Cornwall - 18.10.25

Sadly my flight left on time and with it the end of my trip. But I wasn’t too sad as there was still some potentially good birds to see in Cornwall on the way home!

Once I’d reached my car and cleaned the salt spray off the windows I headed straight to the Hayle Estuary where from the road I quickly saw the year ticks of Curlew Sandpiper and just my 3rd ever White-rumped Sandpiper which frustratingly spent most of the time I was there asleep. A Spotted Redshank and Brent Goose were notable as were 20+ Mediterranean Gulls and a Peregrine that swooped in but failed to catch anything for breakfast.

Spoonbills

From the hide at Ryan’s Field 2 Spoonbill were doing what they do best and sleeping. I then stopped off at Philp’s Pasties to grab a couple to take home and from the car park was a 3rd Spoonbill feeding in the channel.

It was then onto Truro Tesco’s where after parking in the store car park I crossed the road and joined 3 birders. Quite quickly I re found the juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs as it probed the sticky mud. As I turned around to leave I bumped into Paul Freestone who helped me with directions for my next stop.

Baird’s Sandpiper

My final stop before heading for home was Colliford Lake. This was a new site for me but with Paul’s directions and help from a couple heading back to their car I quite quickly got onto my 3rd ever Baird’s Sandpiper that was hanging around with 3 Ringed Plover in the near gale force wind.

I arrived home just before 5pm having seen 129 species on Scilly which had risen to 142 after my Cornish stop offs and a Great White Egret over the car near Huntspill in Somerset.

An excellent couple of weeks with a lifer, 2 Scilly ticks and 21 year ticks in total. Plus it was great seeing familiar faces and meeting some new ones. Roll on next year! 

Scilly - 17.10.25

The last day of my 2 weeks was upon me and it started off at Porthcressa with another 1st Winter Caspian Gull. Up on Peninnis 6 more Skylark flew over and I found yet another Firecrest. Walking down the Peninnis farm trail I spotted a bird that looked good for a female Redstart but it barely showed at all in the 15 minutes I gave it so one that had to be forgotten. 

In Standing Stones the Brambling was seen again and as I’d forgotten something in my accommodation I headed back there but not before I found another Firecrest this time in the Chaplaincy gardens. At Porthloo beach I counted 11 Black Redstart! 9 on the beach, 1 on the houses behind the boatyard and another at Porthloo farm chalets. Also on the beach were 2 Wheatear. 

At Content Farm I had 2 Mistle Thrush followed by a flyover Hawfinch near Maypole. This was just my 2nd on Scilly. At the Maypole triangle I found my 3rd Firecrest of the day before I was told about a Lapwing just past Carn Vean. I headed in that direction and picked out 6 House Martin over the cafe but sadly the Lapwing had gone. But I did find my 4th Firecrest of the day and 19th of the week in the roadside hedge! 

My 12th Black Redstart of the day was on Old Town beach and the last bird noted for the holiday was a Common Redstart in the strange surroundings of Town Beach where it was flycatching off the ropes holding the boats !

Scilly - 16.10.25

Any day that starts with 3 Black Redstart and a Redpoll isn’t too shabby and that’s what I had at Porthcressa. Sadly that decent start shortly went horribly as a birder camping on St.Agnes had been woken by a calling Stone Curlew at 3.30am and that it’d just been flushed from the rocks at Old Town heading towards Peninnis. 

Thinking that’d never be seen again I headed to Porth Mellon where 2 1st winter Common Gull were added to the trip list and the female Common Scoter was offshore. News then broke of a Caspian Gull where I’d just been at Porthcressa so I headed through the dump and was almost by the hospital when news came in of the Stone Curlews reappearance at Old Town. I turned round and started running much to the bemusement of a fellow birder coming up the hill. I told him why I was running and together we headed back to Old Town. Radio messages came through it was below the church, then flown to Tolman’s then back towards Peninnis! I literally arrived as people were lowering their binoculars saying they lost it to view. Missed it by 2 seconds and Cliff Smith had been there but couldn’t see it below the church due to trees being in the way. It was then re found on Bryher. Bloody birds!

With this disappointment I headed to Longstones to try and cheer myself up with some of their lovely lemon drizzle cake! Along the track from the road past Carreg Dhu and up to Longstones I found 4 Firecrest.

