North Warren - 1/12/2022

Male PINTAIL are stunning birds, the most elegant of ducks

The huge numbers of wildfowl that used to come to our shores for the winter now seem to be a thing of the past. The recent mild winters have not provided favourable conditions for the birds to arrive, and now more birds are wintering on the continent, where conditions are more suitable. That's good for Dutch birders, but for us English ones its creating an eerie atmosphere of empty marshlands devoid of birds. That was the case with North Warren today, a place where even four or five years ago, thousands of ducks were present, but today they numbered just in the hundreds. It doesn't help that, despite recent heavy rain, water levels are still low for this time of year, and the grasslands just haven't flooded much, not providing the favourable conditions for the birds.

Marshland at North Warren

For a lot of the year North Warren is just a large area of grassland and is therefore not of much interest to the birdwatcher. But for a few months in winter, these grasslands flood, which in the past attracted large numbers of wildfowl. The reserve is famous for its wintering GEESE, often harbouring one of the largest flock of WHITE FRONTED GEESE in the country. With the recent mild weather, expectations were low as very few birds had been recorded so far this winter. I still thought it was worth a look though in the off chance something had turned up. The geese are usually encountered on the northern section, and looking from the viewpoint I was able to count 45 birds, the majority newly in from the continent. With them were two PINK FOOTS, my first sighting at North Warren of this species. In a more drier area was a large flock of several hundred BARNACLE GEESE, the majority of which will have descended from birds that have escaped from captivity on the continent. As geese do, they stretch out in a long line rather than forming any other kind of shape to their flock.

A preening male SHOVELLER

Of the flooding, most of it was on the southern section, and although duck numbers weren't particularly high there were good numbers of PINTAIL, as well as the usual WIGEON and TEAL. A JACK SNIPE was seen in flight from second viewing screen along from Aldeburgh. A female MARSH HARRIER also flew over, causing a few birds to flee, but in general they were blasé of the big raptor.

A female STONECHAT

Mild conditions have benefitted STONECHATS greatly, these little birds get decimated by hard winters, and are fortunately one of the few birds that are doing well, in Suffolk at least. Three birds were present today as usual favouring a nice perch in full view. Large numbers of BLACKBIRD were about, no doubt birds in from the continent. Conversely only singles of REDWING and FIELDFARE were about, this doesn't seem to be a good winter for them, as with the wildfowl, probably down to the mild winter so far.

An assortment of sleeping ducks

So not really the best of days, but its good to see there are still birds out there in our countryside. The mild weather is really confusing a lot of our wildlife, and its quite eerie to see the leaves still on the trees in December. What we need is for a blast of coldness to bring in those hard winter birds, and then maybe the spectacle of thousands of birds inhabiting our wetlands will again be something we can still witness. 

Hollesley Marshes - 24/11/2022

The scrape with the Hollesley Bay Penal Colony behind

Hollesley is not perhaps the most famous of RSPB reserves, but among local birdwatchers its gaining a reputation of attracting some unusual birds, especially in winter. The reserve contains areas of flooded grassland, with drier areas on the higher grounds towards the back, but the centrepiece of the reserve is the scrape. This habitat is an area of water literally scraped out of the soil, lying beneath the shadow of the prison behind. This habitat consists of very shallow water with islands, set amongst grassland. This habitat attracts large numbers of birds to nest, as well as winter, in Hollesley's case, good numbers of waders. At this time of year the birder's mind wanders to thoughts of wintering geese arriving on our shores, but unfortunately so far with the mild weather, very few of those birds have turned up on the Suffolk Coast. 

Shingle Street in the glare. Hollesley Marshes is pretty poor for photography as the birds never get close enough to take a picture, and the landscape is pretty flat and uninspiring.

On approaching the scrape, things didn't look too promising, as the only birds present seemed to be a large flock of GULLS roosting on an island. In among this group there were many types of species, of various ages and plumages but with a bit  of diligence I was able to spot three adult CASPIAN GULLS among the throng. Identifying gulls can be daunting at the best of times, and can be quite a headache for even a seasoned birder like myself. Caspian gulls are basically the type of herring gull to be found in the Black Sea area. At this time of year they can be easily be told apart from the similar herring gulls by a clear unmarked head (the herring gulls have a grey streaking to their head), in essence looking like large kittiwakes. 

