Woodchat Shrike at Carn Friars

30th August 2020

Two days ago, a Woodchat Shrike turned up at Carn Friars and after work, I teamed up with Martin and Richie in the early evening and the shrike showed well at close range.

This morning at 08.00, I was battling the choppy conditions as made my ways towards Tresco in my kayak. Thirty minutes later I was on the South Shore and within twenty minutes I had seen a single Bar-tailed with 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Mediterranean and a single juvenile Yellow-legged Gull and 46 Sandwich Tern. As I approached the Abbey Pool, I could hear the Citrine Wagtail but it was not until ten minutes later that I saw it fly off towards the heliport. It soon returned and proved to be very mobile making another flight back to the latter sight again. When I left, it was still flighty and vocal back around the pool. Could this be a new Citrine Wagtail that’s possibly just arrived and not quite settled down yet?

The few minutes that the very flighty Citrine Wagtail settled down on the Abbey Pool that I managed to get these pics

On the south side of the Great Pool there were a female Shoveler feeding with 18 Teal and a Pied Flycatcher was on Pool Road. Some 50 Swallow started alarming and a Merlin went through them and with ease, flew off with a juvenile in it’s claws. Birders were already at the Swarovski Hide where there was a single White Wagtail feeding with the Citrine Wagtail. To cut a long story short, there was only one individual and not two birds. Also viewed from the hide of note were a single Snipe and the female Pochard. Returning back to the kayak, a Swift flew north.

This female Shoveler on the Great Pool was new in and an early arrival for Scillyy

Unfortunately I had the camera on the wrong settings when I took this Merlin taking off with a Swallow. Photos I took before and after this Merlin are all B&W images until I noticed later on.

It was while I was in the kayak, taking pics of a Grey Heron only meters away from me, that news of a shrike sp came on the Scilly Bird News WharsApp Group, that there was a shrike sp at Gweal Hill, Bryher. In a short time I was trampling over the hill but the was no sign of the shrike. I stuck around on Bryher for the rest of the day and it was dead with just 6 Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler, 14 Wheatear, 2 Snipe and a single Knot. There were only 5 Dunlin altogether on Tresco but when I passed Porthloo in my kayak back on St Mary;s, as well as seeing yesterdays Curlew Sandpiper, there were also 27 Dunlin feeding on the beach.

I couldn’t get any closer to this Grey Heron in my kayak as it just continued feeding as though I wasn’t there. Although the B&W images ain’t all that bad on this heron, I would of liked to have seen them also in colour.

Like the heron, I was only meters from the 10 Mediterranean Gulls in my kayak

There were up to 60 Turnstone on the south Beach

On Bryher there were up to 14 Wheatear

Yesterday afternoon, Robin found only the second Curlew Sandpiper of ythe year at Porthloo Beach

Although the Woodchat Shrike showed well at Carn Friars two days ago for those who were present, the light conditions were dismal as the sun disappeared behind dark clouds shortly after I arrived

Stunning cat! Anyone who says that their cat doesn’t kill birds, then they haven’t got a clue. If it’s not killing birds then it’s hunting rodents, amphibians, large insects, etc

It’s Time to Overthrow the Oligarchs who are in bed with the Tory Party & Restore Democracy | George Monbiot

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