SANDWICH BAY BIRD OBSERVATORY HOLIDAYS The 12th – 20th October 2017

‘The ’ approaching , St. Mary’s.

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Thursday October 12th and Friday October 13th: Sandwich Bay to the Scillies, via .

The Observatory building was especially crowded this evening – a combination of the usual Thursday Club, topped up with all those of us bound for the Scillies. We got our bags loaded at about 9.30 p.m. and, ably driven by Steve and James, drove all the way down to Penzance, with just a couple of ‘comfort-stops’ at Membury and Exeter services. Most people got at least some sleep. Despite leaving 2 hours later than in October 2016, the traffic-free roads meant that we still managed to arrive at Penzance with over two hours to spare before we needed to board ‘The Scillonian’, so we sat in the coach as the dawn broke over Penzance Bay. Needless to say, the first birds of the trip were gulls, in this case Herring

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Gulls, calling out over the Penzance roof-tops. When boarding time came, it was handled very efficiently by Jackie from The Steamship Company.

We then assembled on the aft observation deck and waited until it was time to leave. The bird list soon started to grow, with Common Eider, Northern Gannet, Shag etc. around the harbour and a large juvenile Peregrine did a fly-through. Once on our way along the south coast of the Lands End peninsula, more sea-birds became apparent and between us we recorded Kittiwakes, Guillemots, and several skuas, some of which were certainly Arctic, but one looked different to me – slender, elegant and tern-like with a paler mantle than most skuas – a possible Long-tailed? Some in the group also got onto several Puffins. Further out, beyond Lands End and in much rougher water, a couple of Sooty Shearwaters cruised by and later, nearer the Scillies, a single Balearic Shearwater was recorded. Two Great Skuas (Bonxies) put in their usual dramatic appearance. A single Harbour Porpoise surfaced briefly at one point and Common Dolphin was reported, plus a possible Bottle- nosed.

Once arrived at Hugh Town on St. Mary’s we went up to our hotel and got checked in – a process that looked for a brief moment as if it was going to descend into a bit of chaos but which the young front of house staff quickly rose above and sorted out. After a lunch of soup and sandwiches we went for our first walk as a group – through Hugh Town; along Porthcressa Beach; up Buzza Hill; out along the Peninnis track; back down through Old Town Bay; across the Nature Reserve and thence back to the hotel by way of Town Beach.

We saw quite a range of birds, but the Peninnis area was fairly wind-blown and bird-free. A nice adult Mediterranean Gull was off Porthcressa Beach and singles of Kingfisher and a Greenshank were in Old Town Bay. A Yellow-browed Warbler was heard calling from willows along the Lower Moors trail and two Grey Wagtails were here also.

In the evening, the staggered eating arrangements at the hotel seemed to work well for our large group and when we came to eat, the food was good and it came promptly to the table. An early night followed for most of us.

Saturday October 14th: St. Agnes

A few stalwart members of the group were up and about around dawn for a walk around The Garrison, behind Hugh Town. They reported back at breakfast with a range of commoner birds seen.

After a decent buffet breakfast it was time for all of us to make our way down to the quayside for our first ‘off-island’ trip, across to St. Agnes. It was a grey day for most of the time, with even some light drizzle, but, as always on The Scillies, temperatures remained

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mild. Once landed on St. Agnes, a block advance booking of lunch-time pasties was made at The Turk’s Head pub before we started to explore further into the island. A few of the group ventured out across the Bar and later some got wet feet because the tide has come in and covered the sand there. A number of Portuguese Man o’ War jellyfish were washed up on the beach there, along with other jellyfish species, while up on the rocks on the skyline, some Carrion Crows were mobbing one of the local Ravens.

We carried on along the lanes towards the centre of the island, marvelling at the range of exotic plants lining our way – Pittosporum trees forming field windbreaks everywhere; there were spectacular (and deadly poisonous) Datura trees in full flower and splashes of colour from the orange Nasturtium plants tumbling over the roadside walls. By this time the group had split up a bit, with some still coming off Gugh, some going on to look for the main bird attraction on the island at the moment, more of which later, and some heading off to the cafe at the Coastguards Cottages. Here there were wonderful views across the south- western side of St. Agnes and out into the Western Approaches, with the lonely tower of the Bishop Rock light away on the horizon to the west.

