A Scilly Hour...

By about 1 pm on Saturday afternoon Dave and I were buzzing. We had 1 hour of birding left before we had to get back to Wingletang B&B to collect our bags and head to the airport. I decided, after we'd seen the Scarlet Tanager it would be fun to try and connect with the other MEGAs on the island. We set off towards Borough Farm but there was no sign of the Upland Sandpiper, gutted, plan over then! We then headed off to Watermill to check out the Olive-backed Pipits and after only seeing one of them in the last couple of days it was nice to see them both together again.

We headed back towards the B&B via Borough Farm (where there was another first winter Black Redstart) and there, no more than 10 feet from the road was the Upland Sandpiper walking through the bulb field. It was back on!! We only had brief views as there was tonnes of people around and as good as it was to see the bird it was far more enjoyable watching it on our own!

We headed down to Lower Moors to see if we could connect with the other two megas. First stop was the ISBG Hide (there was a Little Bunting reported earlier in the day however there was no sign after the initial sighting). On entering the hide it took about 5 seconds to locate the Wilson's Snipe as it was parading around right out in the open. Third one down.

Next we headed across to Shooters Pool, there was quite a crowd there but a bit of careful maneuvering ensured I got to the front of the screen just in time to connect with the Northern Waterthrush as it walked out of some vegetation, tail bobbing. I got some really good views before it flew to the far side of the pool (calling) before it showed again. RESULT!! All four MEGAs (Scarlet Tanager, Upland Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe and Northern Waterthrush)seen within an hour (plus 2 Olive-backed Pipit and Black Redstart)!

Unfortunately that signalled the end of our Scillies trip. While at the airport we bumped into Andy Vinson who showed us his Scarlet Tanager pictures, WOW! They were incredible! Hopefully Andy will be emailing them through to me (and some of his others of the birds mentioned in the last few posts). A brief flight back to Lands End was not very eventful (thankfully) and within no time at all we were back at Lands End YHA. We rounded the trip off with a smart Firecrest that was in the YHA car park at dusk.

We enjoyed a few beers/ciders in the evening and celebrated a great few days!