Back To Scilly - 22.10.22

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!

 

Scilly and Cornwall- 8.10.22

 Whilst I sat outside my accommodation waiting for the minibus to the airport I heard both Common Sandpiper and Kingfisher from the beach at Porthloo.

Back on the mainland I headed to Pendeen where unfortunately I didn’t see the juvenile Woodchat Shrike but at Copperhouse Creek, Hayle I did have better fortune when I laid eyes on not 1 but 2 Lesser Yellowlegs.

I arrived home having seen 106 species. It wasn’t a classic to say the least but a lifer is always a bonus.

Things then took a turn for the worse a couple of days after getting home when I tested positive for Covid for the first time. Things turned even worse just 6 days after leaving the islands when my friend John Judge went and found Britain’s 4th Blackburnian Warbler on Bryher!! That’s a bird I’d love to see….

Scilly - 7.10.22

 

Swainson’s Thrush (many thanks to Marc Read for use of his photo)

My last day on Scilly dawned to the news the Swainson’s had stuck around and so I headed off to the quay for the early boat over briefly stopping at Porthcressa where I found a Grey Plover as it took off from the rocks and headed around Morning Point. 

Once on Tresco I joined Wayne Collingham and Dave Hall on the walk up to Racket Town Lane. After a nervous few minutes the bird was picked up halfway up a big Cypress tree and SWAINSON’S THRUSH was finally added to my list. 

After the mass dip of one at Carreg Dhu then identifying the Standing Stones bird from the finders photo but still not seeing it closely followed by the Bryher bird being found soon after getting back to Cornwall it felt especially good to see one and of course the quiet week was (almost) forgotten!  

Other noteworthy birds on Tresco included 4 Curlew Sandpipers, Yellow Wagtail, a self found Spotted Flycatcher and a Pintail. 

Once back on St.Mary’s a Cattle Egret was found near Trewince but thankfully it was viewable distantly from near Porthloo so I didn’t need to go for another long walk! 

Scilly - 6.10.22

By now the quietness and lack of good birds was beginning to take its toll. Walking 10 miles a day for little or no reward was becoming annoying. Even more so when Ireland, France and even Shetland were reporting yanks. Surely there had to be something on Scilly? A calling Yellow-browed Warbler at Rosehill and 4 Skylark and another Wheatear on the airfield was all I wrote down in my notebook all day.

 It was when I was in Porth Hellick that Scilly 2022 finally kicked off when a Swainson’s Thrush was found on Tresco. A 3pm boat wasn’t an option due to me being too far away and no taxi available so I trudged back towards my digs and due to lack of signal I missed the news of a 3.30 boat over. I resigned myself to not getting over until the next day and had to hope it’d stay the night.

Scilly - 5.10.22

 I was back at Peninnis again but again was a bit too late for the main action. I did still manage a 4 shearwater morning though with a single Great and 9 Cory’s joining singles of Manx and Balearic. 2 more Great Skua and 4 Med Gulls were also seen.

Scilly - 4.10.22

 Today was a visit to St.Agnes sandwiched in between sea watches from Peninnis.

The first sea watch produced a Sooty Shearwater and 2 drake Common Scoter before I headed over to Aggy.

Once on Aggy I made a quick stop at the post office for some nibbles where I bumped into a birder who mentioned that a Greenish Warbler had been found earlier that morning over the course of the next hour I missed it 3 times by a second or two and so I decided to abandon trying to see it in favour of a walk around the island. 

Wheatear

A quick scan of the cricket pitch produced my first Wheatear of the year!

Back at Peninnis and I managed to pick out 2 distant Cory’s Shearwaters and an even more distant flock of c.40 shearwaters that were probably Manx. A Great Skua was a welcome sight considering how many had perished from bird flu.

Scilly - 3.10.22

Half way down Porthloo Lane I had a Skylark fly over followed by a Reed Warbler at Lower Moors. At Peninnis allotments a single small Sycamore tree held numerous birds including a Whitethroat and best of all a juvenile Common Rosefinch. This was my 6th in the UK but my 5th on Scilly. 

At Carreg Dhu gardens I could hear a Yellow-browed Warbler calling before I reached the gate. Upon entering I got great views of it high in the trees. 

News then broke on the WhatsApp group of a probable Long-tailed Duck off of St.Martin’s. It was soon confirmed and a couple of nice photos appeared. With this news I headed up to the north of St.Mary’s and just east of Bant’s Carn I set up my scope and after a couple of minutes I managed to pick it out just off of Higher Town albeit it wasn’t much more than a white blob at that range! But it was my first Scilly tick of the week.

Back at Carreg Dhu I saw another 2 Spotted Flycatchers and finally got onto a stunning little Firecrest.

Scilly -2.10.22

Jack Snipe

At Sunnyside I found 3 Blackcap feeding on blackberries before heading over to Porth Hellick. A Whinchat made the year list in the same field I’d had them the previous 2 years. On the pool a Jack Snipe was bobbing away on the far side from the hide.

At Higher Moors 2 Yellow-browed Warblers were present along with a Whitethroat. 

This year the cafe at Carn Vean was staying open later than usual and so not having been there since probably 2004 I went and had some lunch there but not after finding another Blackcap nearby.

I bumped into some familiar faces at Newford Duckpond and while catching up we picked out a Pied Flycatcher and a Reed Warbler deep in the trees.

Up at Trenoweth 2 Spotted Flycatchers showed well on and off. 

Spotted Flycatcher

Scilly - 1.10.22

 With a few hours to spare before my flight I returned to Godrevy and had a nice wander. Unfortunately the birds hadn’t been told I was going to be there and so bar 2 Raven and 3 Med Gulls it was sadly quiet.

The flight left on time and after dropping my bags off in my room (staying in Porthloo) I set off to see what I could see on this the 20th anniversary of my first ever visit to Scilly where coincidentally I also stayed in Porthloo. 

I walked down Porthloo Lane and at the southern end of Rosehill I spotted the Pied Flycatcher that’d been found earlier. Up at Carreg Dhu gardens I heard a Great Spitted Woodpecker calling from somewhere near Longstones. Off of Porthcressa beach 9 Sandwich Terns and 19 Mediterranean Gulls were roosting in the rocks.

A quiet first day. Hopefully things would pick up.

Cornwall - 30.9.22

It was again that time of year where I headed down to the SW for my annual holiday to Scilly. This year it was me, myself and I with nobody else available to join me. 

I set off at 4am and made good progress down despite some patchy fog. As there wasn’t anything of note to go and see I decided to head straight to Pendeen for a seawatch. I was there only an hour or so as it was pretty quiet but despite that I did find an adult Sabine’s Gull and 4 Balearic Shearwaters heading west. 

I then popped over to Copperhouse Creek on the Hayle Estuary where I picked out the 5 juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and over on the main estuary I noted 25 Mediterranean Gulls and a year tick Bar-tailed Godwit. 

I then headed to Godrevy but the heavens opened so I retired to my hotel room for a nice afternoon kip!