After a quick look in the old town churchyard, which revealed a couple of Willow Warblers and a Blackcap, we headed down to the harbour to catch a ferry to Tresco. It was an enjoyable ride across, under sunny skies and with light winds. The attractive isle soon came into view, and I was delighted to jump off on to Tresco for the first time.
We headed first to the famous Great Pool, to look for a very rare but rather unremarkable American duck- a drake Black Duck. This bird has been resident since April 1994 and is arguably duller then its name suggests, being more like a dusky Mallard. Neverthless, a tick is a tick and we enjoyed watching this bird loafing about with the which seemed really appropriate for the continental feel of Tresco. A scan through the ducks revealed three Wigeon and a female Pintail, but apart from the Black Duck, nothing else unusual.
Nearby, our second American bird of the day, but much more interesting - a Yellow-rumped Warbler. This little cracker was near the Great Pool, flicking about in the Sycamores and Pines alongside one of the small fields. This was an exciting bird, but we had all twitched one in Bristol the previous year, so that took the excitement down a notch or two. The bird appeared neater and browner than the Bristol bird, as opposed to grey. It was very active, though often remaining on the larger branches so was easy to watch through the scope aswell as the bins. It frequently flew out of the trees to catch flies, flashing its lovely yellow rump. I was beginning to like Tresco. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering round the lanes, checking the small fields and hedgerows for birds. There were lots of migrants around; many Goldcrests, Redstarts, Wheatears, Willow Warblers, Firecrests, etc It was great birding.
We decided to catch the 4 o'clock boat back to 'Mary's, as there was some interesting news from the airfield. We headed straight up there after the short boat ride and quickly located a dinky and rather worn Short-toed Lark. After enjoying this little chap, we walked a bit further to a small group of birders who were watching a Richard's Pipit together with another large pipit. I was happy with the Richard's, a bogey bird of mine having dipped several on the Yorkshire coast. It was strutting around close enough to check out all those subtle differences from the Tawny Pipit we'd seen the day before.
The other bird was much less obvious. It looked different from the nearby Richard's, being long-winged and short-tailed, with a peculiar short bill, giving it a different jizz. The chatter was about other, rarer species, but my inexperience meant I wasn't adding anything useful to the discussions! We left the controversial pipit after making plenty of notes and headed to the pub for a pint after another good day on the Scillies.
This controversial pipit was accepted as a Blyth's Pipit once views improved and some key plumage features could be seen to complement the different 'feel' of the bird. Looking back after seeing a couple of other Blyth's Pipits in the UK, they really are quite distinctive birds. Fair play to the experienced birders who nailed this one at a time when it was a massive rarity.
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10th October - St Agnes
Today was the day things went stratospheric. We started off at first light on the Garrison about Hugh Town, checking the woodland for migrants. The Garrison is lovely, some old fortifications, enclosing lovely woodland and offering stunning panoramic views across Hugh Town and the wider Isles. It was a gorgeous view on a lovely morning. A late Yellow Wagtail flew over calling and there was a couple of Wheatears on the grass by the track. Other than that it was fairly quiet. I wished I had a camera to get some photos. I didn't know it, but this was the calm before the storm.
One minute I was casually checking some bushes, the next I was sprinting back down the hill towards Hugh Town. Birders coming the other way asked what was going on. "F*****G PARULA ON AGNES!" Everybody was freaking out and flooding down the road like lemmings towards the harbour. A Parula?! A Northern Parula on St Agnes. Absolutely no way! NO WAY! This is my dream Yank rarity!
To our delight, we got straight on the first boat. Birders were crammed in, full of nervous anticipation. There was lots of swearing, bickering and hilarity. This is the Scilly Season, right here. I am amazed nobody ended up in the harbour.
After what seemed like ages, the skipper pointed us towards birding nirvana and gunned the engine. Here we go! The tension was palpable, CBs crackled. Advice on the quickest way to the 'right spot' were shared around freely. It felt like we were all in this together, even though we were surrounded by strangers: together we would prevail, or together we would fail.
Soon, we arrived at Aggie and we piled off the boat. Was it rude to run? No, that was the benefit of youth, so we legged it up the hill, leaving the older guys to eat our dust. After a breathless few minutes, we arrived in a small copse of large trees. There was only a handful of birders present. The atmosphere was electric.
There! A small bird flitted and landed on the trunk of the tree. Bins up and BOOM!! The most exquisite sight filled my bins - a Northern Parula - all powder blue, bronze, orange, white, yellow and lime green! Simply stunning. The tiny warbler zipped around like a Goldcrest, hovering here and there to pick off an aphid, before hopping about on the branches, or hanging off the large leaves. A warbler yes, but those colours! Absolutely lovely. Seeing rarities on the Scillies could be a challenge, but this was easy. Plenty of room and the bird showing right in front of us at sufficient height to allow everybody to see it. More birders arrived as my heart level lowered - the air was full of the 'aaahs' and 'where is it?' and 'holy c**p that's stunning!'. Absolutely brilliant. We had prevailed!
We were completely dazed after this miraculous episode. I felt I needed a lie down. Instead we wandered the island, birding. Up on the delightfully-named Wingletang Down, a juvenile Dotterel was hanging out with a couple of Golden Plovers. The Dotterel was clearly using its mind tricks on the usually-flighty plovers and all three allowed a close approach. Next up was the tiny islet of Gugh (pronounched Goo) which was accessed by a short stroll along a sand bar. The bar was submerged at high tide, but within a little while we had checked all possible spots for birds and having found nothing we walked back to Agnes without getting wet feet.
To finish off our visit to Agnes in style, we walked round to Periglis Cove where we located a small roost of Ringed Plovers on the rocks. Our search quickly revealed the juvenile Baird's Sandpiper among the plovers, it being the only other wader present. As ever, a smart bird, looking very dapper in fresh juvenile plumage with neatly scalloped upperparts and a distinctive head pattern.
Wow! How good is St Agnes?
Time was getting on, so we headed for the quay, passing breathless, sweating birders who still hadn't caught up with the Parula. Good luck lads! We jumped on the boat and were soon back on Mary's. We decided to head back up to the Garrison to see what we could find, as we still had a couple of hours light left. There seemed to be more migrants about than first thing, including a Firecrest, Turtle Dove, and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was feeding on Red Valerian along the road. A few birders up the track were looking a bit agitated, so we strolled up - they had just found a Red-eyed Vireo! Nuts! The bird was showing straight away, perhaps a little duller than the bird at the churchyard, with less yellow on the undertail coverts. Nevertheless, another cracking bird and a fine end to an amazing day.
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We later found out that there had been six Red-eyed Vireos on the Scillies today! Two on Tresco and four new birds on St Mary's! The Northern Parula was the sixth record for the Isles of Scilly and the 16th record for Britain & Ireland. It has become much rarer with one in Ireland in 2003 and one on Tiree in 2010 the only subsequent records.
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