Most of the group assembled in the lane down from the St. Agnes’ lighthouse, to join a largish group of other birders all staring intently across a field to find a rare vagrant to the U.K., which had been identified as a Western Orphean Warbler. The bird looked a bit like a very large Lesser Whitethroat as it clambered about in the Brambles and the Pittosporum. Most members of the group were able to see the bird, sometimes using the telescopes

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kindly offered by the other birders. Commiserations to those members of our group who did not manage to see it. Things got even better with this bird, however, because a few days later, after we had left the Scillies, better photographs were obtained and it was re- identified as an Eastern Orphean Warbler, a first for Britain.

We returned to The Turk’s Head to consume our pasties before walking round the north side of the island, towards Big Pool and Periglis Beach. Good views were had of a number of Rock Pipits scurrying about over the washed-up wrack on a beach, while later a rather fine Peregrine was perched up on some rocks. Here too were several Atlantic Grey Seals, one of them a large bull, all being very inquisitive and coming quite close inshore. From Periglis we walked slowly up towards Troy Town, where the roadside ice cream shop did some good business, and then across the island back to the jetty for collection by the launch back to St. Mary’s. By this time, the late afternoon sun had broken through the grey clouds and was transforming the sea and the land by its brightness and warmth.

Comparing notes during and after the evening bird log, we found out about other birds seen by members of the group who had gone off on their own during the day. On St. Agnes, Hawfinches were seen by several different people; a Little Bunting seen by a couple and at least two Yellow-browed Warblers were found. Meanwhile, back on St. Mary’s, other members of the group were finding Isabelline Wheatear on the airfield and American Golden Plover at Porthellick, amongst other things.

Sunday October 15th: Tresco,

Another grey dawn, but it brightened a little mid-morning before there was a real change in the weather around lunch time. The talk to-day was all about the forecasted on-coming storm ‘Ophelia’ which was due to arrive along the western seaboard of the on Monday, and the weather did look as if it was on the change during the day, with a heavy mist coming in from the Atlantic by the mid-afternoon.

We landed at on Tresco, having gone across in two separate launches, and then dispersed across the island. People in one of the boats saw 4 Mediterranean Gulls and there were over 20 Little Egrets and 200 Shags in the Tresco Channel area. Once on Tresco, the bulk of the group walked down through the time-share and holiday apartment complex which is now such a feature of the island and then skirted round the end of the Great Pool. At the end of the Pool were a number of Greenshanks and Redshanks roosting together at the water’s edge, (a later count reproduced about 40 Greenshanks), while the pasture leading down to the Pool had a number of White Wagtails and a couple of Grey Wagtails present. On the Pool there was a variety of ducks, including several pairs of Gadwall. We continued our walk through the planted woodland which borders the Pool before arriving at Tresco Abbey and, shortly after, the entrance to the world-famous Abbey Gardens. Some of

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the group paid to go in and have a look round – always interesting, even in mid-October – while the rest of us partook of morning drinks at the Abbey Gardens Cafe. The introduced Red Squirrels provided interest in adjacent trees, while Brown Rats running around the outdoor area of the cafe produced rather different emotions. A European Spoonbill flew over and landed by the side of the Abbey Pool, while other interesting records by different members of the group included 6 Pink-footed Geese, up to 100 Siskins and 9 Golden Pheasants in one group. The Pheasants are long-established features in the Abbey Gardens area but their population is not self-sustaining and has to be topped-up regularly by new stock. Also seen today – a range of butterflies including many Red Admirals, slightly fewer Peacocks and a scattering of Speckled Woods, with single of Comma, Painted Lady and Purple Hairstreak. Two or three Hummingbird Hawkmoths were also reported.

Monday October 16th: St. Mary’s

A ‘bit of a blow’ to-day as Storm Ophelia side-swiped the Scillies as it tracked north across Ireland. The wind started to strengthen round about dawn and by mid-morning was blowing at gale to storm force from the south-west.

Almost everyone was still prepared to venture out after breakfast, some to concentrate on birds on the eastern side of St. Mary’s but with the bulk of the group taking a more leisurely pace across the south side. We started with being sand-blasted at Porthcressa Beach before moving off through Hugh Town by way of the islands’ waste disposal site and then the ‘Dump Clump’. Very few small birds were to be seen (all taking cover?) and this remained the pattern for the rest of the day, although two Yellow-browed Warblers were found by the ‘eastern’ group.