Post drizzle cake I had a Mistle Thrush and another Firecrest at Holy Vale and then in the last field before the beach at Pelistry my 6th Firecrest of the day. Whilst having a cuppa at Ralph’s a Merlin shot through and a Yellow Wagtail flew over heard but unseen.

1st winter (top) and adult Caspian Gulls

I then had a distant Cattle Egret that was near Longstones. 1 of 2 that had appeared just after I’d left there. A quick look at Porth Hellick provided nothing of note and then I bumped into Cliff out on the road and he very kindly gave me a lift to Porthcressa where we saw a 1st Winter and adult Caspian Gull. These caused quite the twitch and were a Scilly tick for most even those who’d been coming for 30 plus years. Thankfully I’d seen Scilly’s 5th record last year on a pelagic but over the last couple of days of my visit as many as 10 were seen across the islands. 

As we were watching the gulls Mick Scott pulled a tube out of his pocket of a lovely Merveille du Jour moth which is still quite a rarity on Scilly and then someone said about seeing his even rarer moth at his accommodation. I followed him up to Buzza and saw his smart looking Feathered Brindle which was a new one for me.

Feathered Brindle

Scilly - 15.10.25

I started the day up at Peninnis where I noted 6 Skylark and my first Fieldfare of the trip. I then decided to walk along the coast path towards Porth Hellick. As I was approaching Tolman Point I noticed a bird flicking about on the rocks and was pleased to find a lovely male Black Redstart. I informed others and as we were watching it someone found a female nearby.

At Porth Hellick I went to be nosey and see what the ringers had found. As I approached they were removing a Chiffchaff and below that a Jack Snipe. As Jim the ringer moved around to get it he almost trod on another that flew off to the pool. Once safely removed I quickly grabbed a couple of photos showing just how small they are. There was another showing from the hide.

Jack Snipe (not my nails!)

  

I left them to it and wandered off towards Carn Friars in an attempt to relocate the previous days Wryneck near the Apple orchard maze. I scanned the fields, trees and bushes for about 20 minutes with no joy but as I started walking up the path to the farm a bird flicked up into the largest Coprosma bush and sat motionless in a gap for about 5 seconds before a Robin pushed it off. Success, my 2nd Wryneck of the trip.

Happy with that I headed back to Porth Hellick and had a walk around the loop. Another bird flicked up and finally I had seen a Reed Warbler this trip but again it was a 4-5 second view before vanishing. Whilst waiting for it to reappear a bird gave out a couple of single calls that I didn’t recognise but fell silent. The following day a possible Radde’s Warbler was found nearby and the recording of the call sounded very similar. Maybe next year I should brush up on scarcer bird calls before I go just incase! 

At Sandy Lane I came across another Yellow-browed Warbler but it was very mobile in the wind.

Jack Snipe

Lower Moors was my final stop of the day as there’d been 9 Jack Snipe reported from the 2 hides. Again the thermal imager was deployed and I managed to see 12 from the ISBG hide and screen and missed another that had walked into the reeds and another single from the Hilda Quick hide. So definitely 13 but probably 14 birds! At the log the following day the records had been checked and the highest total on record was of 18 birds from the 5 islands in a day so my flock of 13 is the largest single group. There must’ve been 40-50 across the islands but probably lots more given how tricky they usually are to see.

Death’s-head Hawkmoth

At the log Ralph Parks brought in this beast of a Death’s-head Hawkmoth that he’d trapped at Pelistry. One he’d been trying to catch there in 30 years of visiting the islands!

Scilly - 14.10.25

Ring Ouzel

Whilst having breakfast those early birds who’d got up and out before me had reported some decent birds on the Garrison so that was my first destination. Small groups of Redwing were seen overhead and a Yellow-legged Gull was noted off of Peninnis.

On my walk around the Garrison I finally saw my first House Martin of the trip and once I’d reached the sports club building adjacent to the campsite I was able to see 3 Ring Ouzel (males) and another 2 Firecrest.

Black Redstart

I then headed for the kids play area by the football pitch where after a brief wait a stunning male Black Redstart showed well. A 4th Ring Ouzel (female) then flew over.

A group of 8 Skylark flew over the quay and at Higher Moors whilst hoping to see a reported Greenish Warbler I had another Clouded Yellow (a normal one this time) and a moth that landed on the grass next to me was a White-speck. 

Porth Hellick pool was my final stop as there’d been 3 Jack Snipe reported. Once in the new hide a message came through that there were in fact 7 so I broke out my thermal imager and managed to increase that to 8. My biggest group ever.

