Spoonbill
Spoonbills in flight
Flock of Spoonbills
Great sailing
Lunchtime snack St Marys style
Basking Shark
Basking Shark
Basking Shark
Blackcap
Citrine Wagtail
Citrine Wagtail
Citrine showing inbetween cows legs
Firecrest
With my dodgy sea legs getting a new level of confidence I decided to jump on Joe Penders trip around the western islands for the morning. £20 for three hours sailing seemed pretty good value.
Our first stop was Green Island where there was a record count of 7 Spoonbills that posed nicely before doing a circuit of the boat. It is now difficult to remember how hard it was to see this species.
On the beaches of Tresco there were a large group of Ringed Plover and further along there were Great Black-backed Gulls & my first Shelduck of the trip. A Peregrine sat high on the edge of St Martins and we passed a group of Curlew on the waters edge.
It was very choppy around the Western Isles where there were 2 Purple Sandpipers & 4 Turnstone. As we returned to the cover of the islands we passed a Common Scoter (camera on wrong setting) & a Great Northern Diver.
As we edged back to St Marys, Adam picked up a basking shark from the rocks that he whatsapped to the group. As soon as news reached the boat we headed towards his sighting. After a little patience right in front of us was the Basking Shark. It came right beside the boat giving us amazing views.
Our final sighting was unbelivable, the Blue Rock Thrush from the boat !! To be honest I got better views from the boat that I did walking around the headland the whole week.
After returning to dry land and having a very tasty pasty from the deli I headed to the north of St Marys. I was enjoying watching a Firecrest & Blackcaps at close quarters when news broke of a Citrine Wagtail just five minutes from where I was. It was a case of standing on my tiptoes to see the bird through the ferns as this little beauty flew around with the Meadow Pipits in a sheep field.
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