ALL DAY ON TRESCO VISITING: CASTLE DOWN – OLD GRIMSBY – ABBEY GREAT POOL – ABBEY POOL – AIRFIELD – CARN NEAR. LATER - ALLOTMENTS AT PENNINIS.
WEATHER; glorious sunshine all day, light winds.
We found a Blackcap in the garden before we went down to the harbour to catch our boat to Tresco. We also thought that we would put in a little time at the site where the Common Rosefinch had been showing at the allotments on the Penninis headland. We waited half an hour, but the bird did not show, so we left.
Just before we boarded the boat we had a message informing us that the Rosefinch had showed well 15 minutes after we left, ha, so typical!!
We spent most of the day walking around the beautiful island of Tresco but despite our efforts we did not see many birds, in fact, migrant birds were almost non-existent. Up on Castle Moor we saw only Stonechats and Meadow Pipits and a Kestrel on the way up. A small flock of Sanderling were nice to see along the coast path to Old Grimsby, with a Turnstone chaperone, Out at sea Gannets were visible all the time along with European Shag and the odd Cormorant.
the desolate Castle Down
a view from Castle Down across the Bryher
At Old Grimsby we sat and ate our picnic lunch whilst drinking refreshments and we ‘scoped the bay whilst eating. Curlew, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Little Egret, Grey Heron, a Seal and lots of large Gulls were all seen.
the five Sanderling we found near Old Grimsby
The walk from Old Grimsby to the Great Pool was equally dire nothing was moving in the trees. We did find a large mixed flock of Linnets and Goldfinches, also many Pheasants and a couple of Red-legged Partridges. Then we hit a ‘purple patch’ we saw about 6 birds in the trees. A mixed feeding flock of Blue & Great Tits and a few Goldcrests. Christine then found a Spotted Flycatcher, wow! A Migrant species!
the large rock on the beach is where the Sanderling were standing
We sat in both hides along the shore of the great pool, from the David Hunt hide we saw lots of Teal, Mallards, a Common Snipe, Mute Swan, some distant Redshanks and Matt spotted a Grey Wagtail. A party of seven Greenshanks flew noisily past the hide and lots of Coots & Moorhens dotted the pool.
The viewing from the Swarovski Hide is always good, lots of birds to look at. We saw both Greenshanks and Redshanks, Common Snipe, Dunlin, White Wagtail, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Common Pochard, lots of Mallards and Teal. Matt picked out a very distant Whinchat and a couple of Stonechats and that was our sum total of species at the great pool.
the Great Pool and te swarovski Hide taken from the track to the Abbey
Walking round to the Abbey Pool we scoped the Whinchat from a much closer position and Peter found us a Red Squirrel. The abbey Pool provided us with a sighting of 3 Curlew Sandpipers but we could not find the two Black-tailed Godwits that were supposed to be present.
one of the two Yellow Wagtails seen on the airfield
On the airfield we sifted through dozens of Meadow Pipits and White Wagtails and found a couple of Yellow Wagtails which were nice to see. From a rise along the footpath to Carn Near we scoped what we could see of the Abbey Pool, Matt found the missing Godwits, well done Matt. At Carn Near jetty, we added Mediterranean Gull to our day list just before we boarded the 16:45 return boat.
It had been a good day not a great day but we enjoyed the sunshine and the scenery despite not seeing too many species.
News had been reaching us all day of the regular reappearance of the Rosefinch, so we made a short detour on the way back to the Guest House to look for it once again. We wasted another hour of our time, dipping the Rosefinch yet again!
a rarity on Scilly - a cruise ship docking off St Mary's
We ate dinner at 8pm in the Mermaid Pub and I was in bed just before 10pm, we had walked over 20,000 steps today and my feet were aching.