Friday 9th October
A birding trip to the Isles of Scilly had been mooted by some of the Selsey regulars in mid-2019, I had said at the time I would be interested without really knowing what I would be doing in October 2020. Just as lock-down arrived the accommodation was booked and for the last few weeks we have been carefully watching the ever-changing Covid restrictions to see whether 4 individuals could travel as a group and stay in one house together for a week.
Thankfully, everything worked to plan and on the basis I had the biggest boot I drove to Penzance, firstly picking up Paul Bowley then to Warsash to collect Ian Pitts and Rob White. Excitement was apparent, after seemingly in the birding doldrums for several weeks, the last couple of days had seen an arrival of rarer birds on the islands and slightly more irritating for the rest of us Ian was like an excitable puppy having also managed to see the Common Nighthawk which briefly made an appearance over Pagham last night, leading to an immediate ban on him mentioning the bird in question.
An initial delay caused by the A27 being shut was soon forgotten as we headed to the West country. It was approaching 4pm and we decided to head straight to the Kenidjack Valley where a Red-eyed Vireo had been seen earlier in the day. We quickly found the right place and headed into the lower part of the valley having increased our hopes by a passing birder who had seen the bird within the last hour. However, our 2 hour wait in a windy rainy valley was unrewarded as far as the Vireo was concerned, with only Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Grey Wagtail but a highlight of couple of pairs of Red-billed Chough was great to see and started our trip list with a decent bird.
Our Premier Inn for the night was next to the harbour in Penzance and we found a fish restaurant a short walk away to have dinner.
Saturday 10th October
A short walk to the ferry from the hotel was a 7.30am start with extra time needed before the 9.30am departure due to the Covid arrangements. A Kingfisher and Rock Pipits were seen from the queue for the boat. There was no forecast rain and we sat on the outer deck for a relatively uneventful crossing, Razorbill, Guillemot, lots of Gannet and some Bottlenose Dolphin were the notable sightings. Arriving at Hugh Town around midday our accommodation was on St Mary's about 20 minute walk from the harbour via the Co-op for some provisions.
We were out birding by 1.30pm having dumped our bags at the accommodation. We opted to stay on St Mary's rather than chase an outer island rarity given the limited time we would have due to the boat times, our first success was a Lapland Bunting in a field just off Sandy Lane. A Red-backed Shrike had been seen at the back of the Longstone Cafe but to be viewed from over half a mile away at Maypole, we tried for the shrike but quickly gave up realising that any view would be distinctly crap as we could barely distinguish between House Sparrow and Song Thrush at such a distance.
Weaving our way round to the coastal path on the East side at Watermill we were quickly scoping a Barred Warbler moving in and out of a large bramble hedge and our luck continued as we arrived at Porthwreck quarry and instantly viewed a Wryneck feeding just under the quarry wall. Our route continued along the coastal path picking up Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwit amongst the rocks and the ubiquitous Rock Pipits and Shags. Stonechats were plenty in the bracken and gorse.
We dropped down to Porth Hellick pools, Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Grey Heron were in the bay and Teal and Wigeon were on the open water of the pool. The hides were shut due to Covid which left a small viewing window to the side of the Sussex hide, where Rob picked up a Pectoral Sandpiper (our first Yank of the trip !!) also there a Common Snipe, Cetti's Warbler and Water Rail calling from the reeds.
It had been a great afternoon and ignoring the shrike we had seen everything that we could have, we celebrated the day and our first yank with a bottle of Champagne that Paul had brought with him for this birthday.
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3 hours of mask wearing on the Scillonian
Arriving at Hugh Town, our accommodation was to the left of the house on the hill.
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Lapland Bunting
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| Wryneck |
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| Wryneck |
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| Pectoral Sandpiper |
Sunday 11th October
The main target today was to try and see the Swainsons Thrush on Bryher. Our optimism had faded slightly as the bird was last reported yesterday morning and before we got on the boat negative news had come through that it had not been seen this morning either. We had managed a pre-breakfast walk around Porthloo beach close to the house without seeing anything significant although Rob was convinced he would find a Black Redstart in the same small area he saw one 15 years ago, but not this morning !
We met up with Justin Atkinson on the quay, Selsey regular and Scilly stalwart, Justin has been coming to Scilly every autumn for over 30 years so we were happy to tag along with him as it saved us scrutinising maps. The short boat journey to Bryher produced a Peregrine, 4 Pink-footed Goose, 7 Pale bellied Brents and a couple of Mediterranean Gulls which in the eyes of some passengers, perhaps less used to seeing Med Gulls, became Iceland Gulls !!!
