Blackburnian Warbler
Pallid Swift
After 12 days I finally tested negative for COVID and more good news was that the mega on Scilly was still present. With my wife, mother in law and kids going up to Scotland for the first few days of half term to see family I decided that if it was still there on Friday I will go for it.
Fast forward to Friday and it was still there so I booked flights and managed to grab some accommodation for 3 nights and at 4am Saturday I set off again for the SW. After a breakfast pastie in Hayle I went to have a look over the estuary and noted a year tick Knot, a single Med Gull and a few Lapwing.
It was then time to head to the airport but as I drove out of the village of Catchall I spotted a Merlin sat on top of a hay bale but it flew as soon as I went to get a better look.
At the airport it was a bit murky but flights were coming and going still and I even found 3 Wheatear in the car park! Everything was going well until the plane taxied to the end of the runway. The pilots then alerted us to a warning light and that we’d have to go back to the terminal for it to be fixed. This meant that I’d miss the 12.15 boat over to Bryher. After 20 minutes or so we got back on the plane and headed over. It was then we realised that all flights from Scilly were on hold due to thick fog at Lands End so our flight was the last one for a good few hours!
With time to kill I unpacked and took a slow walk to the quay for the 2pm boat. I was the only birder on it and once disembarked I headed towards Popplestone Fields passing numerous birders going the other way. Would there be anyone left to help find it?! Thankfully there were still a dozen or so birders in the last field and after I set up my scope I was rewarded with views about 20ft away at head height of my first UK BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER! All the stress of the twitch evaporated as I spent the next hour watching this 1st winter male vision of yellow searching for food in the Pittosporum bushes. Just the 4th UK record but the first to be twitchable.
With the pressure off I walked back to the quay. The boat ride back was enlivened by radio news of a Pallid Swift flying around Star Castle which as we neared the quay we could see from the boat. I walked up towards the castle but took the track towards the pottery where I along with a few others were treated to the bird flying 15-20ft above our heads. A Scilly tick and only my second ever Pallid Swift after my first in Suffolk back in 2010.
I slept well that night!
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