The chance to go to the fabled Isles of Scilly, rare bird central, in October was a massive opportunity. I had just been dumped by my girlfriend Vicky (who I am now married to!) and needed a break from university life. I lived in a shared house with my ex and felt pretty down in the dumps, so accepted the offer from birding mates John Pilgrim and Fuzz to head down to the southwest. One problem, I was supposed to be at uni, so would have to keep this secret from my folks! I don't remember many of the details of this trip, although I do remember the birds which were fantastic and fortunately I kept a lot of notes from the trip, which will form the basis of this account. I had visited St Mary's once before, on a day trip aboard the Scillonian with my oldest birding mate Dunc, to twitch a Little Bunting. Which we saw!
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7th October - the journey to the Isles of Scilly
The first leg of our journey involved travelling with John Pilgrim and Fuzz in completely the wrong direction from Penzance, to Southend in Essex. Surely this was just making the journey longer? I helpfully pointed this out, but was ignored. We arrived at John's mate Vince's house at 2.30am and headed straight back the other way, towards Cornwall. This felt like a better direction of travel.
Several uncomfortable hours later we rolled into the ferry car park at Penzance in deepest Cornwall. The harbour was engulfed in fog and it was raining. Great. The Scillonian was due to sail at 11am but the reception staff told us the bad news that it would not be sailing then due to the weather. This dampened our spirits a little as it was wasting birding time just hanging around. As it turned out, by 1pm, the conditions were improving and we set sail half an hour later. The crossing was fairly uneventful, though pretty darn rough, into a strong wind. We did pick out four Euro Storm Petrels, a few Arctic and Great Skuas and best of all, a Grey Phalarope. The frequent rain showers had an unexpected effect on me: a week or so earlier, I had decided in my wisdom to dye my hair bright purple. No idea why, just youthful idiocy. The dowsing in rain water began to leach the purple dye out of my hair and down my face. By the time we arrived at St Mary's my mates were in hysterics laughing at my purple streaked face. It wasn't until later that I realised why the mirth, when I saw in the mirror the state of me.
We disembarked with our bins, scopes and rucsacs swinging around in the strong wind. We were full of anticipation. There had been plenty of birding news coming out from the Isles over the past few days including several American vagrants, mixing with some European class. This should be good!
What to do first? Well, we only had a couple of hours before dark, so we hightailed it to the digs, to drop off our gear. Nobody was in, obviously, they were out birding, so we dumped our bags by the door and headed off towards the local church, praying for good luck, figuratively of course. There had been a Red-eyed Vireo in the churchyard, a stonking American vagrant and one we all 'needed'. News wasn't inspiring - the bird hadn't been seen since first thing. There were a lot of trees here; big trees. Plenty of cover for a small bird to vanish in, especially one like a vireo which often remains motionless for a while. We gave it a look, then despite feeling like we were giving up too easily, we decided to head up to the airfield just outside town. This definitely proved to be a better idea and we soon picked up the juvenile Tawny Pipit running about on the grass. Tick number one for the trip and whilst distant, we could still make out the dark lores and line of contrasting median coverts on this big pale pipit. Also noted, were a couple of Wheatears. Our early start and lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with us, so we wandered back to Hugh Town happy with our good start.
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Our digs were a rather attractive terraced cottage, rented by some older Essex birders in the heart of Hugh Town. They'd very kindly allowed us to crash on their living room floor rent free (from what I can remember). We all chipped in a fiver and John bought a load of cheap tins of kidney beans and tomatoes, rice, curry powder and chilli powder. Thus, every night, we rustled up a very cheap dinner of curried beans and rice, or chilli beans and rice. Then the four of us joined three other birders to sleep in a row on the living room floor. The cacophony of snoring was impressive and the smell in the room by morning was delightful. The remaining money we spent on bacon sandwiches, crisps and beer. Oh and boat fares to get us between islands.
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8th October- St Mary's
The news from the other birders was that the Red-eyed Vireo had been seen yesterday afternoon in the churchyard and so this had to be our target. We headed straight over there as soon as it was light enough to bird. Most birders who had already been on the island had connected with this bird, so there were only about 20 or so birders looking for the vireo. It was seen a couple of times in the morning but always managed to slink away before any of us got a look at it. Late morning, I decided to wander off from where the main group were staking out. Just after midday, a movement in a tall Elm caught by eye - there it was! I watched it for a few moments, drinking in this amazing bird. It surprised me by shooting out to catch a fly, before returning to a branch where it sat motionless. I called the other birders and managed to lose sight of the vireo in the process. Fortunately, the bird flew a short distance and we all got back on it. We followed the bird as it moved along the line of trees, arriving in an Elm in the churchyard again where it gave brilliant views. It would often sit motionless, which could make it difficult to locate which is probably why the bird has been elusive at times. An absolutely cracking bird with an unusual jizz, unlike anything I've seen previously. Probably a bit larger than a Garden Warbler, though sleek with a pot-belly, and a strange, long-sloping forehead and thick protruding bill and a peaked crown. The upperparts were a vivid green, in some lights as bright as a Firecrest, contrasting with silky white underparts and a lemon yellow undertail. The head pattern was most striking, with a powder blue-grey crown edged with jet, sparking white eyebrows and a black eyestripe. This was the bird Richard Millington famously described as a 'hyperzonky megacrippler'. REVs have become one of the most frequently recorded American vagrants, so they are not quite as rare as they used to be, but it certainly lived up to its name -an absolute cracker.
We floated off round the island on a massive high. We ticked off places famed for hosting amazing rarities in the past, such as Porthellick Pool, which today hosted a lovely Jack Snipe, bobbing away like a mad thing; A brief Little Bunting and Firecrests at Salakee, like tiny sprites in the hedge; and a selection of flycatchers in Holy Vale. This was a lovely introduction to Scilly birding, but a big surprise was to some. We decided to head up to have another look at the Tawny Pipit. As we approached the airfield, a guy with a CB suddenly shouted 'Alpine Swift over Penninis!' What?! Where is Penninis we asked? Behind you, was his rather theatrical response. We swang round, put up our bins and were astonished to see the big swift powering into the wind low over the headland. Unbelievable! After a minute, it went over the brow of the headland and disappeared from sight. According to the guy with the CB, the bird turned up in St Agnes airspace three minutes later. Complete aerial power! This was a massive bonus, and after ticking the vireo earlier, we were completely beside ourselves. A little further on, we tracked down the Tawny Pipit again, this time showing at much closer range than yesterday.
We had walked a long way, but it had been awesome. Back to the digs for tea and then we went down to the Porthcressa for a pint and the bird log.
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Each night, the Porthcressa hosted many of the visiting birders who shared news, views and on occasion, blows. It was also the chance to buy photographs and to make plans for the next day. Occasionally, moth trappers would bring along some of their more interesting specimens to show to the gathered throng.
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