The day started with a solo walk along Porthcressa beach while Louise "prepared herself". The sea was still very rough, whipped up by the strong westerly winds. I was hoping that something pelagic might have been driven into the bay. Nothing rare but there was an unfortunate Gannet that was obviously in some difficulty...
It eventually made it onto the seaweed at the far corner of the beach.
There were no obvious signs of damage and maybe it was just exhausted? Anyway, after talking to a few other birders one chap said he knew some of the locals and he would contact them. Hopefully the outcome was a happy one.
A Peregrine flew over as I was leaving to go back to our flat...
We'd decided to have a trip over to Tresco. The SORA was still present and was apparently showing best in the morning. So, that was obviously going to be our first stop. On the way over I managed to pick out a couple of Spoonbills amongst the rocks...
We soon reached the Swarovski hide and fortunately there were only a few birders with the same idea, so it wasn't going to be a bun fight in the hide. In fact it was possible to see the "area" concerned from the ramp. A chap who was staying on the island informed us that it could be very erratic in it's appearances but late morning WAS the best time. It was now around 11.30.
Then...there it was! Feeding along the edge of the reeds around 80 yds away...
This was my second record for Scilly (and Britain for that matter!) having seen the 1991 bird on St Mary's.
Today also produced my only Scilly tick...a Garganey (S.201) on the Great Pool!
The rest of our visit was fairly uneventful apart from the Cornish pasties from the shop at lunchtime that were simply outstanding! Better than the ones we had in the Turks Head, St Agnes... although at least we got some there this year!
Great entertainment on the return was provided by numerous Gannets that had been blown in by the storm. The spray was spectacular as the birds darted continuously around the boat...
Back on St Mary's we enjoyed the sunset over the Garrison from our favourite bench...
Locally - I had the right idea chasing the Iceland Gull...just got my timing wrong! It WAS seen at Out Newton...just not by me when I had a peep...
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