randombirder

Dawn over St. Mary's spread hues of orange and blue across the morning sky.  It was particularly quiet on the Garrison but it felt great being up and about across the headland at this time of day. The plan to head to Tresco didn't happen until midday after a lazy morning on St. Mary's. Arriving on Tresco, we bouldered over to the Heliport where the greater short-toed lark showed reasonably well associating with a skylark and a meadow pipit . Having decided on leaving my scope back at the apartment, it made connecting with the Ortolan extremely difficult is this was feeding a lot further away. We decided to head back on the next boat and proceeded to the site of the Cuckoo.  It was carnage.  Birders everywhere and with the bird skulking deep in cover, it was difficult to pin it down with many including me leaving a little disappointed at not having seen it. This was however alleviated in part by a ridiculously confidi...

The weather turned.  It started wet and very windy that delayed the start of the day.  By late morning there were glimpses of blue sky, and false hopes that the storm was about to clear.  I set off with these vain hopes. Three Sandwich Tern and a 1st year Mediterranean Gull were sat out on the rocks off Porthcressa.  The showers began to pulse through after the brief hiatus but a lot of ground was covered. On The Garrison, a Spotted Flycatcher was present actively feeding within the pines.  A lone  Whinchat  was also present here.   Walking through Lower Moors, a lone Greenshank , a couple of Water Rail , Grey Wagtail , and four House Martin were all on offer. The showers were heavy but there were enough dry spells to keep powering on but there were slim pickings on offer.  A real soaking wrapped up proceedings with the hope for better over the following days.

This has now become annual.  Visits to Poland are always rewarding, the countryside that in the most-part remains wild, with pine and deciduous forests that spread far and wide.  There is so much wildlife here. The destination was the small village of Marózek, around 20km from the nearest town of Olstynek.  It is a lovely place, set within a pine forest on one side and a freshwater lake on the other. The forest was alive with birds.  Fieldfare were in display mode, a common bird here.   A total of three Goshawk were seen on this trip, this one cruised high over the woodland.  The sighting in the Ilawa Forest about an hour away was spectacular - a rampant male that burst through the trees in pursuit of a Red Squirrel . These House Martin were nesting around the village.  Small groups collected mud around the puddles formed after the heavy rains on Saturday.  Swallow and Swift were also present here. ...