We walked straight to the Popplestone fields when we arrived on Bryher where the Thrush had previously been seen. They were small fields, the size of a back garden surrounded by tall Pittosporum hedges. After about half an hour a shout went up that the bird had been seen briefly before it flew across 2 fields, another 10 minutes and Justin found the Swainsons Thrush about half way up on of the fields in the middle of the hedge, although slightly obscured we managed decent views through the scope, so much smaller than our traditional thrushes. With our main target in the bag we spent the rest of the day walking around the southern part of Bryher with highlights being 2 Yellow-browed Warblers and 2 Lesser Whitethroat (1 presumed blythi). There was a brief dash when a Radde's Warbler was reported, which turned out to be a fleeting appearance only. The 4.30 return boat gave us a little time to look around the fields locally without much being added.
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A view at the southern end of Bryher
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| 4 hapless birders, me, Paul , Ian , Rob |
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Swainson's Thrush
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and again
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| Lesser Whitethroat (bythi) |
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| Lesser Whitethroat |
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| Med Gull |
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| Med Gull |
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| A view of the hangman's island |
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| The boat back to St Mary's |
Monday October 12th
The weather forecast today suggested a morning of heavy rain and it was certainly very wet with low visibility at daybreak. So we abandoned our pre-breakfast walk, instead going out around 9ish when it was still wet and walking to Port Hellick beach and then to Lower Moors. A subtle shift in the birds were noted early on with our first 5 Redwing and a Siskin flock flying over, whilst the beach had a good number of Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwit, Greenshank and a single Dunlin amongst the Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover. We saw and heard a minimum of 6 Yellow-browed Warblers as we made our way towards Lower Moors with the visible pool holding a Common Snipe with the Moorhen.
We decided to stay on St Mary for the rest of the day, and re-emerged around 11.15 once the weather had cleared a little. Our first stop was the infamous Dump Clump, a small patch of scrub behind the Hugh Town Waste recycling facility, over time it has been notable for the number of rare birds it has turned up. Today, we barely managed a Song Thrush, which is saying something on Scilly. We decided to walk out to Peninnis Head via the church, not seeing any birds until mysteriously bumping into Chris Northwood in the cemetery (another Selsey regular), who was on a day trip from Penzance. Chris informed us how good he has been at missing birds and from that point on our day improved !
The first Swallows of the trip appeared followed by a late Yellow Wagtail, as we got to the rocks near Peninnis lighthouse a smart Snow Bunting was visible in the grass around the rocks along with 2 Wheatear. The walk towards Hugh town was helped when Chris Northwood bent down to tie his shoelaces which allowed the rest of us to see a Merlin fly over, which Chris missed !. Then news came through of a Red-breasted Flycatcher on the Garrison at Lower Broome. We marched towards the Garrison parting company with Chris as he left for the return ferry. Arriving to a small group of birders we quickly latched on to the Red-breasted Flycatcher at one point it giving excellent views, my only failure being my camera battery had died and I left the spare back in the house ! More frustrating as before now the birds had typically been slightly camera shy and a bit distant for decent pictures, this Flycatcher was very co-operative, how frustrating !!.
A Common Sandpiper on the beach a few House Martins with the inbound Swallows and a distant Manx Shearwater round the day off nicely. The pattern was being established that afternoons were delivering many more species and good birds that the mornings which is the opposite of what we are used to.
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| Peninnis Head |
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Wheatear
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| Snow Bunting |
Tuesday 13th October
Our plan today was to visit Tresco, there was a fairly strong NW wind and squally rain. Yesterday there had been reports of 3 Little Buntings together, a Radde's Warbler, plus the long staying American Golden Plover on Tresco, with little else on other islands to tempt us.
We were joined again by Justin on the 8am boat that ran to Tresco, I managed to see a Common Scoter on the short journey over along with Sandwich Terns and Med Gulls ( again despairingly called as Iceland Gulls by some !!!).
We spent the first couple of hours around the Abbey Pool area although with no sign of any Little Buntings, we did manage to see another Pectoral Sandpiper and Yellow-browed Warbler before heading towards the Great Pool, A Great-spotted Woodpecker was scoped, which is a bit of a Scillies rarity and on the Great pool we added Pochard, Coot, Gadwall and Shoveler to the trip list as well as a flyover Skylark and Lesser Redpoll. We had just made plans to hike up to the north of the island to see the American Golden Plover when a message came through that it had flown over to Bryher !. So we re-assessed the situation, had a coffee stop seeing a Red Squirrel on route and decided to get the early boat back to St Mary's and try for a Little Bunting which had been found near Porth Hellick, and lucking into 3 Spoonbill on a small island on the route back.
