Mid-holiday we broke from the mainland and headed on the mighty Scillonian, past the iconic Runnel Stone, for my second dose of Scillies magic. The kids buzzed from spotting dolphins and were even enthused about the Manxie's. Once visiting the islands we had a great time searching out landmarks and locations from the Micheal Morpurgo book Why the whales came. Another great Michael Morpurgo short story based on Bryher can be heard here alongside others from the Walking Stories project on Visit Scilly.
I was only able to add one pelagic but it yielded a fly through Wilsons Petrel (or two) and plenty of Stormies but not the show I had been treated to previously. It was great to be out on the sea again though. On land I squeezed in a look at the Lesser Yellowlegs on the Abbey Pool on Tresco as the girls munched a late lunch in the gardens cafe.
Returning mid-week to the mainland we had a week based at Pendeen. With slow south to south westerlies I ended up heading back round to PG for speculative watches that notched up Sooty and Balearic numbers into double figures per 3hr watch. One Sooty stood out, all dark and lacking any striking contrast in the underwing, this bird had elastic almost arctic tern like wingbeats, limited shearing between spells of active flight - a very distinct and different flight. In structure, size and shape it was clearly a Sooty but one that is still leaving me scratching my head.
The Choughs performed fantastically and I enjoyed many encounters with them, such engaging and characterful birds, I get a huge sense of their intelligence and sentience despite, or perhaps because of, how clown like they are at times (aren't we all).
There was a hint of promise for a seawatch in a smidgen of NW wind at Pendeen on our first day back on mainland, nothing really came of it beyond a few skuas and the bizarre scene of a Glossy Ibis flying past over the shoreline. The afternoon was booked with visiting friends when the news of a Rufous Bushchat on The Lizard came out. I'm not sure what happened but I started to make a decision not to go and see it - something to do with my mixed feelings seeing the Norfolk bird I think. Loose commitments were a good but not convincing excuse. A bonus on our walk was a very confiding Common Lizard.
Next morning I got up at 6 to head over but decided to go back to bed (???) - it performed all day but we headed to the beach. Next morning I broke, self defeated in both going for the bird and not seeing it. What a Chough I'd been. There was great recompense that morning in seeing a young Melodious Warbler really well, shortly after it was found. It was at Land's End, where I have missed a few in the recent past. This lemony beauty is relatively frequent in the UK but with a south western bias - a bird I hoped might turn up near to me sometime but never seemed to oblige, really I had hoped to find one for myself down a Cornish valley but I was happy to cross paths with this one.
Both images from Steve Rogers twitter
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