THE GARRISON (MORNING POINT) - BOAT TRIP TO TRESCO WITH VISITS TO: GREAT POOL, ABBEY POOL - THE BOROUGH, OLD GRIMSBY AND NEW GRIMSBY
WEATHER: cloudy all day, rain began at 5:30pm. Windy all day.
What a contrast to yesterday, the weather has turned for the worst and the birding has just got a little harder because of the weather conditions.
Before we took the boat to Tresco we had time for a walk around the Garrison, it we a little windy so we sought out the sheltered southern area and headed for Morning Point. We saw very little, in fact, not a single migrant bird appeared just all locally common species.
The trip across to Tresco produced two new species for the list, a Spoonbill sat on Green Island, as it always does, and a Great White Egret was feeding along the rocky shoreline around Carn Near as we approached Tresco. We also noted several Mediterranean Gulls on the water with plenty of Shag sightings. We docked at New Grimsby Quay and made the short walk to the west end of the Great Pool. Oystercatchers fed in the bay with not other species being noted.
a Ruff with some Eurasian Teal
As we approached the Swarovski Hide heard many 'crests' calling, there must have been 10 or more Goldcrests and a Firecrest was also noted. From the hide we enjoyed views of many ducks and a few waders, the water level was quite high with a very little margin of exposed mud. We found a single Ruff, also 9 Greenshank and 6 Redshank, that was the total sum of waders.
Ducks included, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Common Pochard with plenty of moorhens and Coots. We could see Mute Swans in the eastern section of the pool. A Cattle Egret was found in the field above the water on the far side of the pool with at least one Little Egret, we also saw a couple of Grey Herons.
record shot of a very distant Cattle egret
Walking along the track we bumped into more 'crests' and a good find was a Yellow-browed Warbler, but only two of us had decent views of it. We ate our lunch in the David Hunt hide, views from the hide were very restricted due to overgrown reeds out in front. No further sighting were made on the Abbey Pool and on the Airfield we only saw Stonechats and a couple of Linnets.
a view into Tresco gardens
It was coffee time when we reached the entrance to Tresco Gardens, many House Sparrows came down to the tables trying to 'steal' pieces of cake from our plates. We saw a couple of Red Squirrels in the garden around the terrace.
Red Squirrel, seen in the garden of the cafe
After that we walked up the hill to Old Grimsby, we heard many 'crests' again in the pine belt and each field seemed to have Pheasants in them. Scanning the fields around Old Grimsby produced a few Migrant Species, a Whinchat was seen along a fence line with three Stonechats and a bunch of Meadow Pipits.
looking down to Old Grimsby Town
A Spotted Flycatcher was found along a sheltered fence line in the next field and two recently ploughed fields produced a good number of birds. Up to five Common Redstarts fed in the ploughed earth, dashing from the hedgerow onto the ground. We saw at least three of them and another Whinchat was noted. Lots of Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Meadow Pipits and Robins were also feeding there.
Common Redstart
Well, that sums up our exciting birding-day on Tresco, the walk was lovely and scenery was very pleasing to the eye, but the birding wasn't great. The sky was darkening, rain was forecast, we hoped it would hold off until we got back to St Marys.
Common Redstart and a Stonechat
Some of us did get a soaking on the crossing back to St Marys but that was from sea-spray and nort rain. It did start to rain as we walked up to the Guest House from the Quay.
We ate in the Guest House, Lyn and Martha walked down into Old Town to collect a Thai take-away and a Taxi brought them back. The meal was delicious and the rain eased off.