After a bit of a march straight to the site near Porth Hellick Bay, The Little Bunting was visible on our arrival, feeding on the ground at the edge of of path through the bracken-covered hillside. Reed Bunting and Stonechat were also in the area. We walked slowly back passed the pool where after a lot of debate we realised Paul had expertly found a Jack Snipe at the back of the pool, it took a while to determine that we were looking at a bird rather than a clump of vegetation.
Our afternoon had again ended significantly better than the morning, a slow walk back to the house added the 7 Pink-footed Geese and the single Greylag Goose that had been occupying St Mary's.
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Spoonbill
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Spoonbill
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Spoonbill with Herring Gull and intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gull
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Little Bunting
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Little Bunting
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| Little Bunting |
Wednesday 14th October
A Buff-bellied Pipit had been seen yesterday afternoon on Bryher, so our plan to chase the rarest bird available was to head to Bryher and try and connect. The tides meant that the first boat was rather later in the morning at 11.15am, which gave plenty of time for a walk around Porthloo to Lower Moors and then breakfast before heading to the boat.
The pre-breakfast routine started with the normal walk to Porthloo beach, which yet again failed to produce a Black Redstart for Rob in his favoured patch, we did see a Whinchat and the normal cast of common waders on the beach. The walk to Lower Moors produced several Yellow-browed Warblers, which seemed to be the most common arboreal passerine around. There was nothing on the main pool at Lower Moors, and our extended walk produced a few more Redwing.
The Buff-bellied Pipit had been reported earlier on Bryher as we headed to the boat, but was then reported as seen flying towards the Popplestone fields, so our assumption was that it was still there. We arrived on Bryher and started our search finding several groups of Meadow Pipit then a distant Ring Ouzel, but another report came through that a Buff-bellied Pipit had been found on St Agnes, so it appeared our quarry had continued its flight and hopped islands and there was no option toget from Bryher to St Agnes. We walked around the southern tip of Bryher again, with our planned short-cut to get us back to an earlier boat being thwarted by tracks that lead to dead-ends and a field of Saddleback Pigs !! - but that's another story Ian !! 😂.
We added Hooded Crow to our trip list, and a small Thrush influx in the sheltered gorse hillside added 3 more Ring Ouzel, several Redwing and our first Fieldfare, followed shortly after by a Merlin
A pleasant lunch stop overlooking one of the bays, conspired to be one bay short of where a Great White Egret flew over, which we missed.
The boat back to St Mary's gave us Perergine, Pale-bellied Brent Goose and Pink-footed Goose, we had an hour or so left of the day so decided to walk up Sandy Lane, the main highlight was a big group of Swallows and House Martins which were attacked by a Hobby and the flyover flock of 7 Pink-footed Geese with the attached Greylag Goose.
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| Lunch spot on Bryher |
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Yellow-browed Warbler
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| Hooded Crow |
Thursday 15th October
With the Buff-bellied Pipit relocated to St Agnes and still there yesterday evening we planned our day around the 10.15am boat to St Agnes, which meant our now normal pre-breakfast walk to Porthloo Beach and despite Rob's persistence with checking diligently, still no Black Redstart. The only addition to the trip list was a flyover Mistle Thrush, which are not a common Scilly bird.
Arriving on St Agnes on a gloriously sunny morning we followed the crowd toward Horse Point on the the Southern tip of the island and area of limited vegetation with grass, rocks and a bit of bracken/ heather. After around half an hour the american Buff-bellied Pipit was found and gave decent prolonged views at one point being flushed by a Merlin.
It gave us a bit of time to explore the island and we started in a clockwise direction along the coastal path, which gave spectacular views. We added Wheatear, Short-eared Owl and Peregrine before stopping for a sandwich. At the top of the island a bay held a single Grey Plover, a Yellow-browed warbler was on the way to a cream tea stop when a Hen Harrier was seen very high being mobbed by crows.
Arriving back on St Mary's there had been a report of a possible Arctic Warbler at Carag Dhu gardens, a site we had already planned to visit which was also close to the Longstone cafe , which is where the Red-backed Shrike had been staying. Despite a number of people looking there had been no further sign of any interesting phylloscs but 2 Firecrest were seen, we did have better luck up the road looking from a gate into the Longstone Cafe garden where after a bit of persistence the Red-backed Shrike finally showed itself. We also had another view of the presumed same ringtail Hen Harrier that we had seen on St Agnes. Subtle shifts in the number and species of birds had been notable today, and whereas we still heard Yellow-browed Warbler there were not the numbers there had been on Tuesday and Wednesday when it was estimated over 80 on the islands. The number of Redwing and Fieldfare seemed to have increased again with a large flock of 60+ Fieldfare being visible at times, and the hirundine flock seemed to have reached a peak yesterday as the number of birds now seemed to be reducing.
