Scilly isle short weekend

Northern Waterthrush

We decided to book a short weekend to Scilly isle from the 22nd to the 24 October a great time for rare migrant i hear; when we got to the Scillies we were hoping for the Northern Waterthrush, Wilson snipe and Upland sandpiper that have been lingering on the island the last couple of weeks.

Rob, dad and me left our house real early in the morning and headed to Cornwall for a Scarlet tanager that turned up a couple of days before so we spent about 30 minutes to search and hopefully watch the bird but there was no sign, we had to leave because we had to catch the boat to the Scillys, on the boat we had, Great skua, Gannets and a few Kittiwakes, Rob had a Storm petrel that David saw as well, damn shame we missed it, then the pager went Scarlet tanager Isle of Scillys , great we were thinking we were going to get, just as we were coming in to the Scillys we saw a pod of common Dolphins.

Upland Sandpiper

When we arrived on the Scillys we dropped of our stuff of a local newsagents because we bumped into our landlady, Rob and David dropped there gear off at their diggings and we called a taxi and headed over to were the tanager is being seen from, but when we arrived there was no sign, so after searching for about 10-20 minute we decided to head for the two Olive backed pipits and the Upland sandpiper at borough farm, there was no sign of the sandpiper so we headed to the OBP's, that were showing well, when we arrived they were very hard to locate between furrows, but when located you could see that it was a and Olive backed pipit, we then headed back towards the Scarlet tanager because it was seen again, but on the way we stopped at the Upland sandpiper again because it was on show again when we got there it was showing well making its way through the furrows just like the pipits.

Wilson Snipe

We arrived back at the tanager site and there was no sign, which was a shame that we missed  it but that's birding, we searched for about 10-15 minutes, before Rob got news that the Northern Waterthrush was showing well from the viewing screen at Shooters pool, so we rushed there and in about 10 minutes we were there and it was jammed packed with birders luckily me and dad managed to get a good view, we first saw the bird distantly from the back of the pool by a dead tree trunk, rob got on the bird to Rob then went for the Wilson snipe that was seen from the ISGB hide, but we decided to stay and soon after rob left we had it right in front of the pool about a meter away we watched it for about another 10-20 minutes.

We then met back up with rob in the ISGB hide and got really god views of the Wilson snipe, Water rail and a very showy Greenshank we done basically every day trying to get better views of all the bird which we did accept foe the Olive backed pipits which were no about.

White Rumped Sandpiper

sandpiper

On the Monday we saw a smart White rumped sandpiper at port hellick beach and 6 Black Redstarts.

Because of dads camera buggering up we lost all our photos but we were able to go around taking them all again but weren’t at the standard they were before.

Common dolphin

Pod of Common dolphins

Northern Waterthrush

Upland Sandpiper

Upland Sandpiper

Wilson Snipe

Wilson Snipe

Water Rail

Song Thrush