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Wednesday 26 September 2012

BUFF-BELLIED PIPIT at Peninnis


After finding the Bonelli's Warbler last week, Andrew Gardener did one better by discovering this 6th BUFF-BELLIED PIPIT for Scilly at Peninnis!

Image taken by Bryan Thomas



Feeding with the Buff-bellied Pipit was a Lapland Bunting. Nearby on Porthcressa Beach was yesterdays juvenile Little Stint
 
Juvenile ROSE-COLOURED STARLING at Porth Hellick
 

Another great choice by Bob Dawson 'Buzzin Fly' Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American singer and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album (1966) was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound. He died aged 28, leaving behind wife Judy and son Taylor, and son Jeff Buckley from his marriage to Mary Guibert.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

AQUATIC WARBLER at Porthloo


Record shot of the AQUATIC WARBLER at Porthloo Duckpond

  At about 10.30 I was just dropping off some guests at the airport when Bob Dawson called 'I think I've got an AQUATIC WARBLER at Porthloo Duckpond' A few minutes I was walking through the field where we had access to where it was last seen with Bob and Robin. It flew up very briefly and I commented on it being very yellow. The bird itself flew across into the field on the opposite side of the road. Here I saw it briefly in flight and noted again how yellow it looked. We waited patiently where it last landed and after a brief shower went through I spotted the bird low down in the hedge. However, I couldn't really see anything and said that I think it might be a sedgy. Before I could finish my sentence Robin butted in 'It's an Aquatic isn't it?' Bob came out with 'It's got a sodden crown stripe!' I moved to where they were and could clearly see that was a AQUATIC WARBLER! The bird performed well, but for me camera, it was hard work with the reeds blowing all over the shop. I had to go, but was told later that it showed on and off for the next hour and despite people looking, it was never seen again



 
Can you see what it is yet?
                                                      
 
Up to 3 Whinchat were at Content  

This Stonechat was on the Garrison





A Little Stint kept it's distance on Porthcressa Beach



  
This ones for Bob and very good choice Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, is an American blues musician. He plays (mostly personalised) guitars, and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work. Wold made his first UK television appearance on Jools Holland's 'Annual Hootenanny' BBC TV show (broadcast on New Year's Eve 2006) where he performed a live rendition of  this song "Dog House Boogie" on the 'Three String Trance Wonder' and the 'Mississippi Drum Machine'  I remember seeing on this show. After that show his popularity exploded in Britain, as he explained in an interview. He was well received in the UK, winning the 2007 MOJO Award for Best Breakthrough Act and going on to appear at major UK festivals such as Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury. In 2007 he played more UK festivals than any other artist.

Monday 24 September 2012

ORTOLAN BUNTING at Little Porth

                                                                   

1st winter ORTOLAN BUNTING showing off at Little Porth

  Yesterday during gale force easterlies with heavy downpours, Phil Parsons found a 1st winter ORTOLAN BUNTING at Little Porth Beach. This morning the bird was still present and with others I went to have a look at it. When I got there it was feeding on the beach, but soon moved on to the path above the beach where it showed down to a few meters in the calmer sunny conditions. Before this while waiting for the chopper to come in at the airport, a Ruff circled the airfield and then flew off NW towards the golf course. At the latter site yesterday I had 2 Yellow and 20+White Wagtail, 50+Meadow Pipit and a single Skylark.







Watching the bunting on Little Porth


  I was giving 45 minutes off work this afternoon and had a stroll around the Garrison. Up to 5 Willow Warbler, 4 Chiffchaff and Blackcap, 20+Meadow Pipit, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Whitethroat and my first Redstart of the year. An hour before dark I checked the fields behind me house and flushed a Quial at very close range and watch it land in the top left corner.

Up to 2 Humming-bird Hawkmoth and 30+Red Admiral were also on the Garrison

 The first Yellow-browed Warbler of the Autumn was at Lower Moors and the third CITRINE WAGTAIL of the year was on Tresco Great Pool. 2 Barred Warbler included one found by Mick Turton at Giants Castle, who went on to find a Wryneck at Nearby Tolman's. The other Higgo had at the Fruit Cage, St Agnes, who also had a Wryneck at Porth Killier. A juvenile ROSE-COLOURED STARLING at Porth Hellick may be the St Martins bird.


  Yesterday in the afternoon I got a text from Graham Gorden who is on Fair Isle at the moment. Half an hour later the pager went off mega 'MAGNOLIA Fair Isle!!' I called him immediately 'You know about the Magnolia? 'What the one I'm watching now!' It's ironic that the only other UK record was just down the road from Graham's digs, 31 years ago on St Agnes! This morning there was no sign of the warbler. However, Graham went and found a Paddyfield Warbler.

  Another birder from the Scillies, Will Scott, found the WHITES THRUSH on the Farnes today. Read his amazing account and have a look at that face!
 http://dub-birder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/white-magic.html#comment-form

 

This Starling came to a very sad end 


Sigur Rós (Icelandic pronunciation:is an ambient/post-rock band from Reykjavík, Iceland, who has been active since 1994. Known for its ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi Birgisson's falsetto vocals, and the use of bowed guitar, the band's music is also noticeable for its incorporation of classical and minimalist aesthetic elements. The band is named after Jónsi's sister Sigurrós. This song 'Olsen Olsen' is from the documentary and double DVD Heima (Icelandic pronunciation: at home) set about the tour around Iceland in the summer of 2006. During the tour the band played two big open-air concerts at Miklatún, as well as small scale concerts. In addition, a protest concert against the Kárahnjúkar dam was performed at Snæfellsskála . The documentary also includes footage of an acoustic concert played for family and friends at Gamla Borg, a coffee shop in the small town Borg, on 22 April 2007. The documentary premiered in Iceland at the Reykjavík International Film Festival opening day, 27 September 2007. The DVD has sold 5,000 copies in Canada earning it a Gold Award under the Video Certifications On May 27, 2011 the band released an official HD-quality version of Heima on their website, available as digital download in QuickTime forma

