OLD TOWN CHURCH YARD – BOAT TRIP TO ST MARTINS ( HIGHER TOWN – COASTAL TO DAY MARK) – MIDDLE TOWN PINES – LOWER TOWN QUAY
WEATHER: a repeat of yesterday, without the rain. It was a glorious, sunny day with moderate winds. Top temp 17C
After breakfast we made a quick journey to the churchyard at Old Town which was a ten minute walk from our guest house. The tree-lined entrance way can be excellent for yellow-browed Warblers and Firecrests. Within 5 minutes we found two Firecrest, one of them was a stunning male.
Job done! We walked back up the hill and down into town via Buzza Tower and the track down into Porthcressa beach. It was high tide, not many birds were in the bay, so after a quick look we walked around to the quay and boarded a boat to St Martins, the 5th and final inhabited island of the Scilly’s archipelago.
on our way to St Martins
We landed at Lower Town and took the coastal path to the Daymark Tower, which took us a couple of hours, we stopped a lot to search many fields and hedgerows. We reaped very few rewards, finding lots of Stonechats, but our first Spotted Flycatcher of the trip appeared! Then a second one turned up! We also saw one of the biggest Brown Rats I have ever seen.
our first Spotted Flycatcher of the week!
The heathland and gorse scrub around the Day Mark were pretty much devoid of birds, we did see a few Linnets, Goldfinches, Meadow Pipits and the odd Robin, Wren and Dunnock.
the Day Mark Tower can be seen in the distance
For lunch we walked back to Lower Town and visited the pastie shop, we sat in the warm sunshine eating and drinking, enjoying the weather.
yet another caterillar of the Convulvulus Hawk Moth
A Bonelli’s Warbler was found in some pines above Middle Town, I knew this area quite well having searched for a Red-eyed Vireo there in the past. We spent a couple hours searching the pines which stretched over quite a distance. We found two Chiffchaffs, we heard Goldcrests but never saw the Bonelli’s. Two more Spotted Flycatchers appeared and then we found two Pied Flycatchers a few Goldcrests gave us the slip.
Pied Flycatcher
At 4:30pm we headed down to the quay to catch to boat. Exciting news broke out, a Sora Rail had been found on St Mary’s, wowza! Rob was desperate to see this bird, so, along with another birder he booked a taxi to meet him at the quay. We landed at 5:15pm.
The rest of us walked into town to whilst Rob jumped into a taxi and headed off to Higher Moors to join the crowds searching for the Rail.
Beautiful colours as we left St Martins
We had an early dinner at 6pm and went back to the guest house at 8pm. Rob came back from his excursion empty handed, the Rail did not show again.