1st April 2021
There was putative Ashy-headed Wagtail two years ago also at the same sight but no one got a recording of the call. Todays individual, found by Martin Goodey, could be the real deal with good sound recordings and if accepted could prove to be the first Scilly record
Just before work, I did a quick loop around the campsite in the strong easterlies and got 6 Chiffchaff , 2 Blackcap and a single Willow Warbler. Just after 16.00, Martin Goodey attached pics of a flava wagtail onto the Scilly Bird News WhatsApp group that he had taken at Porth Hellick Beach. The response from other birders were that it looked good for ASHY-HEADSED WAGTAIL. I had to wait until I finished work and the first sighting I got of it were cracking flight views as it flew only meters from me from the pool to the beach at head height. Instead of getting the camera on to it, I pointed the recorder at it as it flew by. After this, it was just observed in flight before heading off east from the pool and despite a few of us searching for over an hour, there was no sign of it. However, I did get my first Swallow and House Martin of the year with a handful of Sand Martin and 11 Greenshank also dropped into the pool and a Siskin flew south.
Willow Warbler at the campsite I also had two yesterday at Newford Duck Pond
Martin Goodey took these images on the beach where he first discovered the ASHY-HEADED WAGTAIL
These 11 Greenshank dropped into Porth Hellick
I was still at Porth Hellick when the boss called me and asked me to take him to Porthloo from the quay. That wasn’t my plan but at the former sight, I scanned the beach and got the same species that were here yesterday including 2 Black Redstart, 2 Mediterranean Gull a single Sandwich Tern and the 2 Iceland Gull. Shortly afterwards I was on the west side of the golf course where I got 2 male Ring Ouzel feeding in the sloping fields. Two days ago, I had two garden ticks including one of the Canada Geese from Tresco, NNW in the morning and later in the afternoon, a vocal Green Sandpiper flew over NE.
There were 2 Black Redstart showing well at Porthloo Beach including this cracking male
While on the water there were 2 Mediterranean Gull
And the 2 Iceland Gull including ‘Billy’ above
The light was fading as I went in search of Ring Ouzel at the golf course and came across these two males in the west sloping fields
I’m getting 2 Greenfinch daily in the garden but the Chaffinch have dropped to five birds
Also this evening, I had up to 4 Diamond-back Moth at Porth Hellick. Yesterday I had four on the campsite
This Silver-Y was also at the campsite
This Herald Moth was at Holy Vale
Where I also had up to 18 Twenty Plume Moth
Including at work and the campsite area, there were a total of 9 Red Admiral yesterday
And a single Peacock also at work
On the 29th March it was T-shirt weather and I kayaked over to Bryher. Here I got the first Willow Warbler of the year
In off the sea from the west was this Short-eared Owl over Hell Bay trying to escape the gulls from mobbing it
A few of the 8 Chiffchaff present had messy faces from pollen while feeding around flowers from further south where they have just migranted from. There were also 2 Firecrest and 3 Kestrel on the island
Wheatears are still a bit thin on the ground with only ones and twos being seen
Stonechat
On the coastal path of Shipman’s Down I almost stood on my first Oil Beetle and Green Tiger Beetles of the year
Also got my first Speckled Wood of the year totaling seven of them.
Looking from Shipman’s Heads Down towards St Mary’s in the distance with Tresco Great Pool in between
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