11th October 1995 - St Marys
The Parula hangover was pretty monumental after celebrating at the Porthcressa and the Mermaid. Nevertheless, we were up and out fairly early, heading first to the Garrison, where we failed to find the Red-eyed Vireo. The islands were shrouded in fog with a light southeast wind, which boded well for an arrival of new birds. Sure enough, just up the road at Bhuzza Quarry, a smart Wryneck was hopping about on the grass and boulders!
We pottered down to Porthloo Beach to look for a Little Stint, but found only Dunlins and Sanderlings, one of which had neat white mantle 'braces' - perhaps this had caused a bit of confusion. A first-winter male Black Redstart was hopping about on the rocks at the top of the beach. From here we explored the island, looking for our own migrants. There were lots of common migrants around, especially Chiffchaffs, but we couldn't find anything better than Pied and Spotted Flycatchers and a solitary Whinchat. Down at Porthellick, a Jack Snipe was still present showing extremely closely in front of the hide.
So, a bit of a come down after yesterday's high, but we probably needed a bit more of a chilled day!
12th October 1995 - St Marys and Tresco
The fog had cleared today, with a mix of overcast skies with occasional sunny spells. We were hoping for a good bird from the east as the wind remained in that direction. But, the birding gods had other plans, and mid-morning we were watching a Wood Warbler at Newford duck pond in the middle of Marys, when news came through of an Upland Sandpiper at nearby Telegraph. This is a unique wader, a Scillies special and one that is almost easier to see here in the southwest than back across the Atlantic in its home country. Regardless, this was a much-wanted bird for all of us, so we legged it over there as quickly as we could.
Arriving at Telegraph, there were only a handful of birders around and none of them knew where the bird was. We looked over a wall and to our surprise, the leggy wader was running about on the other side, in a grassy field! Absolutely cosmic! We drank in this fantastic Yank vagrant for about ten minutes at close range, before it suddenly took off and flew away calling towards the golf course. We high fived and celebrated our good luck. It seemed to have just arrived on the Isles, as it flew back over us a little later, before landing somewhere near Holy Vale. It was then seen to fly off high towards Cornwall, having only spent a couple of hours on the island.
Upland Sandpiper is still a really rare bird, with ony 17 further records in the last 26 years, three of which have been on the Isles of Scilly.
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Next up, we decided to head over to Tresco to see what migrants had turned up there. We saw the Black Duck and Yellow-rumped Warbler again, but even better, an immaculate juvenile Ortolan Bunting that gave cripplingly close views, feeding on grass seeds at the edge of the ploughed field next to the Yellow-rumped Warbler. It came so close you didn't even need bins at times! Other birds included seven Greenshanks and a Green Sandpiper on the Great Pool, two female Golden Pheasants, Black Redstart and a hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow at the Abbey Pool.
We headed back to St Marys where we joined a moth trapping event at Porthloo Beach. This proved to be absolutely amazing, with my first Rivulet and White Speck moths being totally eclipsed by a collossal Convolvulous Hawkmoth, itself eclipsed a little later by the unbelievably impressive sight of a Death's-head Hawkmoth! This black, yellow and blue beauty was majestic and if it wasn't for the Northern Parula, would have been bird of the trip!
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13th October 1995 - St Marys
Our last day dawned overcast with fog over the sea. Conditions looked promising, but failed to deliver. We septn an enjoyable day walking the lanes of St Marys looking for rares. Plenty of migrants were around including Black Redstarts, Tree Pipit, Blackcaps, another Wood Warbler, Reed and Sedge Warblers. The best we could find was a Yellow-browed Warbler at Porthellick. Always a good bird to see, but a little anticlimatic given the run of amazing birds we'd had. It was time to pack up our gear thank our hosts and head for the quay, where we boarded the Scillonian. With heavy hearts we headed back to the mainland, chatting about the fantastic birds we'd seen and worrying about what we might miss in the weeks to come. I had added nine new birds to my British list. Not too bad!
I had managed to conceal my secret trip to the Scillies from my Mum and Dad the whole week. However, they knew. I had phoned them mid-week as I usually did, just to check in. A little later, my Dad had for some reason dialled 1471 which revealed the number of the last caller. My Dad hadn't recognised the 01404 dialling code, so looked it up. When he found out it was the Isles of Scilly, he put two and two together. Thankfully, they weren't angry at all, just interested in what I'd seen and whether I'd enjoyed myself. I had, of course!
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