randombirder

Another trip out there – hopefully not the last. The big stumbling block, as ever, is cost. It’s something you hear again and again from the small birding crowd that gathers at the tail end of the summer pelagic season. A £200 return on the Scillonian, £300-plus for a hop from Land’s End, and then upwards of £120 a night for accommodation – all before you’ve even got yourself to the far south-west. What’s long been a yearly pilgrimage is starting to feel more like a wallet-buster. And yet… the lure of the magic isles is hard to resist. Maybe cheaper options will open up, maybe not, but the draw of that archipelago hasn’t faded one bit. August visits have a different rhythm – much calmer than October’s full-on dawn-to-dusk madness that leaves you needing a holiday to recover. This one was centred on two pelagics, booked well in advance (the previous year’s gripping seabird sightings were still fresh in mind). The Scillonian crossing was quiet – a few short-beaked common dolphin  p...

3rd October Familiar streets, familiar faces, so great to be back on the magic Isles. Expectations heightened as to what might transpire this week.  The journey from home took nine hours of unexpected efficiency - three trains, a flight, and a taxi - all of which were on-time. Shame that this level of punctuality feels like a rare win. Not wasting any time, and with bags dropped into the apartment, I scampered up to Penninis where the short-toed lark rather rudely marked my arrival by vanishing from site. Taking this personally, a visit to the Standing Stones field did however yield a red-backed shrike , wryneck , and a vocal yellow-browed warbler. 4th October Felt a bit ropey today but was up at a decent hour and was out for another go at the short-toed lark which was nowhere to be seen. Walking round Penninis was of course an absolute joy but there was very little around. A wryneck sat up on a stone wall viewed from the western side saved the morning. The plan was a trip across ...