We went through Old Town, with some fairly spectacular waves crashing about the entrance to the bay there, then up through Old Town itself and along through fields of young narcissi towards Higher Moors. Here we turned off and walked down to the beach at Porthellick. The aim was to find the American Golden Plover which had been frequenting the area for over a week now. We found the bird almost immediately out on the beach and, although distant, it could be seen quite well through the telescope, showing the overall rather greyish tone to the plumage, a buffish stripe above the eye and a short-legged appearance compared to the European Golden Plover. A few Common Ringed Plovers were nearby and a single Greenshank was feeding in the shallows as the tide came in. It soon flew off to the nearby Porthellick Pool to join several others roosting there. Also on the Pool were three – or at least, they all looked like Common Snipe but there had been reports in recent days of a Wilson’s Snipe being present there. This is the North American equivalent of our Snipe but extremely difficult to separate from our one.

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From Porthellick we followed the trail up through the narrow wooded valley of and then on to Longstones Cafe, a very welcome sight indeed for most of us. The place had been closed for about three years so it was good to be able to put some business their way. After lunch there we carried on to the gardens at Carreg Dhu and then down towards the beaches of and Porthmellon. Impressive waves were rolling in here and the sea out towards Tresco looked especially grim – no wonder all the inter-island boats (and The Scillonian) had been cancelled. In Porthmellon we found a couple of Brent Geese of the pale-bellied race and some waders were roosting on rocks. From here there was a walk back to the hotel into the wind.

The day was not over, however, as, just before 5 p.m. the news came out that a couple of Leach’s Petrels had been found offshore from Tregarthens. We were able to see at least one of the birds, a dark, fluttering creature pattering over the foam-flecked waves. Through a telescope a little more detail could be made out. These are classic pelagic birds which breed on remote offshore islands such as in the Outer Hebrides and which spend the winter far offshore in the mid-Atlantic. Storm-driven individuals such as these ones are about the best chance that most of us have of seeing the species from the land.

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Tuesday October 17th: St. Martin’s (for the bulk of the group – others visited , Tresco or stayed on St. Mary’s):

Very much the ‘calm after the storm’ to-day, with light winds and a more or less flat sea – a total contrast to yesterday’s events. Most of the group went to St. Martin’s, seeing several Common Scoter offshore from Tresco, en route. The group then walked the length of the northern coast of the island, from the jetty at the western end to the Daymark at the eastern tip. This is a very scenic area with expansive views along the cliff coastline and towards the Irish Sea to the north, but few birds were seen. The odd Stonechats and Meadow Pipits perched around on the Bracken and Gorse and from the Daymark there were the usual Gannets offshore. Both Pied and Spotted Flycatcher were found in hedgerows near High Town and the occasional Chiffchaff. On the way back, a couple of Whimbrel were seen along the St. Mary’s coastline.

Meanwhile, the St. Mary’s group had been off to see the Raddes’ Warbler which had appeared overnight at Longstones. This rare vagrant from Asia showed well to the assembled throng. Other interesting birds reported during the day on St. Mary’s included two lingering Yellow-browed Warblers, a Long-tailed Duck, the American Golden Plover still present at Porthellick beach and sightings of the even rarer Wilson’s Snipe at Porthellick Pool. This is a very close relative of our Common Snipe but is greyer in tone and has different patterns on some of the feather groups, especially the tail feathers when they are fanned out.

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Wednesday October 18th: various islands:

Between us, members of the group visited several of the inhabited islands to-day. Many chose to stay on St. Mary’s, some went off to look for particular birds on St. Agnes while yet others got out to Bryher in the afternoon, the only time available due to the tide pattern. It was a beautiful mid-October day, so typical of the Isles of Scilly, warm with a light breeze from the south-east and bright sunshine bringing the best colours out of the sea and the land.

It seemed by the end of the day that far from there being any new arrivals of birds overnight with the change of wind direction, that many birds seemed to have moved out. Fewer migrant warblers such as Chiffchaff and Blackcap were reported, for example, and the two recent rare warblers were no longer to be found. A couple of Ring Ousels were ‘new in’, however. The Little Bunting was still present on St. Agnes and the American Golden Plover was again reported from Porthellick Beach, plus the Wilson’s Snipe from the Pool there. As a ‘left-over’ from the storm on Monday, a juvenile Sabine’s Gull was seen by one fortunate member of the group off the Garrison.

Thursday October 19th: St. Mary’s

A fairly grim morning with a strong southerly wind bringing driving rain but, as is often the case on the Isles of Scilly, the bad weather cleared abruptly mid-afternoon to bring an end to the rain, and to produce bright skies and a lessening wind, only for it to return from another direction later in the afternoon.