Thursday 20 September 2012

Interesting redpoll on Tresco

WESTERN BONELLI'S WARBLER, Newmans Pottery, Garrison

  This morning I got a call from visiting birder, Andrew Gardene, to tell me that he had just found a BONELLI'S WARBLER sp, as he had not heard it call, feeding in Elms just off the road leading down to Newmans Pottery. I couldn't be there for a while and on my second visit, the bird performed very well in the lower Elms.









  Yesterday after work in the calm sunny conditions, I canoed across to Samson. For the hour that I was there, all I got was 7 Wheatear, 25 White Wagtail and 100+Linnet. 10 minutes from Samson and I arrived on Tresco. Here I walked from South Beach towards Skirt Island and when I reached the latter site,  I found the SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER feeding in the seaweed at the top of beach as it was high tide. I got ahead of it and lay down and waited for it to come to me. It did, closer and closer, and when it was half a meter away, a juvenile male Peregrine came through and the dowitcher  crouched as low as it could. When the danger had passed, instead of continuing to feed, the damn stupid thing stayed there. If I reached my arm out, I could of touched it! I lay still, taking pics and video, and it was not until 10 minutes later that it decided to feed again. Amazing stuff!

 






  Leaving the dowitcher, I quickly made my way to the Abbey Pool. On the path I almost trod on, what I thought was going to be a Lapland Bunting, a redpoll. It was only a few meters away and I could clearly see that it was not a Lesser Redpool. After a couple of minutes, the bird let me approach it until I was almost on top of  it. Like the dowitcher, I could of touched it! What I observed looked was a probable MEALY REDPOLLchunky redpoll with white tramlines and a streaking white rump. like a, but what the hell do I know!? The light was disappearing fast and all I could do was take some pics and video and make a move back to the canoe.






Probable MEALY REDPOLL? Both the dowitcher and the redpoll were taken with me camcorder.

My trusty canoe on Samson 

A strange cloud formation over the harbour

  
Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. The 1998 release of the acclaimed Deserter's Songs (which featured appearances by Garth Hudson and the late Levon Helm of The Band) made Mercury Rev unexpected rock stars. In the UK, NME magazine made Deserter's Songs their Album of the Year Donahue's earnest, high-pitched vocals and concentration on relatively concise, melodic songs gave the band's material an entirely new feel and much increased popularity (Deserter's Songs spawned three UK Top 40 singles. This is my favorite song from that LP 'The Funny Bird'

Saturday 15 September 2012

Ortolan Bunting + Wryneck, Maypole

This image is not of the Maypole Wryneck, but is the individual that showed down to a few feet at the old slipway on South Beach, Tresco Robin Mawer

  Yesterday I went to look for a Wryneck that Higgo had flushed from a wall opposite Borough Farm. As I was approaching the farm in me wagon from Maypole Triangle, on top of the Hawthorns on the side of the road was a small pale bird. I lifted me bins and there was a 1st winter Ortolan Bunting. As I was getting my camera out from me bag, the damn thing flew off behind me. I contacted the others and in the 10 minutes I had I went searching for it. No sign of the bunting, but I flushed the Wryneck and it landed in the same Hawthorn as the bunting! Also 6 White Wagtail in the area.


Image taken by Robin Mawer



And this is the best that I could do of yesterdays Wryneck at Maypole. It's thought that is more than likely the one that Martin found last week and to add to his tally, he went found another today infront ISBG hide at Lower Moors.


Both CITRINE WAGTAILS are still present. Chris and Juliet Moore (top) and Paul Semmens took these cracking images of the individual that's been favouring Porth Hellick since it's arrival.The other juvenile is still commuting with Lower Moors and Higgos Pool. Both birds arrived on the same day, 1st September.

The Citrine Wagtail at Porth Hellick was trying to push off these 3 Yellow Wagtail




Chris and Juliet Moore




From the top Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, family of Swallow, Dunlin, Blackbird and Goldfinch

On their first day out in the field, Chris and Juliet Moore found this juvenile Red-backed Shrike at Carn Friars, 8th September. A few days later it was relocated at nearby Higher Moors. They also took the pics below from earlier on in the week at the airfield, of the juvenile Dotterel, that's now returned to the Daymark, St Martins and is now sharing the area with the first 3 lapland Bunting of the year, and the juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper





On his return to Penzance, Paul Semmens got these pics of this juvenile Long-tailed Skua off the Scillonian

Jeff Buckley was an American singer-songwriter and great guitarist and was the son of Tim Buckley In 1997, Buckley continued to work on the album, to be titled My Sweetheart the Drunk, recording many four-track demos while also playing weekly solo shows at a local venue. While awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed — in the Wolf River, when he was caught in the wake of a passing boat. His body was found on June 4, 1997. Chart success also came posthumously; with Leonard Cohen's song, "Hallelujah" he attained his first #1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs in March 2008 and reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart in Christmas 2008. The LP Grace was released on August 23, 1994. There were 7 original songs and 3 covers including the beautiful 'Lilic Wine' The song was written by James Shelton in 1950 and there have been 5 versions to date.