The last bird of note for the day was another Black Redstart that was in the NE corner of the pool.

Scilly - 13.10.25

Seeing as there was potentially 2 Scilly ticks on St.Agnes I paid another visit over there but before the boat I popped into Porthcressa where a Black Redstart was flicking about on the rocks at Little Porth end

On Aggy I had much better and less crowded/stressful views of the Mourning Dove along with Mike Illet who’d twitched over for it. He then found another Black Redstart at Bergecooth before we went our separate ways. 

At Troy Town farm I noticed a Clouded Yellow fluttering in the fields where the Eastern Orphean Warbler was first seen back in 2018 but this was of the form Helice as it had a large patch of white in the wing  my first of this subspecies.

‘helice’ Clouded Yellow

By the post office I found a brief Yellow-browed Warbler before I headed back to the dove to meet Brendon Fagan, Brendon Glynn, Dave Johnson and Geoff Goater who’d also come to twitch the dove.

Lapland Bunting

As the Hoopoe had finally departed we all wandered down Barnaby Lane where they caught up with the American Pipit and then I year ticked the Lapland Bunting that was in the NE corner of Wingletang. At the Parsonage I came across a Spotted Flycatcher before I headed to Porth Killier where I found 2 more Firecrest in the hedge above the beach and then had 7 Redwing go over which were my first of the autumn.

Sadly the 2 Scilly ticks weren’t forthcoming.

Scilly - 12.10.25

I woke up feeling a bit unwell but I decided to go ahead with the 3 hour boat trip around the smaller uninhabited islands in the hope of seeing something different. The 2 Spoonbill were still on Green Island, the female Common Scoter shot past the boat and way out on Xantermans Rock we had 4 Purple Sandpiper. I’d previously only seen 2 in all my visits when 2 were seen roosting on rocks below the Garrison probably 20 years ago. We then had a further 6 on the Bishop Lighthouse.

We then had the choice of spending the rest of the day on St.Agnes but I was still feeling rough so chose to stay on the boat back to St.Mary’s. Just after I got off the boat one of my biggest Scilly tart ticks was found on you guessed it St.Agnes! A Green Sandpiper had been found off of Wingletang and then spent some time on the Big Pool. Shortly after someone found another potential Scilly tick at Periglis with a White-rumped Sandpiper but it flew towards the campsite and vanished. I on the other hand went to lay down for a bit and woke up 4 hours later just in time for dinner!

Scilly - 11.10.25

I started the day by heading towards Old Town where at the far end of Trench Lane we had excellent views of the juvenile Rose-coloured Starling as it fed on the front lawn of the last house on the left. I then popped into Standing Stones field where I found a Whinchat followed by re finding the long staying male Brambling which was a year tick. It was mentioned at the log that it’s believed to be the same bird that first appeared there in April! Matt Naylor then found a Garden Warbler which was only the 2nd I’d ever seen on the islands!

My first Jack Snipe of the trip was seen at Lower Moors unbeknownst as to what was to occur later on in the trip with regards to this species.

A Yellow-browed Warbler was seen very briefly from the screen at Shooters Pool and in Carreg Dhu gardens 2 Firecrest were seen quite quickly. I found another Firecrest by the vineyard field at Holy Vale/Sandy Lane junction.

Convulvulous Hawkmoth

At the end of the lane just inland from Watermill Cove I bumped into Paul Kemp and his wife who were staying at the same accommodation as me. They informed me of a good moth near the entrance to the house Peacehaven and sure enough there on a tree was only my 4th Convulvulous Hawkmoth that the moth-ers from the house had trapped overnight and put there for us to view. 

I then made only my second ever visit to Helvear where I accidentally flushed a Mistle Thrush from a horse field.

The last bird of note was 2 Whimbrel at Pendrathen Quay where I’d seen one back in April.

Hedgerow Darwin Wasp

As I walked past Pendrathen Quarry entrance a striking red,yellow and black insect landed by my feet. It was identified by those more knowledgeable than myself as a Heteroplema amictum or Hedgerow Darwin Wasp. A new one for me.

Scilly - 10.10.25

Seeing as I’d almost become a resident of St.Agnes having been there numerous time already I decided to visit Tresco today to build up the trip list. 2 Spoonbill were seen on Green Island from the boat over.