A male STONECHAT see along the path to the river wall

With a closer look more birdlife was revealed on the scrape, with lots of ducks tucked round the edges of the water. Wildfowl numbers were still fairly low, the mild conditions don't really benefit the large numbers you usually get with hard winters. As is usual for this type of habitat the largest number of ducks were of TEAL and WIGEON, with a decent number of PINTAIL also showing up. The small flocks of SHOVELLER were graced by a leucisitic bird, an almost all white duck, which has been hanging around for a while, and small numbers of GADWALL were also about.

The river wall heading north, with the pill box around a concrete fence, created in the Second World War.

Three MARSH HARRIERS were around, hunting the surrounding grasslands, all of them females. These graceful raptors are always majestic to see, and no matter how common they have become in this part of the country, I never tire of watching them. A pair of STONECHATS were in a bramble bush along the path to the river wall, as usual perched right on the very top, always posing themselves. On the estuarial river Ore the tide was up, and only a SEAL was about, with a few REDSHANK flying up and down river. This is close to where the river Ore meets the sea, and large numbers of CORMARANTS rest on the shingle banks of Orford Ness, drying their wings after successful fishing, in preparation of going back into the water.

The river wall south to Shingle Street

This was a bit of a rush job today, I didn't really having the time to spend longer, or to visit anywhere else. That's the beauty of Hollesley, its small size means it can be done in a hour, and is also in close proximity to other reserves along the coast like Boyton, which you can visit briefly as well. To be honest I was only looking for the caspian gulls to add to my yearlist, as they are easier to identify at this time of year. Around the turn of the year our herring gulls lose the grey streaking and resemble caspians, meaning I will have to get into anal plumage details to tell them apart. Such is the fun of birdwatching.

Minsmere - 10/11/2022

COAL TIT and BLUE TIT on the Visitor Centre bird feeders

November can be a strange month, Autumn is pretty much over and Winter is yet to come. As a result it can be a quiet time and is probably the month in which I have seen the fewest species. November is chiefly a month of wildfowl, when winter birds arrive after fleeing the cold weather on the continent. Minsmere is a good place to see the arrival of these winter birds, and having not visited for a couple of months decided to go have a look in the off chance something rare had turned up. The recent temperatures have been mild, which has resulted in only small numbers of winter birds turning up so far.

The empty West Scrape

Unfortunately wildfowl were low on the ground across the reserve. To preserve the large colony of breeding birds on the Scrape, a lot of maintenance work is needed to provide optimum conditions for them to nest on. This time of year is usually the time when maintenance work is carried out, so as to cause the least disturbance. As a result there has been massive disturbance on the Scrape, and only South Scrape held any birds, the other parts were empty. Reeds had been cut back from the edges, and the islands had been dug up to get rid of any vegetation on them, as most breeding birds on the Scrape need open areas to nest in. Usually if birds are disturbed from the Scrape, they usually fly to the Levels, the area of wet grassland in the south of the reserve, but with water levels still low there, the area was unable to sustain any birds. Island Mere, a place that is usually a good bet for ducks, was also pretty empty, the area of reeds in front of the hide had been cut back.

TEAL and LAPWING on South Scrape

There were still a few DUCKS and GEESE about though. Most interesting was a PINK FOOTED GOOSE, among a flock of GREYLAGS around the pool on the Levels. The Pink-Foot was a lot smaller than the greylags, and had a darker plumage, and also the bird had a dark bill, with a slight bit of pink on it. Although a common winter bird in Norfolk, its fairly unusual this far south in Suffolk, and this is only my second record for Minsmere. The usual TEAL, WIGEON, SHOVELLER and GADWALL were present on South Scrape, along with a female PINTAIL, a fairly scarce bird at Minsmere. 

