I'd missed the immature female Pallid Harrier yesterday - I was on a work Teams meeting as the bird had flown over the flat...! Today I was near Old Town Cafe when I saw the harrier head towards us, and at very close quarters. Everything in the world was OK again...
A few bits from Tresco today - perhaps the oddest highlight was finding male Lady Amherst's and Golden Pheasants together...
With the kids off with Mum to Centre Parks, I thought I'd spend a few days on the Isles of Scilly with the boys... First job was to act as a lucky charm for Doug and John's trip out to the Bishop Rock Lighthouse - they'd had a couple of less-than-successful attempts earlier in the week...
The seas were lumpy this evening - very lumpy! I was talking to Fraser, Captain of the Sea King when we road one wave and went smack down in to the trough - only to be wacked by another wave. This caused an almighty bang and the front window of the Sea King was a gonner!
The rest of the trip was still lumpy but eventually highly successful - there, on the top of the Bishop Rock Lighthouse was the Red-footed Booby. Will it been seen again this year? Will it back or still present next year when trips start going out to the lighthouse again? Only time will tell...
North American warblers are very few and certainly far between - the Blackburnian Warbler on Bryher in 2022 was brilliant: the Magnolia and then Bay-breasted Warblers in Wales in 2023 were fantastic, but the opportunity to pop over to Ireland to see a Cape May Warbler was too much to resist.
A few pounds on the RyanAir flight and hire car journey later and I was on my own watching a Cape May Warbler at eight metres distance. I was joined soon after arrival by Aiden Kelly - we both saw it well but wanted better views the following morning in better light.
Lee Gregory turned up early and took some brilliant shots before heading off for the Double-crested Cormorant - I flew home, more than happy with what I'd seen!
