Higgo's Tour to Annet

 

1st winter Red-breasted Flycatcher at the Parsonage

  I demand a refund! However, I had a cracking day on St Agnes. Higgo organised, with Dave Badcock, to take a few of us to visit Annet. Before we got on the boat, from the quay, we all watched 11 Whooper Swan that had just arrived and fly around St Mary's. It came on the radio later that they had joined the 3 Ring-necked Duck at Porth Hellick. Halfway there and the swell was too high and we knew we were not going to land on the island as it was too rough. So we all were dropped off on St Agnes and as the Richard's Pipit was showing at the Big Pool, they all headed off that way while Ritchie and I went to see if yesterdays Booted Warbler was still in the Cove Vean area. a Brambling flew through with the many chaffinches and with no sign of the warbler we moved on and caught up with the 2 Irish COAL TITS by the phone box. As we turned the corner, a Red-breasted Flycatcher had just been found in the Parsonage. With a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Pied Flycatcher, it showed very well.

 

Shite! Were never going to land on Annet.

 

 

 

Yellow-browed Warbler and Irish COAL TIT at the Parsonage

 
 We left for Gugh with Higgo and Alastair Ortom and the only birds of note were a Snow Bunting that Ritchie found and Higgo and Alastair had a flyover Woodlark heading low SW. The latter species we went looking for along the coastal path with Higgo being ahead, he came running from around the corner, beckoning us with his finger 'Ere boys' He had stumbled across it on the coastal path. I looked 'There's another one!' We kept our distance as we knew that a few of them would be walking across the bar, but after 10 minutes they both flew off towards St Agnes. Then I told everyone to shut up 'That's a Richard's Pipit?' We couldn't see the bird, but it was heard flying NNE. Later we discovered that Ritchie had it a few minutes before on the deck just around the corner. A return to Agy to look at a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling. However, I was distracted by one of the Irish Coal Tit and the Yellow-browed Warbler at the Parsonage.

 

Distant views of the 2 Woodlark and the light in the wrong direction

 

Female Kestrel over the Gugh Bar

 

 Two mornings ago there was a Yellow-browed Warbler was in me garden with 2 Lesser Redpoll. I also flushed 16 Snipe in a nearby field.

 

The 3 Ring-necked Duck were performing at close range in front of the hide at Porth Hellick

  Also on the same day in the early afternoon I was approaching Helvear Farm when I heard a distant Woodlark.Only my 4th Scilly record. A few minutes later I heard it again and just got it as it came down in a field out of sight at Tranowth. Despite checking all the fields with Higgo, there was no sign of it. What was thought to be the same bird was seen later over Lower Moors and then Rocky Hills.


Bob Dylan puts Billy Joe Shaver as one of his 5 top songwriters and he mentions Shaver in his song I Feel A Change Comin' On on the album Together through life (2009) "I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver And I'm reading James Joycekl' It was Kris Kristofferson who produced his first album and from there his songs have been covered by all walks of life. 'Wacko from Waco' is a song he wrote about himself when police in Lorena, TX about 10 miles south of Waco, issued arrest warrants for Shaver April 2, 2007 on charges of aggravated assault and possessing a firearm in a prohibited place. This was in connection with an incident outside a tavern in Lorena on March 31, 2007, in which Shaver shot a man, Billy Bryant Coker, in the face with a handgun.Witnesses interviewed by police report hearing Shaver saying "where do you want it?" and then, after the shot was fired, "Tell me you are sorry" and "No one tells me to shut up." Coker told police the attack was unprovoked. Shaver's attorney declared that Shaver had shot Coker "in self-defense" after Coker threatened Shaver with a knife. After unsuccessfully attempting to surrender to police in Austin, TX, who were unaware of the warrant, Shaver turned himself in at McLennan County Jail in Waco, TX on Tuesday, April 3. He was released after an hour on $50,000 bond and gave his scheduled performance at Waterloo Records in Austin that evening, where he reportedly told fans, "Don't forget to pray for me, and tell your kids to pray for me, too." He was acquitted in a Waco court on April 9, 2010 after testifying that he acted in self-defense.