Sizewell Nuclear Power Stations loom over the reserve

In the winter months WADERS are usually absent from Minsmere, and not much was about today. Two AVOCETS, and a TURNSTONE hanging out with the flock of fifty or so LAPWING on South Scrape. A YELLOW LEGGED GULL was a nice find on South Scrape, a bird almost identical to a herring gull, the obvious difference between these two birds are the leg colour, but it also had a cleaner head than the nearby herring's it hung out with. This bird is the form of herring gull found around the Mediterranean, and is  a pretty common bird down there, occasionally wandering up to England. 

South Scrape

One of my favourite birds is the BULLFINCH, a very charismatic bird, beautifully plumaged, with a black cap, a rich rose chest, a grey back, and a big old bill, as well as its distinctive white rump when seen in flight. Its melancholy call is very distinctive and is a good way to look for them in the bushes they hang out in. Today two males were present, one in the North Bushes, and one in the Sluice Bushes in the Dunes, the typical bushy habitat of this bird. I often see them at this time of year, and the birds are probably migrants in from the continent. Minsmere is a very good place to see STONECHATS, and five were present today, one along the North Wall, and four on the Dunes, they are very showy birds, always perched on a bush, ready to be appreciated. An unusual visitor to Minsmere was a KINGFISHER which was briefly seen flying across the back of Island Mere, alighting on a reed before disappearing behind. At the visitor centre, the bird feeders are a good place to appreciate the huge numbers of the smaller birds that call Minsmere home. In among the large number of commoner birds there were plenty of COAL TITS, with singles of NUTHATCH and MARSH TIT. 

The sea of reeds at Minsmere

A quiet showing at Minsmere made by disturbance caused by maintenance work on the Scrape. As a result birding was brief as a look in North, East and West Hides produced no birds, as the areas in front of them were empty. These things are bloody annoying, but in the end are necessary for the thousands of birds that make Minsmere home in the summer months, which create the spectacle us birdwatchers come for. A place as good as Minsmere needs an intensive upkeep to keep it so good, as intensively managed as any farm.

Hen Reedbeds - 25/10/2022

LITTLE EGRET

Its been a quiet Autumn so far in Suffolk, with few rarities reported and very low numbers of the more common species. With nothing particularly around I chose to have a visit to Hen Reedbeds, just for the simple fact I haven't been there for a while. In the end it was a quiet day down there, the reed fronds gently swaying in the breeze. The reserve was created around the millennium when a river valley was allowed to grow into a reedbed, and borders the Blythe Estuary, providing some nice scenery and skies that go on forever.

Hide overlooking the reeds

For some reason it was an exceptional high tide, and it was in, meaning there were few birds out on the Blythe Estuary. For some reason few birds were roosting on the marshes or surrounding fields, so I have no idea where they all were. There were a few TEAL and WIGEON on the pools but that was about it. A GREAT WHITE EGRET flew over, heading west, a bird that has pretty much conquered all the Suffolk Coast. Just the one MARSH HARRIER was about, and plenty of WATER RAIL were squealing from the reeds.

A pool among the reeds

A feature of this time of year is the large amount of BEARDED TITS usually heard but occasionally seen on the reserve. In a big reedbed like the one here, they nest in large numbers, and when October comes, these bird "erupt" from their home territory, the tits literally rising from the reedbeds, to go find wintering grounds elsewhere. The Beardies were everywhere twittering out there metallic "pinging" call, with the odd bird arising from the reeds, to be briefly seen. There were two STONECHAT about, as you would expect, and the mild weather brought some CETTI'S WARBLERS out to thunder out their song. Some REDWINGS were by the furthest hide, a bird I haven't seen much of so far this Autumn, but in general things were quiet.

One of the horses grazing the reeds

I don't usually check the rare bird alerts on the internet, but some birdwatchers I met at Hen Reedbeds told me there was a DUSKY WARBLER over at Southwold, just up the road. This bird is your typical Little Brown Job, but I  hadn't seen one so I went to have a look. The bird was last seen on the north of the town, in a hedge next to the Boating Lake. When I arrived, there was just one birdwatcher about, and he hadn't seen the bird despite having waited around for two hours. It had last been seen in a hedge in a garden, and there were two DUNNOCKS around to add confusion. I hung around for a while, but the bird could have been anywhere, and I got bored of just staring into a hedge, so left.

