Scillie Break..........

Northern Waterthrush.

Using up my last 3 days holiday i decided to spend a long weekend  on Scillies as there was some quality birds on offer , i picked up the regular bird crew of Dan and Michael on Friday evening and we ended up in Cornwall at about 7 am Saturday morning , we tried for the Scarlet Tanager which had been seen at St. Levan but with no success , we boarded the Scillion and had a rather up and down voyage , about half way into our journey i picked out a Storm Petrel  riding the waves only 2 other birders got onto it , sadly Dan and Mike who needed it missed out this time , not long after i was soon onto a Great Skua  which we all saw this time .

News broke of a Scarlet Tanager  on St Marys  which i also dipped ,  a real error on my part as i decided to head off after about 30 mins looking for it , which proved to be a bad decision as it re appeared after i left and showed quite well all but briefly then disappeared never to be seen again !!!!!

Northern Waterthrush.

However i did see this stunning Northern Waterthrush  , which is a new species for me , very cramped viewing from the Shooters pool made viewing difficult and tempers were shall we say a little short at times , the Northern Waterthrush showed quite well for a time in the back pool and the first feature that stood out were the massive supercillium , it was constantly tail flicking , i managed much longer views later in the weekend from the ISBG hide in Lower Moors where i had scope views , this is my fifth new world warbler species and made the trip worth while on its own.

Upland Sandpiper.

This very obliging Upland Sandpiper was very impressive to see near Borough Farm , i saw it on a couple of occasions over the weekend , very thin necked with a ping pong ball sized head , black tipped long yellow bill and central crown stripe were evident as was its long yellow legs , i have now seen 3  Upland Sandpipers  and all have been on St Marys .

Note Central crown stripe and thin neck.

We also managed to see 2 Olive Backed Pipits at Watermill Lane , which showed well at times , sadly i never managed any photos as they kept walking out of sight into the furrows in the field , these were a new species for Dan and Michael and a welcome year tick for me.

Wilsons Snipe.

Common Snipe.

Wilsons Snipe.

We also managed to catch up the Wilsons Snipe from the ISBG  hide on Lower Moors and it showed really well at times , much plainer in overall appearance than Common Snipe , the braces are almost white compared to the yellow braces on Common Snipe , the barring on the flanks and underwing are the key id features . We also had a very close view of a Greenshank from this hide.

Very close Greenshank.

Other birds of note from this trip included 8 + Black Redstarts  , female Merlin , adult winter Med Gull  and a quite close White Rumped Sandpiper on Porth Hellick beach .

Black Redstart.

On the return journey on the Scillion on Monday evening we added another Great Skua and several Gannets which Russell picked out on several occasions , plus we all saw a pod of Common Dolphins very close to the Scillion , i would  just like to thank Michael , Dan , Nick , Russell and David for their company over the this amazing weekend.