Toby Carter's Monthly Nature Blog

I ended the last blog talking about my upcoming trip to the Scilly Isles, on a high with anticipation of what birds we could end up seeing… after the long drive to Penzance over night we were straight onto the Scillonian ferry, during this crossing we were treated to large flocks of Cory’s & Great Shearwaters along with Kittiwakes, Gannets & a few pods of Common Dolphins. Once we’d checked into our accommodation, we were treated to brilliant views of Jack Snipe, Wryneck & Glossy Ibis. The perfect way to start out holiday.

Over the next few days, we were hit by strong winds from across the Atlantic which resulted in a lot of rain too… so the birding was quite tough as most birds kept sheltered. Once this had moved through, the group & I decided to head to Bryher. This is one of the smaller islands on the Scilly archipelago but meant we could cover the whole island in a day! It started off promising with finding a Short-eared Owl & two Snow Buntings along the coastline. But in the afternoon, I decided to check with one of my friends an area of dense scrub, there were a couple of Chiffchaffs in this area. And then briefly I saw just the head of a bird before it dived back into cover, alarm bells went off instantly as I knew what the bird was but couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a Red-eyed Vireo, an American passerine that had flown across the Atlantic in the recent storm. Panicked phone calls & radio messages to the other birders on the island to get them over, within 10 minutes everyone on the island had arrived. But with the boat back to the main island just 45 minutes away we didn’t have long to get everyone on the bird, the next half an hour was very stressful but eventually the bird showed well enough to get everyone on the bird, we couldn’t celebrate just yet as we had to dash for the boat back!