Jetty on the Blythe Estuary

Still with a hang over from the Isles of Scilly, this was a nice, gentle excursion into the wilds of Suffolk, to clear my head of all that pollution that civilisation pours out. It didn't help that it was an immensely high tide which didn't seem to drop no matter how long I was there, which resulted in few birds being around. It was just one of those days where nothing much was to be seen, one just to sleep through, and dream of rare birds to see some other day.

The Last Day on the Scillies & The Road Back - 15&16/10/2022

At the twitch for the WILSON'S SNIPE, packed like sardines into a little hide

And so the last day on the Scillie arrived, and in the end the week seemed to go so fast. My time on the Islands ended in a blink of an eye, and soon all those places I had just discovered were now going to be behind me. It had been a busy couple of days, so much packed in and so many birds seen. Its strange sitting at my computer, in Ipswich, looking back to something that happened three weeks ago, it kind of makes me feel fairly nostalgic, wishing I was back there on the Islands.

Porth Hellic Pool

The Scillionian didn't leave until 16:15, which gave us plenty of time to have a look round the the main island, St Mary's. Happily after the blank drawn yesterday, a rarity had been called in today, and this was a mega, an extreme rarity: a WILSON'S SNIPE. Being the Scillies, this bird was from America, and its basically their form of our common snipe. Its pretty much the same bird, almost identical, except for some really anal plumage differences, like the number of feathers in its tail, and the colour of its primaries.

Where the WILSON'S SNIPE was seen

The bird was found at Porth Hellic pool, a lake by High Moors, among a flock of COMMON SNIPE, in some muddy areas on the margins of the water. The area was looked over by small rickety hide. Opening the door to the hide, I pushed into someone's back, and then was able to find a standing position. Around ten people were packed like sardines into the hide, scanning for the bird, with plenty of others waiting outside. And we would wait for an hour and a half of extreme discomfort for that bird to finally appear. The WILSON'S SNIPE decided to spend its time in a little channel, not to far away, but out of sight. Someone claimed they could see the bird from the beach a mile away, but they must have been telling fibs, or else they had superhuman vision.

Carreg Dhu Gardens

The bird finally emerged and despite what everyone said, was actually quite distinctive. It had a distinctive tear drop of white below its eye, and its plumaged was more subdued, the browns less vibrant, than the common snipes around it. This is a very rare bird in the UK, with a handful recorded in the country every year, so it was a decent bird to act as a send off from the islands. A KINGFISHER was also seen on the Pool, and there were a few WIGEON, GADWALL, TEAL and COOT on the water.

Some FIRECRESTS were flitting about in the evergreens

From Porth Hellic Pool it was a short wander through the Holy Vale to Carreg Dhu Community Gardens. In among the exotic foliage several FIRECRESTS were flitting about in the tree tops, occasionally showing themselves. After that it was a short walk back to Hugh Town to get some lunch and to wait for the ferry back to the mainland.

The Scillonian

With some high winds feared, it was possible that the voyage back to the mainland might be cancelled, but it wasn't the case, and the boat sailed. As it was the journey back was pretty hairy. Gently leaving the calm of the islands the boat came out into the main sea. There it lurched from side to side on the waves and the rain came down, soaking us all. Most of us hardier types stayed outside, but there came a point where we had to go in, with all the sane people, as the waves undulated over the sea. Being so choppy, not many birds were seen but a GREAT SHEARWATER was a decent spot, low on the water and over to the horizon. 

Hugh Town Harbour

The boat docked safely and I stayed at the Dock Inn near the quayside overnight. The next day it was a simple train journey to Paddington, then from Liverpool Street back to Ipswich and safely home, leaving behind a world of adventure to reenter a world of routine.

The SCILLONIAN III docked in Hugh Town

In the end it was a successful adventure down to the Isles of Scilly, to discover a whole world of rare birds. For a birdwatcher new worlds are a thrill, to discover new ground, new birds, new people. What rarity could beat a BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER? Not many. There's nothing more satisfying than an adventure that worked out well, one where the actual outcome beat the planned one. I'll forget most things but there are a few memories that will linger, birds I might possibly never see again. And so its back to planning the next holiday, hopefully just as bird filled as this one.

A Quiet Day on St Mary's - 14/10/2022

HERON at Porth Loo Beach 

A couple of days back we had a very quiet day on St Mary's resulting in us seeing very little, and so we had another one again today. Following yesterday's blackburnian warbler nothing exciting had been called in this day anywhere on the island chain. This can happen in birdwatching where the highs of a rare bird can be followed by the boredom of nothing, a void formed by all twitchers chasing the blackburnian and nothing else. There was some stuff today, but nothing too exciting compared to the mega of yesterday.

There were two twitches of sorts, minor ones really for some scarce but not really rare birds. A BARRED WARBLER was at Lower Moors and a MELODIOUS WARBLER at Higher Moors were about, but we ended up seeing neither of them. The barred warbler entailed us poking round a bushy field, while the melodious had us trained on a patch of woodland on the edge of the marshes. A very yellow WILLOW WARBLER, like the melodious, was present but the meldoious is a fair bit bulkier, with a flattish head.

The wet woodland at Higher Moors. With the air being so clear lush growths of lichen hung from the trees

At High Moors there was a very obliging WATER RAIL, maybe around ten metres away in a patch of alders, while in the same area there was a YELLOW BROWED WARBLER in the tree tops. Near Toll's Island a pair of GREAT NORTHERN DIVERS were present, one in almost pristine summer plumage. The summer plumage of a great northern diver is sublime, a black head and neck with speckled black and white on its back, its pretty indeed. We went back to look for the olive backed pipit, as we did a couple of days ago, but again pulled a blank. It was just one of those days, nothing really happening.

LINNET having a well deserved bath

The log at the Scillonian

On the first saturday of the trip, the 8/10, they held the first log of the Scillies for several years. This was held at the Scillonian, a sort of working men's club, where a log was done of all the birds seen on the islands. So it was that every day a roll call was done of all the birds seen, species by species, called out loud and debated. Being in a bar it was a very boozy affair, and was pretty raucous. On a couple of occasions we were able to add our own records to the log, which is pretty satisfying, being outsiders. We went most nights and it as a good way of finding out what was around on the islands as well as meeting fellow birdwatchers.

BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER - 13/10/2022

The BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER, unusually for a rare bird, it was very pretty - photo by Andy Crawford

This is what birdwatching is all about, that search, and eventual sighting of that rare and elusive bird, the one that is so unobtainable that when that it does turn up everyone flocks from the entire corners of the country to see. So it was with the BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER on the Scillies, an extremely rare bird to the UK, a massive mega, and to boot one that was beautifully plumaged as well. I don't know how many twitches I have been to where the only glimpses of the bird I get are of that little brown job, which looks just like another similar looking brown job.

TURNSTONES on the jetty steps at Hugh Town

The day started off innocuously with a visit to the island of St Agnes. "Aggie" is a pretty little island, flat and sparsely populated. It was a land of rough grassland, scattered bushes, with some tended fields, and with little coves and beaches on the shoreline. On the boulders, there were plenty of ROCK PIPITS, and a sizable flock of RINGED PLOVERS was also seen. Some WILLOW WARBLERS were in the bushes, and a GREY WAGTAIL was found on the coast line. A lonely DUNLIN was the only one in the whole island chain. St Agnes is famous for its amazing ice cream from the dairy there, and no visit to the island would be complete without tasting a cone.

Near the dock at St Agnes

As we were on the island the news came in of the sighting of a BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER on the island of Bryher, and of course we had to go see it. That meant leaving St Agnes for Hugh Town on St Mary's, and getting a boat to Bryher where it was found. Bryher is next to Tresco so wasn't too far away. On the way to the docks out of St Agnes we paid a brief visit to a twitch of a raddes warbler but didn't see it so moved on to get the boat back to St Mary's.

The coastline of St Agnes

So it was we got off the St Agnes boat and onto the Bryher one, specially commissioned for the twitch. Of course it was busy, as every birder from the entire island chain had boarded it, and it was jammed full. Bryher wasn't far away, and then it was a quick dash to the bird. Never having been to Bryher before, it was a case of follow the leader, just walking after the person in front, who was probably following the person in front of him. The bird was located on the back side of the island to where we landed, so it was a fair slog to finally get there. Bryher is a lot less civilised than the other islands and is mainly large areas of rough grassland.

Every birder on the Isles of Scilly had turned up for the twitch

And so we got to the twitch, and there was a large group of people standing in a small grassy field surrounded by tall hedges. The general consensus was that the bird had been seen but not  for a while. Then a murmur broke out and people moved, and bins and cameras were raised. Looking up to a part of the hedge, there was movement, and, yes, a brief glimpse of the bird.

The bird was seen in a tall hedge

The BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER is a very pretty bird, yellow front with a grey back and beige underparts, with some heavy grey streaking. Coming from America its a very rare bird here, this being the fifth record, and the first for England, its only ever been seen on islands. 

ROCK PIPIT

SONG THRUSH

The next sighting, the bird flew into the air like a flycatcher, to grab a passing insect but missed it. I moved to the other side of the hedge, to a different field and there got better views. I saw the bird many times, and although the bird wasn't too showy, I had plenty of views. The bird mainly stayed in the tops of the trees, constantly moving around. In the back field where I was twenty people were present, in the field where I was first, three hundred. That's all the birders on the Scillies. It would be a while before people were able to arrive from the mainland.

So for once in my life I attended a twitch where I was able to get good views of a small bird. This is the reason why I decided to come to the Scillies, for that rare enticing bird, that extreme mega. This is the sort of bird that most birdwatchers dream about, a once in a life time occurrence, the stuff stories are made of. Who knows when the bird will turn up in our country again, but I now have it ticked off on my life list and I'm very happy.

TWO BARRED WARBLER? - Nah, just a YELLOW BROWED - 12/10/2022

The enchanting sycamore tree I stared into for two hours

I don't know how many hours  I have spent staring into trees, looking for that elusive bird, which doesn't show itself for hours at a time. All the excitement of a twitch can die off and you boredly gaze up at some branches and leaves in the hope of finally seeing that bird. As it was today, with a twitch for a TWO BARRED GREENISH WARBLER, I looked up into a sycamore tree for at least two hours with a hundred other people.

With all the excitement of the last couple of days, things quietened down on the islands. No new rarities had been called in, and it seemed to be the sort of day where you just wander around in the hope of finding something of your own. The decision was to spend the day on St Mary's, the main island, and to have a look for any birds that might have flown in. 

Maybe a mile or two down the road from where we were staying in Hugh Town was Carreg Dhu gardens a community area planted with exotic plants. After a good search we located a FIRECREST, in one of the conifers. And then news got out that a TWO BARRED GREENISH WARBLER had been discovered on Tresco, an island we had previously visited. Being an extremely rare bird it was decided to go for it, and head off to the other island.

Hide overlooking Great Pool

Cue a mad dash from Carreg Dhu to the docks of Hugh Town, with shouts of 'ten minutes to departure!' as we desperately rushed to catch the ferry boat. We bought tickets on the docks, and managed to get to the boat in plenty of time, a boat jam packed with other twitchers, heading for the rare bird. The boat took little time to get to Tresco, and once there it was a case of blindly following other birders to the location of the bird as I had no idea where it was.

Ducks on Great Pool

I arrived at the twitch and  things didn't look too good. Groups of people were stretched out along the road, which meant that the bird hadn't been located for a while. However I decided to stay with the largest group who were looking up into a sycamore tree. It was a busy road for Tresco, and the throng of people constantly had to move to the side of the road as they got out of the way of the golf buggy buses. This warbler we were all hoping to see is an extremely rare bird in the UK, with less than twenty records, so there was a sizable group of people present. Only in a hobby like bird watching could a large group of people spend hours looking up into a sycamore tree, for brief glimpses of a little brown bird. 

In the two hours twitching I saw the bird for maybe twenty seconds, enough time to see the distinguishing features of two bars on its wing, and yellow supercilium. It was about the size of a chiffchaff, a couple of which were also in the tree to cause confusion, and stayed in the very tops of the tree which is standard for this species, different types of warblers choose different parts of trees. Its amazing how even the smallest of places could hold birds for a long time without the bird showing itself, as did this bloody sycamore tree. 

With the lack of activity, I got bored and moved off to have another look round the island of Tresco. I stopped off at the Great Pool, where a CATTLE EGRET was present on the mud at the back of the lake, but there was nothing different to the last visit, a couple of days ago. In a further wandering round the island I saw little, but did manage to get extremely wet in a brief but very heavy rain storm. That was it with Tresco, and headed back to the guesthouse wondering whether we had really seen a TWO BARRED GREENISH WARBLER, or some kind of imposter species.

The TWO BARRED GREENISH WARBLER was in the end never accepted, it was deemed to be a YELLOW BROWED WARBLER instead. It was decided that the primaries, the end of the wings, were the wrong colour. A shame in many respects, as it would have been a lifer, but I don't particularly care too much, it was a bird I saw briefly, one I saw for seconds and couldn't properly identify it. Its one of those birds that you have to be anal about to tell it apart from other similar birds, one that wasn't very exciting. But then that's bird watching, and I wouldn't do any other hobby.

A Poor Showing on St Mary's - 11/10/2022

A WREN

With all the excitement of the previous days, it was kind of taken for granted that today wasn't going to be the best. No new migrants had been called in, nothing to get the pulse racing, and there was no need to rush to some other island in the hope of seeing that rarity. As a result it was decided to have a look round the north of the main island of St Mary's, to see if we could find our own birds. We did a mighty trek around the north of the island, the main part of the island, but in the end saw few birds, it was just a brief time of quietness, in what would be a good couple of days later on. 

There was one twitch happening on the island, one in search of a RED EYED VIRIEO, a fairly rare bird with a handful seen each year in the UK. Having a coffee at Longstone Cafe,  as well as trying to protect my cake from swarms of house sparrows, news got in of a sighting of this scarce bird. Gobbling down cake and slurping coffee, we rushed out to join an already large twitch, not too far away. Maybe a hundred people were there, but were stretched out over several miles, which is not a good sign as it means the bird hasn't been seen for a while. If a bird hasn't bee see for a while people get bored and move around to look for the bird in the general area, and so leave the last area it was last seen, in the hope of finding it elsewhere. 

The bird had been seen in an area of gorse behind some grass paddocks, but not for some time. Then a shout came and everyone rushed downhill, to look into a clump of trees. Someone called out and claimed to see the bird, but I didn't see it properly to get an ID. A large group of birders had assembled, telescopes, cameras, and bins trained onto a clump of trees in the hope of finding that rarity. But after several hours, nothing had been seen, just the odd CHIFFCHAFF, so I called it a day, and was right to, as the bird was never properly seen again. 

Elsewhere on the island, there were two sets of three BLACK REDSTART, one at Porth Loo Beach and two at Can Vean in an arable field, a fairly standard October migrant which is surprisingly scarce in tis country considering how common it is on the continent. An olive backed pipit had also been reported on the island last seen from a little arable field, but on arriving the bird  hadn't been seen since the morning, many hours ago. It had been located in an overgrown area, and there was little chance of finding it. As it was a woodland bird, we had a look in the nearby pine forest. In among the trees four BRAMBLING flew over, and a SPOTTED FLYCATCHER was seen, by far my latest every record and my first for October. The flycatcher did its characteristic launching into the air trick to catch some flying insect before settling down again on an exposed perch, in a patch of open woodland. And that was it really, there were plenty of commoner birds, but that was all there was for any interesting sightings today.

So even an October day on the Scillies can sometimes draw a blank birdwise. These things happen and all you can do is soldier on, as you do with everything. This would prove to be the poorest day of the holiday, but things would pick up drastically in the later days. In some respects it was just nice to cover a large chunk of the island, to discover locations I had only heard about from rare bird reports. In a lot of ways birdwacthing is a means to explore new grounds, to see the previously unseen.