Another thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding day.
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In the north of St Agnes
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| The boat back to St Mary's |
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| Buff-bellied Pipit |
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American Buff-bellied Pipit
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Short-eared Owl
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Sparrowhawk
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Red-backed Shrike
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| The commonest bird on Scilly ? - Song Thrush |
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The Pink-footed Geese flock we kept seeing on St Mary
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Friday 16th October
Since yesterday the wind had swung round to a SE direction and was fairly brisk, with no significant sightings from the outer islands we decided to stay on St Mary's and walk from the house towards Telegraph and then the northern part of the island returning along the coast towards Porth Hellick obviously hoping to bump into something good. Despite a Hen Harrier which flew past my bedroom window before we had left the house it was yet another day when the afternoon proved much more productive than the morning. We had covered a fair distance only notable for a Firecrest and irregular sightings of Redwing and Fieldfare. Just as the clock approached midday a Merlin flew past us and was the the fore-runner to a change in afternoon bird activity. We stopped for a quick beach lunch, with the presumed same Merlin landing just offshore perching on rock for several minutes, a Skylark flew in off the sea, which was only the second bird we had seen on the trip.
We lost Rob to injury (birding is a known dangerous sport), who headed back to base to hopefully quickly re-couperate. We stopped at the Porthwreck quarry where no birds showed at all, but as we rejoined the coastal path a bird flushed from the path in front of me and Ian, giving a sharp 'tick'. It landed only a few feet away in bracken, out of sight for me, but Ian quickly said Little Bunting !. Amazingly rather than fly off it came back towards the path where it had alighted from, and for the next 25 minutes it happily fed on the path by our feet. We had put the news out straight away, but there were no other birders close-by and we left to continue our walk round, several birders did catch up with the bird before it was seen to fly off. It was only half-a-mile from where we saw the Little Bunting on Tuesday so a strong chance of it being the same bird although there had been reports of up to 3 or 4 Little Buntings on the islands. It was a great birding experience to have the bird so close.
We walked through to the Porth Hellick pool, where fortuitously there was a close Jack Snipe which could just be viewed to the side of the hide, we headed towards Holy Vale, where another Red-breasted Flycatcher had been reported, passing a couple rushing the other way, on enquiry they were going to see an Olive-backed Pipit which had just been reported from Carn Friars, Ian and I decided to follow, whilst Paul continued on for the Red-breasted Flycatcher.
A gathering of 20+ birders were already watching the Olive-backed Pipit in a small orchard, it was about half way up the field in fairly long grass so frequently disappeared from view, but another good bird to see. We re-traced our steps where we found Paul still looking for the Red-breasted Flycatcher which had disappeared. We walked back towards base up Sandy Lane and were surprised when a deep croak alerted us to 2 Great White Egrets being mobbed by a Grey Heron. We arrived back at base having seen a Spiny Stick Insect on a roadside bush. The injured Rob had recovered sufficiently to join us in a dash down to Porthloo beach where guess what..... 4 Black Redstarts had appeared in Robs favoured area, so although he hadn't found them , true to form they were there as predicted before the week ended. There was also a male Mandarin in the bay, which is again a bit of a Scillies rarity.
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A view towards St Martins from the north end of St Mary's
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Firecrest
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| Little Bunting |
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| From a few feet away |
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Jack Snipe
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Olive -backed Pipit
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| Olive-backed Pipit |
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| Black Redstart |
Saturday 17th October
A final day, which was relatively uneventful. We took our bags down to the quay early then walked to Penninis Head and back before having Cornish Pasty overlooking the High Town harbour and then joining the queue for the afternoon sailing on the Scillonian back to Penzance.
Our morning highlights on Penninis were Northern Raven, a smart male Ring Ouzel, Peregrine, Merlin, Snow Bunting and Black Redstart.
A distant Bonxie, Kittiwake and auks were seen on the sailing back.
We had a great week with the main rarity highlights being the Swainsons Thrush and Buff-bellied Pipit, but a great supporting cast of Little Bunting, Olive-backed Pipit, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Barred Warbler, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red-backed Shrike, Wryneck and loads of Yellow-browed Warblers. With some nice autumn birds in Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting, Jack Snipe, Hen Harrier, Short-Eared Owl, Merlin, Ring Ouzel and Black Redstart.
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