Despite the poor morning weather, members of the group were up and about early and with good results. An American Herring Gull was reported from the football pitch on The Garrison but it did not stay around long enough for the majority of the group to see it. News then came in of a Corncrake in fields to the east of Peninnis, near Old Town Church, and a number of group members trudged through the driving rain to the site and duly saw the bird after a short period of waiting. It was foraging for food in long uncut vegetation at the base of a dry stone wall, occasionally showing itself, and looking very drab, dark and water- logged indeed. This was presumably a migrant from further north in the U.K. (the Hebrides, perhaps?) and on its way to spend the winter in sunnier climes in Africa. Those of us in the group who had seen it then beat a retreat to a very welcome, dry, but steamy, Old Town Cafe for a warm drink before walking out in the rain once more to go up through Lower Moors and on to Porthloo Beach. Here the peculiarly-plumaged Oystercatcher was found, with a brownish back, and which some on the island were already suggesting was of the Siberian race, longipes. It might, however, just turn out to be a juvenile of the British race which has kept traces of its youthful plumage longer than usual.

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During the day, other members of the group had fanned out across St. Mary’s and elsewhere, making the most of the last full day on the Scillies. A range of birds were again found, but nothing new to the group list, which at the evening bird call totalled 113 species.

Friday October 20th: St.Mary’s and depart on The Scillonian to Penzance:

After a blowy night, the morning dawned much calmer with bright skies and sunshine on our last morning on the Scillies, but the forecast was not good for later in the day, so much so that the Steamship Company had brought forward the sailing time for The Scillonian, so that we were going to be able to board from 12 mid-day. This gave members of the group a couple of hours to have a last look round and perhaps catch up with a bird (or a shop) that they had missed, before we all assembled at the quayside at 11.50 for the traditional group photograph. As we did so, news was coming in of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo found earlier in the morning on St. Agnes....

The Scillonian had left Penzance a little late, not arriving at St. Mary’s until nearly 1 p.m., upon which we all boarded and took up our favourite stations for what turned out to be a fairly interesting crossing. The ship was doing some exciting rolling in the heavy swell from the south and the stiff breeze stimulated a range of seabirds to move about. Apart from the ever-present Gannets we saw four Great Skuas, a couple of Razorbills, a group of four Puffins and a number of Guillemots. Two or three Balearic Shearwaters and a single Manx Shearwater cruised by. Best of all, however, were one, or possibly two, Leach’s Petrels seen not far from the Scillies and a single European Storm Petrel which flew across the bow of the boat as we approached Land’s End.

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At Penzance, with the weather worsening quite suddenly, we disembarked and walked a short distance to our waiting coach, a very impressive ‘double-decker’ type, which eventually got us back to Sandwich by about 1 a.m. for our onward journeys home.

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Fascicularia pitcairnifolia / bicolour

Systematic list of birds seen during the week by members of the whole group:

(Especially rare or uncommon species are underlined)

Pink-footed Goose: 6 birds were on Tresco during the week

Brent Goose: 2 of the pale-bellied race were seen in the Porthloo / Porthmellon areas of St. Mary’s between the 16th and 19th.

Canada Goose: up to 7 birds were reported from Tresco and the Porthloo / Portmellon areas.

Gadwall: highest counts came from the Great Pool on Tresco, with 35 on the 15th.

Wigeon: 2 seen on the 16th were the only birds recorded.

Mallard: recorded in very small numbers from a variety of sites.

Teal: up to 7 birds recorded from a variety of sites.

Common Eider: two birds in the Penzance Harbour area on the 13th.

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Common Scoter: up to six birds seen between St. Mary’s and Tresco during the week and about 20 were seen from The Scillonian on the return crossing on the 20th..

Long-tailed Duck: a single bird seen on the 17th.

Red-legged Partridge: up to 6 birds seen, on St. Mary’s and on Bryher. These are ‘imported’ birds, brought in solely to be hunted.

Pheasant: daily totals of up to 6 birds were recorded.

Golden Pheasant: a gathering of 9 birds on Tresco on the 15th. This is long-known location for these birds but the population is not self-sustaining and has to be ‘topped-up’ every so often with new birds.

Little Grebe: 2 were reported on the 15th from Tresco Great Pool

Sooty Shearwater: 2 birds were seen from The Scillonian on the crossing on the 13th.

