Blue Rock Thrush (Paul Freestone)
Red-throated Diver
Penzance
Stonechat
Spotted Crake
Amazing views
Showing well
Great to be back
We arrived on St Marys via the Scillion taken from Penzance. A Red-throated Diver fed just off the boat, en route we recorded a Sooty Shearwater, 2 Arctic Skua and a number of Kittiwakes. There were a couple of Dolphins that displayed briefly but I was very focussed on the horizon given a number of people were sadly ill.
My bag was typically last off the boat enabling Jake & Brad to reclaim the ground floor room sending myself and Mick upstairs. Mick is a Spurn birder who has visited forty eight times previously. Mick was a great room mate and it was interesting to pick his brain on a number of birding subjects. The rest of the house was as per previous years, Paul Freestone, Adam Hutt, Brad & Jake from Cornwall.
Our first target was the Blue Rock Thrush who had edged further east than it had previously. As I arrived on the far side of Old Town a few birders looked to have located the bird on the other side of the way. Cliff Smith had the Thrush in his scope so kindly let me take a look as the bird perched very high on the rocks. To see this bird so quickly was quite a shock as many island birders have to put days into seeing the bird.
I then walked through Lower Moors with Adam and after a short wait the stunning Spotted Crake showed amazingly well and even swam under me as I stood on the bridge. I'd only seen one previously which was fairly distant, so this was a real pleasure. Two Water Rails were also called from the same location.
There were Stonechats everywhere of which you could have photographed all day. We headed out for a couple of pints at the evening count before looking forward to the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment