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.