Isles of Scilly - 10th October 2020

I don't really know how to describe today other than feeling just 'a little' perplexed by an aberration in my decision making process. The plan was to spend a relaxing day in Tresco after the relentless exertions of autumn Scilly birding of the previous days. This was until a wrench was well and truly thrown into the works when reports started to come through of a Swainson's Thrush on Bryher.

Having failed to connect with the one on St. Mary's, perhaps another opportunity had presented itself.  

But we had a plan - and that plan was a day-trip to Tresco. No deviations.

The conundrum is as follows. Considering the situation objectively, vagrant Swainson's are buggers to connect with.  Catharus can be notoriously evasive, appearing for a few moments, then disappearing into deep cover, frustratingly for long periods. I just wasn't prepared to focus my gaze onto a hedge potentially for hours. My objective and pragmatic approach made sense at the time, I don't exactly know why, it just did.

The boat stopped at Bryher first - we didn't get off and headed onto New Grimsby, Tresco.

Heading up to Castle Down and after a brief search, we located the juvenile American Golden Plover associating with two European Golden Plover. 

My phone chimed.  The Swainson's Thrush was showing well.  I started to flap around.  I had to get over there. Confirming the timings, a boat was leaving Tresco at 1.15pm.

A hasty lunch, then a short hop across the channel, I charged down to the area where a decent number of birders had assembled. A few had taken some impressive photos so it appeared my luck was in.  It had been seen ten minutes earlier.  Now the wait.  Staring into an open area lined by trees the wait continued. Time had passed, the boat was due to leave at 4.30pm.  The walk back to the boat felt like a long one - an opportunity missed.