From the Swarovski hide I noted 29 Greenshank and 7 Redshank. Along pool road I found a Firecrest and whilst watching it I heard wing flaps overhead so I looked up and saw the islands remaining Raven as it flew east. 

Also from Pool Road I found one of the two Cattle Egrets in with their namesake. What made this one different was that it was my first ever juvenile.

Black-necked Grebe

I then headed to the south of the island and off of Gleaner Beach was just my 2nd Scilly record of Black-necked Grebe. On Abbey Pool were females of Wigeon and Shoveler.

Golden Pheasant

I then paid a visit to the woods behind Tresco Gardens where I saw a pair of Golden Pheasant tucked in off the path. Good enough for the year list!

Another Firecrest was by the Abbey crossroads and at Carn Near a Wheatear and Skylark were noted.

Once back on St.Mary’s I dropped off my scope and headed up to Peninnis where after the usual long wait for this species there we had good views of my first Wryneck of the year.

Scilly - 9.10.25

Seeing as the Mourning Dove was playing hard to get I decided against getting the early boat back to Aggy. In fact I wasn’t going to go at all but as I got back to my room after breakfast my phone dinged with a photo of the dove sitting on the roof of the island hall! 

So along with everyone else was it back there again. We arrived at the cricket pitch and spread out hoping for it to appear on the roof again but about 10 minutes later the CB’s crackled into life with news of it by the Threshing Mill near Lower Town farm/Bulb Dump. Most piled down towards there but is too firm in the hope they’d flush it out. They didn’t initially and people were watching it so I ran over only for it to fly which I of course missed. 

Thankfully a few minutes later it was back by the mill and permission to enter this private area was granted. I missed it perched on a poly tunnel frame by seconds but it eventually flew back out and I finally laid eyes on my first ever MOURNING DOVE in the UK. It’d only taken 10 hours over 3 days but I didn’t care anymore. 

Mourning Dove

With this positive news most of the resident birders climbed aboard the next boat over only to be held up docking for 20 minutes due to a boat being unloaded. In the end everyone left happy that this 7th Britain/1st Scilly + England was in their notebooks.

Before we left we had another look at the Hoopoe and Red-breasted Flycatcher.

Scilly - 8.10.25

It was back to St.Agnes today in the hope of seeing the Mourning Dove. An early boat went across at 8am and they all went up to Troy Town farm to view the field it’d been seen in the day before. After a couple of hours and no sign people wandered off leaving one man standing. It was just a couple of minutes after everyone had left that the bird flew in, hung around for a couple of minutes then flew off. 2 sightings over 2 days and only 3 people had seen it! 

The next boatload arrived and duly stared into the field for 6+ hours but no dove. It was beginning to feel personal! Only my 2nd ever Scilly Marsh Harrier was seen flying towards Samson, a Black Redstart on Periglis Beach and the Turtle Dove again.

Turtle Dove

After many hours we gave up and headed towards Barnaby Lane where after a brief wait I laid eyes on my first Scilly Red-breasted Flycatcher for 9 years!

Scilly - 7.10.25

 

Redstart

Today I was finally joined by fellow Herts birder Mark Sutton who wasn’t able to get over on Friday or Saturday and finally got on the islands for his first autumn visit on the Monday. The day started off with a showy Redstart above Old Town beach followed by a Willow Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat in Standing Stones field. It was then back to Porth Hellick where along the tideline on the beach we eventually had good if distant views of a juvenile Common Rosefinch. 

Common Rosefinch 

Up at Newford Duckpond I broke my record for the quickest time to see a Yellow-browed Warbler here with one seen within 5 minutes. At Trenoweth I picked out a Crossbill as it flew east. A Merlin harassed all the smaller birds at Pungies Lane.

I tried Porthloo beach again for Curlew Sandpiper but they’d gone. It was whilst sat on the bench the mega alert went off. As usual I thought it’d be for Shetland or the Western Isles but upon checking my phone I saw a back of camera shot of a Mourning Dove. Better still it was at Troy Town farm on St.Agnes! I shouted out to James Lidster who’d just walked by on the phone and showed him the photo. With this we headed towards the quay in the hope of a boat over. 

A boat was arranged and off we went. Another power walk was undertaken but we weren’t sure where to go as whilst the finder Keith Pellow was typing the news out onto the WhatsApp group the bird had flown and wasn’t seen in which direction it’d headed. The bird had been seen with a Turtle Dove so we concentrated on finding flocks of Collared Doves in the hope both birds had joined them. We did see the Turtle Dove but its American counterpart was sadly missing. The Hoopoe was seen again though.

