A few phoncalls through the week to my boss Matt Brierley in between going down to the levels sorted out a quick visit back to Cornwall for a quick day trip to the Isles of Scilly for one last autumnal holiday before the Starlings started up in earnest.
Before we went though, we did have a day of excitement on the RSPBs Ham Wall reserve where I am now based...... whilst stood in the car park, a guy came up to Jen (my new colleague) and me and told us he'd just seen a small heron with greenish legs and white wings sat on one of the crossbeams at the first viewpoint for 45 minutes before flying off further up the reedbeds. I had left my camera at home, but Jen had hers so she thrust it in my hands and I sprinted down to try and find the bird again. The only thing we could think it could be was a Squacco Heron.... a rare Mediterranean visitor. I couldn't see anything, but mentioned it to a birder at the second viewing platform who said he'd keep his eyes peeled as I went to check the reedbeds on the other side. After checking them to no avail I went back to the main track where I was met by the birder I'd just spoken to. Just after I'd left him the bird had come out of the reedbed and flown further to the right. We bombed it down to the extremity of the reserve and after a half an hour wait we were rewarded with a quick flight view as it made it's way back to the left. I managed to grab a very distant record shot, but you can see the dark back in between the white wings which should hopefully get it accepted by the Somerset Rarities Committee.
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| Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides) |
Anyway, last Tuesday night I arranged with Matt to pick him up in Okehampton to make our journey down to the Cornish coast. By 10pm we were in the hostel, packed and ready for an intense 4-hour visit to St. Mary's. The next morning we were on the boat and setting sail by 9.15am after a hearty cooked breakfast.... along the way we picked up on a dark phase Arctic Skua sat on the sea as the boat went past and a distant Sabine's Gull.
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| Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) |
Unfortunately the Scillonian III really lived up to its nickname ''the vomit rocket'' and pitching and rolling all over the place caused Matt to turn pale and it was downstairs for a kip and an attempt at recovery. Thankfully, half an hour later and coming into the quayside on Marys, Matt really perked up.... and so as we stepped off the boat.... the game was a-foot.
The first port of call was to be the bulb fields by Borough Farm to try and see the juvenile Upland Sandpiper that had been there for just over a week. Thankfully a few people had the same idea, so we grabbed a taxi and got a lift to Maypole. When we got there, the Sandpiper hadn't been seen all morning.... it had a habit of doing this, so we decided to go down the road to where a couple of Olive-backed Pipits were showing. OBP's tend to be nightmares... hiding away in long grass only giving a quick glimpse of a head above the vegetation..... not these ones.... as soon as we were there there was one sat on top of a furrow completely out in the open no more than 30 foot away..... Amazing. For quarter of an hour we watched both of them running through the grass, standing out in the open picking insects off the vegetation.
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| Olive-backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni) |
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| Olive-backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni) |
Due to our time limits we made a move to have a look for the Upland Sand again, but still no sign, so the decision was made to go to Pelistry Horse Stables which was just round the corner to try and look for a Red-throated Pipit which had been reported 10 minute before in a flock of Meadow Pipits feeding on the fields. By the time we'd got there however, there was no sign.... a Sparrowhawk had gone through over the field and put all the pipits up. We didn't have the time to wait around so we started back towards the bulb fields when a flock of pipits went over..... they all called like Meadow Pipits.... one of the guys who was walking with us had an iPhone with the Birdguides App and played the sound of Red-throat.... we definitely hadn't heard it in that flock.... but then as if it had been waiting for someone to play the call, the Red-throat flew over us calling (not a full call, but enough to know what it was) all on it's own too, so we knew we'd seen the right bird. A proper fluke! It quickly disappeared over the hill and was gone.
We left Pelistry and tried the bulb fields for what we said would be the last time.... we spent a good 20 minutes staring at nothing until a birder near us shouted out that he'd found the Upland..... it wandered closer and closer through the field, giving us some brilliant views.... stretching up it's neck accentuating just how small its head was compared to the rest of its body.
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| Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) |
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| Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) |
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| Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) |
After watching the yankie wader (the 11th species I'd seen this year!) wander around and head back to the far end of the field we called another taxi to ship us down to Porth Hellick where there was a first-winter male Bluethroat that was meant to showing really well. Getting to the beach we found a bloke that told us that he'd been just watching it hop around his feet, his tripod had fallen over almost braining the thing.... but instead of flying away, it had just hopped out of the way and carried on feeding! It had, however, just hopped round the other side of the bushes that we were watching. So we scooted round the other side and found the bird almost completely hidden away in the undergrowth. We crept closer and it din;t budge, it just watched us. In fact it was so unconcerned by us that it took a couple of minutes kip with us no more than 5 feet away... unbelievable! After a little while it woke back up and started to feed, perching out in the open on top of a rock before it flew up the beach leaving us with only an hour before we had to catch the boat.
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| Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) |
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| Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) |
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| Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) |
We had a quick effort to try and find the Wilson's Snipe at Lower Moors on the way back, but unfortunately the hide was full of people who were more intent in having the loudest conversations they could possibly have, so (rather suprisingly) the bird either wasn't there or wasn't showing.
We made it back to the quayside and the boat pulled out of the harbour, the islands getting smaller and smaller as we neared the mainland, but we were treated to more Common Dolphins messing around the boat and a pretty spectacular sunset over the sea so all in all we'd had a cracking day.
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| Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) |
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| The departing sunshine |
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