Scillies - Day 3 - Island crusing & a Citrine Wagtail

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.

South west double up with Citrine Wagtail & Alpine Swift

Field where female was in residence

Female Citrine Wagtail

Male Citrine Wagtail

Male Citrine Wagtail

Stormy skies in Gloucestershire

Best Alpine Swift image I could get

Its been a long time coming but finally a bird that was within a twitchable distance was discoved last Wednesday at Pilning Wetland in Gloucestershire. I didn't fancy my chances on Wednesday so I left it until the following afternoon, leaving work at 3pm and heading down the M5. It was just a five minute walk from New Passage to the wetland where there were around twenty birders present. 

Apparently this female Citrine Wagtail had been difficult to see at times but thankfully I had some fantastic scope views inside a minute. The bird was preening and then almost falling asleep for five minutes before it sprung into a feeding frenzy working across the unturned turf. Also inside the field was a Blue-headed Wagtail, 6 Yellow and a number of Pied Wagtails.

Suddenly a call came from our right that a birder had found another Citrine Wagtail, this time it was a male Citrine showing really well on the scape bank nearest the path. Absolutley stunning and very enjoyable. 

Just before I thought about leaving an Alpine Swift was reported at Ham Wall. A very difficult bird to see when based in the midlands. After a bit of encourgagement from Cliff Smith on the phone I was Somerset bound. I just needed to hope the Swift hung on in the same location for an hour.

Thankfully, it did stick and the Alpine Swift was flying around the railway bridge showing extremely well. The long winged Swift showed a very distinictive white throat & belly which was easy to pick out from the Common Swifts. These stunning Swifts breed in Africa and are a rare but annual visitor to the UK.