Month: October 2026

A quick rundown of my 2 & a half weeks on st Agnes – 3rd-20th of October.

First off, and my personal highlight of the trip, was finding this American Pipit on the 6th.

Picked up calling and then seen nicely on the deck near st Warna’s well (25 yrds from where I found another in 2021 (before they were renamed!). It went missing for abit then relocated to the seaweed pile in Warna’s cove, where it showed well for 3 days. A lovely subtle species with chameleonic colours, tones and textures that compliment its arresting electric voice. “ZIP ZIP ZIP!”

Otherwise not exactly a vintage year during our dates but the presence of an absolutely fantastically showy Red-eyed Vireo on st Agnes was another Highlight. Found by Neil Wright, it took a few days to settle down in the Parsonage but was a real performer, feeding on shield bugs, butterflies and bluebottles etc.

Other rarities include a smart Izzy shrike, with the 1st winter Daurian look that we twitched over on Mary’s.

A few hours spent in the hide at Porth Hellick sadly wasn’t enough to see the Sora though we enjoyed some point blank Jack snipe.

St Agnes was busy enough with a bits and bobs of and we had a couple of our own Shrikes, a one eyed 1st winter Red-backed shrike was in place around the bulb dump for our arrival and this 2 eyed and fresh in similarly aged bird was found by Laurence towards the end of our stay.

Other finds for myself were fairly limited, the best of these was a Richard’s Pipit right at the North end of Tresco during a solo day trip there when offered a free lift from Ben Hicks, our landlord and friend who was working there that day.

A few Caspian Gulls were picked out by myself and others across the Islands during my stay, the most interesting of these personally was a near adult at Pereglis in our first week, the only Casp of this age I’ve seen on scilly, a nice bird too bearing a metal tibia ring so likely Dutch, still a scarce bird down there but a massive jump in regularity in the past couple of years.

Yellow-browed warblers were dotted around as usual and the below photo is probably the best view ive had of any species of bird in the dreaded pittosporum!

The following photo is from 2025, a Little Bunting I found in one of my favourite fields near potbouys on Agnes, an even quieter year last year meant I didn’t bother with a blog post but it’s a nice photo so thought I’d stick it in here.

Storms Austen & Boelo brought strong winds to the area, this was accompanied by some seabirds on occasions and the better Seawatches from the bay produced several Sooty’s and a single Manx Shearwater, Phil C had a Leach’s Petrel the afternoon of the 24th. A highlight for me of the last few days has been the abundance of Little Gulls, both over land but mostly on the sea.

3 (2xad, 1x2nd w) were taking shelter on the 24th in the stubble fields at Upper road.

Many, though difficult to count precisely with their movements in both directions on the sea, have been seen from the Bay. Highest day count perhaps c100 birds with several coming in close and feeding in the surf, showing down to a few meters and this has been excellent.

The Hume’s Warbler stayed in place until the 26th, when it was seen early morning only. A period of high pressure and continental weather is due from the 29th onwards into November, looking forward to that.

Back from 2.5 weeks on Scilly (more on that later) and straight up the cliffs first thing. Light Westerly winds over night and a still morning didn’t seem like such a poor situation after the amount of decent birds up the East coast in recent days, It turned out to be an excellent day.

Highlighted by a Hume’s warbler and a Pallid Harrier.

The Hume’s was in the clearing to the North of Top wood. found whilst trying to relocate a Yellow browed warbler that I’d had breifly. it showed well on 2 occasions and badly on another but was mostly silent at first. later on, whilst a larger group assembled, the bird was much less showy but more vocal and I saw it in a range of lighting situations, its a species I’ve been trying to find here since before moving so Very happy with that!

The Pallid Harrier initially gave a very brief fly past whilst Russ B and I were looking for the Hume’s in the clearing, I did a double take, as views were poor brief and into the light but I thought it looked small, bright and falcon like and ran out of the clearing after it but no harrier could be seen anywhere. Half an hour later it did the same again but gave a better view and I legged it after the bird again and got really good views of the bird (a juv female) moving towards Wanstone farm at hunting height, getting mobbed by crows then lost to view over the farm woodland.

Other notables were a juvenile Hen harrier (below) over the top fields first thing, a Yellow Browed warbler to the East of Top wood, 2 Ring Ouzels and 3 or 4 Brambling

My last bash around the headland before heading to Scilly for a couple of weeks. Again there was rain pre dawn and light southerly airflow. Foxhill down was busy with more going on overhead – Meadow pipits, Reed buntings, alba and Grey wagtails c150 House Martin and a Golden plover over calling. I then noted Ring Ouzel, 3 Brambling, c50 Chiffchaff, a single common Whitethroat, 3 Black Redstart a/the Short Eared Owl over the harbour field and 21 Jays which arrived off the sea at the lighthouse.

During the walk back I was investigating the weedy field area next to wanstone battery when a Yellow–browed Warbler started calling in the sallows next to the gun emplacement.

Quite a showy bird that put in a few appearances before I had to leave. Nice to get 2 before leaving.

Wish me luck on Scilly.