn't it, and the beak was too short to be a pelican--plus I don't know if they have pelicans in the UK that are native to the region. So I snapped a photo with the hopes I'd figure it out later. It was pretty exciting to see this bird. They are on the RSPB's amber list, so they're not yet rare but are also not in the green with a normal population. So like the rock pipit, it was exciting to see a bird that I can only see on the coast, and it was a little more special just because these birds are not at their normal population, although the good news is that their numbers are increasing.
Update August 5, 2023: Since learning about gannets, I've really grown to love them. They are just such cool-looking birds, yet they are excellent divers and very stealthy for their size. It was such a privilege to see one of their main nesting locations on Noss Island in the Shetlands on a wildlife tour. I'm going to trust that the tour guides operated ethically because the were complaining about ethics of another tour company, but what I will saw is that they tossed up some small fish to allow us the opportunity to see how the birds can catch the fish in the air and also how they dive. Consequently, and not surprisingly, I was able to get several excellent photos of these birds, including some youngsters and babies. One interesting thing I learned about how they raise their young is that they are known to overfeed their babies, such that when the babies are ready to fledge, sometimes they are too heavy to actually fly properly or swim, so they remain near the shore and don't get fed until they lost enough weight to go out and get their own food. What a weird system! But evidently it works. We saw 10s of thousands of gannets in this colony, but apparently it was only about 60% or 70% of the population that is normally there because unfortunately, that many birds were lost to avian flu last year. It was hopeful to see that the colony was still thriving, though, and that the flu didn't seem to carry over the winter.