Scilly - 6.10.25

Today I joined a 6 hour pelagic in the hope that the weekends storm had brought in something good.  As it was it didn’t but 9 Sooty, 5 Great and 15 Cory’s Shearwater were seen and 2 Storm Petrel made the year list. 

Scilly - 5.10.25

Today I headed over to St.Agnes where there were a few good birds to see. As we arrived news broke from back on St. Mary’s of an American (formally Buff-bellied) Pipit up on the Garrison but it’d gone missing possibly heading toward St. Agnes. At least the storm had brought us at least 1 Yank.

Yellow Wagtail

The first interesting bird of the day was a monochrome Yellow Wagtail on the cricket pitch that had been found the day before and was mooted as a possible Eastern bird. As it was the call and lack of long hindclaw indicated that it was just a bog standard Western.

Hoopoe

On the nearby Periglis beach the Hoopoe was showing down to a few feet. I’d never seen one on the isles in my first 14 visits but this was my 3rd in the last 3 visits! I scanned the beach for anything else and found a Whinchat. 

Spotted Sandpiper

My next stop was St. Warna’s cove. Here I plonked myself down on the grass above the beach and as the tide was out I thought I’d be in for a long search for my next good bird. As it was I was in luck as there in front of me I picked out the Spotted Sandpiper as it hunted the numerous flies attracted by the rotting seaweed. After the Sandpiper had flown off to the waters edge I noticed 3 pipits chasing each other. 2 called like Rock Pipit but 1 was giving a call I didn’t recognise but I just couldn’t pin it down to take a closer look.

American Pipit

I headed back to St.Mary’s and briefly stopped off at Porthcressa where I saw a nice summer plumaged Great Northern Diver. I then went home for a shower only to see news of the American Pipit was again on the Garrison so a quick power walk up to Woolpack Battery saw me arrive in time to see it showing down to 10 feet. My 2nd on Scilly and 4th in the UK but after 5minutes of viewing it suddenly took flight and called as it went. It was then the penny dropped and the bird I’d heard on Aggy was probably an American Pipit.

Throughout my trip it was on Aggy and photos said that there were in fact 2 birds. Maybe I’d found one but we’ll never know!!

Scilly - 4.10.25

 

Short-eared Owl

My first full day started off with the news of a Short-eared Owl crouched down below a hedge on Peninnis escaping the strong winds that had stopped all transport apart from a few helicopters coming in. This was a nice year tick.

The wind was certainly making birding tricky and not much else was noted apart from a Ruff at Porth Hellick pool that joined the phalarope. My only other year tick was a brief Whinchat at Carn Friars.

Scilly - 3.10.25

Wilson’s Phalarope 

Somehow it was that time of year again where I head SW to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and for the second year running the weather leading up to the Friday was lovely then Saturday a storm hits and means travelling over isn’t possible so I changed my flight from Saturday to the boat on Friday. I wasn’t the only one as there were many familiar faces on the boat getting in a day early.

Soon after leaving Penzance my first year tick of the trip was seen with 2 Arctic Skuas heading west. That was about it until we got past the Wolf lighthouse which is the boundary between the Cornwall and Scilly recording areas. 30 Cory’s, 2 Great and 3 Sooty Shearwaters made my notebook and my year list.

After arriving back on Scilly and dropping my gear off at my accommodation I prepared myself for a long walk to Porth Hellick for my first potential Scilly tick of the trip. As it was I’d just got past the school when a message came through saying the bird had flown to Lower Moors which was much closer!

I entered the hide to be shown the juvenile Wilson’s Phalarope just in front of the hide whizzing about like a clockwork toy. This was just my 3rd in the UK and by far the showiest. As I was leaving I heard the call of Yellow Wagtail and lo and behold 2 birds dropped in in front of the viewing screen. 

Up at Rocky Hills I had a look over a field and in the far corner I picked out my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year. A slew of trip ticks were added before I headed back to my accommodation. Here I bumped into James Lidster. He asked if I’d seen the juvenile Rose-coloured Starling yet to which I replied no. We went our separate ways but I’d only got about 10 feet away when he shouted there it is! And sure enough it was on wires with its commoner cousins but soon flew off. 

It was good to be back.