Friday 8 November 2024

Scilly - 6.10.24

Little Tern taken by Brendon

We awoke to news of a Scilly mega on Porthcressa so we quickly got dressed and power walked down there and thankfully the bird was still present feeding just offshore. The bird in question was a 1st winter Little Tern! Apparently at one point it’d almost flown out of the bay but returned and even sat on the beach a couple of times. It was my first Scilly tick of the week and a nice bonus before breakfast!

Great White Egret

We returned after breakfast to find the tern had vanished but present were Sandwich Tern, 2 Mediterranean Gulls and a Great White Egret. We then walked up the Garrison noting nothing along the Lower Brooke platform but as I arrived at Morning Point I inadvertently flushed a Whimbrel off the rocks below. At the dead pines walk we had not 1 but 4 Spotted Flycatchers

In Old Town bay we had another Great White Egret and the Little Tern again.

Tawny Pipit

We then wandered up to the airport and as it was a Sunday we could walk onto the airfield where we eventually had great views of just my 3rd ever Tawny Pipit.

Red-backed Shrike

After our fill of that we visited Porth Minick where our second juvenile Red-backed Shrike of the week showed well at the back of the field. News then reached us of a Jack Snipe at Lower Moors so off we went  and after a while it crept out from the sedges in the bottom corner and started bobbing. 

Porthloo beach held a number of Ringed Plover and one of them I picked out was colour ringed. Thanks to Bob Dawson it was identified as having been ringed in Holland in 2019 and had visited Scilly numerous times but this was the first sighting there for nearly 2 years.

Cattle Egret

Our final stop was Sandy Lane where in with a field containing a few cows were 4 of their namesake Cattle Egret. A Firecrest was the last bird of the day to enter my notebook. 

 

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