Isles of Scilly - 9th October 2023

After the excitement of yesterday, today was a little more serene. The glorious warm sunny weather continued halting any significant movements across the Isles but there are still a few interesting things to catch up with.

A quick walk around Penninis gave me the opportunity to connect with the dapper male common redstart present in a ploughed field along King Edwards Road. A really smart bird.

Deciding to visit Bryher today, a good look around Popplestones didn't produce the hoped for melodious warbler so I took the coast path toward Shipman Head and without much searching managed to see the juvenile dotterel that was still present. The views weren't great as I was looking straight into the light so walked round and sat down on the spongey heather to enjoy the bird feeding along the crest of the ridge. Keeping still, the bird began to walk slowly in my direction, pausing briefly and then again, in staccatoed movements. It was an incredible moment to have this bird walk within one metre from where I was positioned continuing to move past me as I held my breath.

The rest of the day wasn't nearly as exciting although a 1st winter red-backed shrike near to Samson Hill are always nice to encounter.

Common passerines included two whinchat, two reed warbler, a male blackcap and a willow warbler in sub-song.

Back on St. Mary's a walk up to the airport resulted in narrowly missing the Richard's pipit but connecting with two juvenile black redstart feeding in front of the Terminal building.

 

Heading across to Lower Moors, two jack snipe and a water rail weren't too difficult to spot from the ISBG hide. A distant great egret flew low toward Porth Hellick.

Steps: 26,849 (21.1 km)