Scilly - day one

My first visit to Scilly for about a million years started badly. I left the house shortly after 5am last Tuesday and arrived at Lands End airport at 9.15. Although the weather had been fine all the way down the last 10 miles it had been raining and the airport was covered in fog. Flying on time looked really unlikely and I was too late to get to the ferry in Penzance. None of the weather forecasts were very helpful and it was difficult to decide whether there was any chance of flying today. Eventually gave up and headed off to Drift Reservoir in the rain where I had fairly distant views of the Lesser Yellowlegs but no sign of the Semi-P.

On returning to the airport I found out there would be no flights today and headed off to Pendeen to year tick a few Manx Shearwater in the rain before driving to the Lands End youth hostel (OK curry, good treacle tart, local beer) where I had a 4 bed room to myself (nothing to do with the curry, honest).

The next day was bright and clear and my 9am flight deposited me, 2 other birders and 3 others on St Marys at 9.20. After a slightly frustrating wait for transport we were dropped as close to the Garrison as possible and headed through the campsite to find the Baltimore Oriole. After only a 10 minute wait the first winter female showed really well in the corner of the pig field.

The rest of the day involved sorting out accommodation, searching for the Solitary Sand (dipped), Black and White Warbler (dipped by 5 mins) and the Red eyed Vireo (dipped by 10 minutes). Then round to the Dump Pool where the Northern Waterthrush had been showing in the evening. Four hours later (three of which spent sitting in Higgo's new hide) produced nothing but a few mosquito bites.

Beddington Pec

The Pec was still present at Beddington along with with 4 Ruff (3 on Main Lake, 1 on 100 Acre), 4 Snipe and 1 Greenshank. Also 3 Buzzards over.

Spotshank dash

I had a quick scan of Birdguides yesterday at 3.30 and saw that a Spotted Redshank had been seen an hour earlier at the London Wetland Centre - potential patch tick! Dashed over and was watching the bird before 4pm. A really smart juvenile that mainly fed in the vegetation around the islands and so was sometimes not that easy to see. It often fed alongside the juvenile Ruff that's been present for a few days. Seeing the two together, the Ruff is very obviously a male since it's around the same size as the Spotshank.

I also took a few videos which I'll sort through and post anything half decent here. A quick scan of the grazing marsh and the rest of the scrape turned up this Whinchat on the purple loosestrife.

This was a bit more distant and taken with the 400mm and the 2x converter.

Just looked at Birdguides again. Whiskered Tern on the Main Lake at the Wetland Centre for 5 mins. Oh well, I've missed a few good birds at Barnes (eg the PGP) and I'm sure this won't be the last.

Barnes migrant bonanza

After the rain on Wednesday morning I was optimistic that it might have brought down a few migrants so headed off to London Wetland Centre. Things looked good straight away with a Wheatear on the playing fields. There were more migrants within the reserve and I quickly picked up a big mixed flock that included 3-4 Chifchaffs and a couple of Blackcaps. After the flock had been through therewere some singles and small groups including a f/imm Whitethroat, more Blackcaps, 2 Willow Warblers and a Lesser Whitethroat. In the WWF Hide I finally caught up with the Garganey that has been seen on and off for almost a week (assuming its the same bird, which it looks like being from the photos on the LWC website). This looks like an adult female rather than a juv.

Numbers of Shoveler have also been rising - now to around 20 birds.

Walking around the Sheltered Lagoon produced a good local migrant - which then proved really hard to get a photo of. Mystery bird photo!

OK, it's not much of a mystery but these were the best photos I could get before the bird was flushed by a family crashing around and screaming at each other.

Following the hedge back round and past the Peacock Hide found another small group of warblers: Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and three Lesser Whitethroats. This juvenile Willow Warbler was part of the pack.

So was this Lesser Whitethroat (one of three). Although it doesn't really show up that well here from the front and side it showed a nearly complete white eyering and faint white super so I assume it's one of this year's birds.

The Willow Warbler and Lesser throat photos took a little time to get since the birds were tearing around the bushes but seemed like time well spent. Until I got to the Peacock Hide to find out an Osprey had flown over about 10-15 minutes ago - which would have been a patch tick for me. Oh well.

There was a Hobby hunting over the grazing marsh, catching dragonflies. The only shot I could get of a catch was pretty distant.

Wandle Coot update

Anyone who read the brilliant Counting Coots blog will know the saga of the Wandle Coots and their Darwin Award winning inability to get fledge any chicks. Their latest attempts are two nests on the Wandle Delta. One (the same one as yesterday) is pretty utilitarian whereas the other shows a certain design flare.

Also on site: pair of Gadwall, Whitethroat still singing, Stock Dove and a single Greater Black backed Gull (1st summer).

Wandle fledglings

A trip to the Thames and Wandle with the boys showed some of the local breeding success with a newly fledged Chaffinch alongside Trinity Road where a male had been seen singing and then carrying food earlier in the year.

The Thames held a limited range of gulls, just three species with Herring, Lesser Black backed and Black headed present. Alongside the Wandle a Great Tit carrying food was probably raising a second brood and a male Grey Wag was singing and calling – not sure if this year’s brood has been successful.

Along the Daylight Path the male Whitethroat was singing. I'm not sure if that means he’s still looking for a mate or is just maintaining his territory. As far as I know some birds carry on singing even after they’ve found a mate whereas others stop singing, but I’ve no idea which category Whitethroats fall into. I've certainly heard other Sylvias singing when they’re raising a brood so Whitethroats may well do this as well. The images below are a bit over exposed as I had to quickly manually frig the numbers as the bird hopped up on a twig and down again.

I occasionally hear Stock Doves singing from the tall trees alongside the Wandle but I suspect that they don’t breed here – although I assume they do over in Hurlingham which is where these birds probably come from (although Wandsworth Park is another option although I'm not sure they breed there).

The Coots made famous by Thing’s blog are also trying again to build a nest on the highly tidal delta. This is the latest low-water effort, complete with emergency escape pod disguised as a football.

To the ends of the earth

Sometimes the twitch and the bird combine to make a brilliant day. News of a White throated Robin at the other end of the world (Hartlepool) filtered through mid morning. This is usually way beyond my twitching distance but for such a cool bird the rules had to be broken. I had some work to finish first so I couldn’t leave until just after noon and ran into endless traffic problems on the way north (M1 partially closed, massive traffic restrictions, etc) so I didn’t arrive until 4.30pm when I managed to park just twenty yards away from the bowling green. By this time it hadn’t been seen for around an hour (long trip for a dip) so after waiting for 15-20 minutes I headed off for a general wander. Bumped into someone who said it was showing in the doctor’s garden – the other side of a ten foot wall.
What happened next was inspired chaos: two guys quickly had their vans against the wall while guys with ladders strapped to vans appeared out of nowhere.
First the vans.

Then the ladders appeared.

There was a crunch from one of the van roofs as the weight of birders covered in kit got too much for it.
I eventually got onto one of the vans and looked over the wall to see the White throated Robin sitting in a shallow depression under some rose bushes. Frankly it looked like someone’s stuffed toy. After two minutes I jumped down to let someone else take a look and waited for a turn at a ladder.
Later had much better views as the bird bounced around the compost heaps at the back of the garden.

All the guys who had brilliant views of the bird from the doctor's garden missed out on one of the best twitches ever.

Stopped off on the way home for the stunning male Red backed Shrike at Seaton Carew. Only took the point and shoot but it was showing brilliantly so should have taken my SLR. Hence these two handheld digiscoped shots.