Balearic Shearwater: a single bird was seen from The Scillonian on the crossing on the 13th and 2 on the return journey on the 20th.

Manx Shearwater: a single bird on the return crossing on the 20th.

Leach’s Petrel: 2 birds were offshore from the hotel at Hugh Town in the evening of the storm on the 16th and one or possibly two birds were seen from The Scillonian on the 20th.

Gannet: reported daily.

Cormorant: only a few records of up to 4 birds during the week

Shag: widespread and common, with counts of up to 200 birds on several days.

Grey Heron: recorded from all of the islands, with counts of up to 12 birds.

Little Egret: maximum counts of about 25 birds were from the Tresco-Bryher channel, but they were also seen on the other islands.

Spoonbill: a single bird seen on Tresco on the 15th.

Sparrowhawk: up to 2 birds recoded on two different days.

Common Buzzard: singles recorded on three days during the week, all from St. Mary’s.

Corncrake: a single bird observed in a cut hay field along the eastern side of on the 19th.

Water Rail: more ‘heard’ records of this secretive bird than ‘seen’, but up to 4 individuals were noted on any given day during the week.

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Moorhen: maximum of only 2 birds during the week.

Coot: present in small numbers on the Great Pool on Tresco.

Oystercatcher: a familiar bird around the islands, with roosting flocks totalling up to 150 birds on several days. A bird with a brownish back was on Porthloo Beach on the 19th – possibly a ‘Siberian Oystercatcher’ (Haematopus ostralegus longipes)

American Golden Plover: a bird was present on Porthhellick Beach for all of the week.

Ringed Plover: total counts of up to 40 birds made on most days of the week, but composed of only small groups at scattered sites.

Whimbrel: up to 6 recorded on the 17th.

Curlew: maximum count of 13 birds on the 18th.

Bar-tailed Godwit: 1 on St. Agnes on the 18th.

Turnstone: roosting counts of up to 30 birds during the week.

Sanderling: a maximum of only 8 birds reported on two different days. This was formerly a much more common species on the islands than it appears to be now.

Common Snipe: found at various sites, especially at Lower and Higher Moors, with a peak count for the week of 30 on the 18th.

Wilson’s Snipe: seen by members of the group at Higher Moors Pool on the 17th -19th. This very rare North American bird is a very closely-related species to our Common Snipe.

Greenshank: a familiar bird around the islands in the Autumn, with favoured sites being the Great Pool on Tresco and around Higher and Lower Moors on St. Mary’s. The highest count was about 40 on the 15th.

Redshank: 10 were with Greenshank on the Tresco Great Pool on the 15th, otherwise, only one count of two birds.

Great Skua: 2 seen on the Scillonian crossing on the 13th and 4 on the 20th.

Arctic Skua: 1 seen on the Scillonian crossing on the 13th.

Guillemot: a fair number seen from the Scillonian off the Cornish coast from Penzance to Land’s End on the 13th and again on the 20th.

Razorbill: a group of 4 birds identified from the Scillonian off the Cornish coast on the 13th, with 2 on the 20th.

Puffin: 4 seen from the Scillonian off the Cornish coast on the 13th and again on the 20th.

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Kittiwake: seen from the crossings to and from the Scillies and occasional records between the islands during the week

Sabine’s Gull: a juvenile bird was seen by one member of the group off the Garrison on St. Mary’s on the 18th.

Black-headed Gull: seen in small numbers on every day of the trip.

Mediterranean Gull: up to 4 birds were seen during the week, usually as a group near Carn Near on Tresco, with some also appearing on St. Marys.

Common Gull: seen on the crossing off on the 13th and a couple of records of single birds on the islands during the week.

Herring Gull: seen on a daily basis.

American Herring Gull: a second-winter bird was seen by one member of the group on the football field on the 19th.

Lesser Black-backed Gull: fairly scarce, with scattered records of up to 6 birds during the week.

Great Black-backed Gull: the most obvious gull species on the islands.

Feral (Rock) Pigeon: seen around Penzance Harbour and in Hugh Town, St. Mary’s.

Stock Dove: counts of up to 7 birds reported, mostly from St. Mary’s and Tresco.

Wood Pigeon: widespread in small numbers on all of the islands.

Collared Dove: as for Wood Pigeon.

Kingfisher: a single bird recorded from the Lower Moors – Old Town Bay area on the 13th and 16th.

