Week 3: 10-16/10/2022
Our 3rd week was much more eventful. We started out on Monday 10th with a coastal walk from Watermill to Porth Hellick and happened to be in the right place at the right time when an American Buff-bellied Pipit turned up on Porth Hellick down - we were first on the scene after the finders and although the bird remained too distant for me to photograph it well, we had good views of it. We were then able to move on before the crowds arrived.
On Tuesday 11th I had a Pale-lemon Sallow moth in my trap - new for me and 3rd for Scilly.
On Wednesday 12th Ralph Parks had a Purple Marbled in his trap - not the first time I've seen one, but the first I have been able to photograph.
On Wednesday 12th Ralph Parks had a Purple Marbled in his trap - not the first time I've seen one, but the first I have been able to photograph.
Also Wednesday 12th there was a claim of a Two-barred Warbler on Tresco. This caused the 2nd big twitch of the trip, as ~200 birders stood in the drizzle staring into a sycamore tree. After a couple of unsatisfactory glimpses we headed off to the Ruin Beach cafe for pizza and a pint and to warm up and dry off. This was all very pleasant, but by the time we finished it was raining properly. As we returned to the site of the aforementioned sycamore the rain became torrential and we took shelter in the church. On the plus side when the rain stopped the bird became much more showy and enabled us to get a good look. Two-barred warbler was split fro Greenish Warbler some years ago. The latter is a fairly regular vagrant to Britain, including Scilly, but the Two-barred had not been seen before by most Scilly birders. It closely resembles Yellow-browed Warbler, but is plainer-winged (the yellow-browed having dark shading under its wing-bars), with a weaker proximal wing-bar and a yellow lower mandible. This bird caused much controversy as it was very plain-winged for a yellow-browed but did not feel "Greenish" enough for a Two-barred. The final decision after many photos and consulting with experts was that we had spent a day in the rain to look at an aberrant Yellow-browed Warbler. |
On returning to St Mary's we decided to go and look for an Olive-backed Pipit in a field at Trenoweth. This was known to be present but had been seen by few people, because of its habit of disappearing into a densely weedy field as soon as anyone saw it. We were fortunate to find no-one else present and had a pretty good view of the bird in the gathering gloom of dusk.
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Thursday 13th was a classic Scilly birding day. First we set off for higher moors where a Melodious Warbler had been reported. This bird was obliging enough to show well, if briefly, as soon as we arrived. Then headed for the Standing Stones field in Old Town where a Barred Warbler was reportedly putting on a good show. This bird was in constant view for the 20-30 mins we were there.
Then we went to Old Town cafe for our favourite bacon, brie and cranberry ciabatta for lunch. While there the MEGA-alert went off - a Blackburnian Warbler had been found on Bryher - and that deserves a page all to itself ...... see NEXT
The 14th and 15th were relatively uneventful, so I'll just show a couple more scenes from St Mary's