Kestrel: up to 2 birds recorded daily.

Merlin: just one record of a single bird on the 19th.

Peregrine: records of up to 2 birds were made on most days of the week.

Carrion Crow: pairs or singles seen on most days of the week.

Raven: a single bird being mobbed by Carrion Crows on Gugh on 14th.

Skylark: only reported on two occasions, involving a maximum of just two birds.

Swallow: up to 20 birds counted, but only on three days during the week.

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House Martin: as for Swallow, above.

Blue Tit: singles recorded on most days in the week, from most of the islands.

Great Tit: up to 2 birds recorded on most days of the week, from most of the islands.

Long-tailed Tit: 2 birds found on two occasions during the week.

Wren: a common species on all of the islands and seen daily.

Goldcrest: common on the islands at this time of the year, with a peak count of 30 seen on the 13th.

Firecrest: up to 2 birds seen on four days during the week.

Chiffchaff: widespread on the islands at this time of the year.

Radde’s Warbler: an example of this rare but regular Autumn vagrant from Asia was seen by several members of the group at Longstones on the 17th, but it had gone by the next day.

Yellow-browed Warbler: a regular Autumn visitor to the Scillies, with up to 2 birds being seen this week by members of the group.

Reed Warbler: a single record of 2 birds on the 18th.

Blackcap: more numerous at the beginning of the week than by the end, with a maximum count of 8 birds.

Garden Warbler: a single record of 1 bird on the 17th.

Lesser Whitethroat: 1 bird on the 15th was the only record.

Eastern Orphean Warbler: a bird between the lighthouse and the church on St. Agnes on the 14th was at first identified as a Western Orphean Warbler and attracted all the attention that this rare vagrant from southern Europe richly deserved. It got even better, however, because subsequent observations and better photographic evidence proved that the bird was, in fact, an Eastern Orphean Warbler. This constitutes a ‘first for Britain’.

Spotted Flycatcher: singles observed on three occasions during the week, on St. Martin’s and St. Mary’s.

Robin: common and widespread on all of the islands.

Pied Flycatcher: recorded on three days in the week, but with a maximum of only 2 birds.

Black Redstart: a familiar bird on The Scillies in October, especially along sheltered rocky beaches. Up to 2 birds were seen almost daily.

Whinchat: 2 reported on the 14th.

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Stonechat: common on uncultivated hillsides, Gorse patches and along the cliffs, with up to 20 birds counted daily.

Wheatear: up to 4 birds counted, but not seen every day during the week.

Isabelline Wheatear: a rare visitor from Asia, a bird which had been frequenting the airfield was seen by some members of the group on the 14th, but it had vanished after the storm on the 15th.

Ring Ousel: 2 birds were seen at Porthellick on the 18th.

Blackbird: widespread on the islands and seen daily.

Redwing: just two records during the week, relating to a maximum of only three birds.

Song Thrush: a feature of the islands, Song Thrushes are widespread, common and often very tame.

Starling: post-breeding flocks of up to 200 birds seen on a daily basis.

Dunnock: widespread and common on the islands.

Grey Wagtail: seen daily on all of the islands, with daily countsof up to 6 birds.

White Wagtail: up to 10 birds counted on most days of the week.

Meadow Pipit: widespread in suitable habitats on all of the islands.

Rock Pipit: as for Meadow Pipit, above.

Little Bunting: a scarce Autumn visitor. A single bird at Porth Killier, St. Agnes, on the 14th and 19th may be the same bird as has turned up there in 2015 and 2016.

Reed Bunting: just one record of a single bird on the 16th.

Chaffinch: small numbers recorded on a daily basis during the week.

Hawfinch: up to 3 birds were seen, mainly on St. Mary’s, on four dates during the week.

Greenfinch: up to 3 birds reported on three dates in the week.

Linnet: small numbers only, with a maximum count of only 8 birds on the 14th.

Goldfinch: seen daily in small groups and with a maximum count of 30 on the 15th.

Siskin: a number of birds were seen around the islands, especially mid-week, with up to 100 birds counted on the 15th.

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House Sparrow: abundant around human feeding stations, where, mob-handed, they intimidated unsuspecting diners like a bird equivalent of a shoal of piranhas...

SCILLIES NEXT SPRING

The next Observatory trip to The Scillies th th will be from April 26 to May 5 2018. There are several spare places for single

travellers or couples. For further

details, please contact Ken Chapman via

the Observatory’s e-mail.

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