Oriental Cockroach on St Mary's

This could be the first Oriental Cockroach recorded on Scilly! Were waiting for more information. 

  I had just settled down in the club to watch Wales taking on Belgium when there was some commotion goin on behind me. I rushed over to where Mark was trying to hit a large bug with a cushion. Immediately I could see it was a cockroach and told him what it was and repeatedly said don't kill it! A small crowd had now gathered and they must I thought I was out of my mind! 'It's a Cockroach!' Yes, but it's a black one and the only cockroach that I know that is black, is Oriental Cockroach. This was later confirmed by Bob Dawson. Anyways, Mark didn't give a damn what cockroach it was and killed it! We all returned to the game and what a game it was as Wales won 3-1!!

  Today I flushed a Wryneck off the Green Lane path

   In the last few days some notable birds have started to turn up. The only ones that I managed to see, all on St Mary's was this Wryneck at Borough Farm, 22nd-25th.

  Also the Icterine Warbler on the Garrison that was last seen yesterday in the garden. 

 

Two days ago, I observed 8 Spotted, 9 Pied Flycatcher, 3 Whitethroat, 12 Wheatear, 10+Willow Warbler and 5 Chiffchaff

Also good numbers of Rush Veneer around at the moment

   On St Agnes, the 22nd Graham Gorden found a new Melodious Warbler on St Agnes in the light house garden. The following day he had a Curlew Sandpiper on Porthcoose and flyover Ortolan Bunting. At Beady Pool, Graham Cundale had a juvenile Dotterel, 25rd-27th and Doug Page had an Ortolan Bunting at Wingletang, 26th. Today, Viv Stratten had cracking views of a Barred Warbler at the Wingletang end of Barnby Lane.

Juvenile Dotterel at Beady Pool, St Agnes Robin Mawer, top and Graham Cundale

  On Bryher, on the 23rd, Chesney had a single Grasshopper Warbler, 5 Spotted and 8 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Whitethroat and a Wryneck. However, Higgo went over today and scored with Melodious and Icterine Warbler and 2 Wryneck all in the Popplestone area. He also had singles of Redstart, Tree Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Whitethroat and 8 Pied and Spotted Flycatcher.


Amazing stuff!! Ólafur Arnalds (born 3 November 1986) is a BAFTA-winning^[1] multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland.^[2]Ólafur Arnalds mixes strings and piano with loops and beats crossing over from ambient/electronic to pop.^[3] Ólafur was a drummer of hardcore / metal bands Fighting Shit, Celestine, and others.

In 2009, Ólafur also formed an experimental techno project, entitled Kiasmos, with Janus Rasmussen from the Icelandic electro-pop band Bloodgroup. In 2014 Ólafur announced his electronic debut album under the Kiasmos project.

Icterine Warbler on The Garrison

Everyone did connect with Chesney's Icterine Warbler in the campsite garden on The Garrison that he found four days ago. Today Chesney also found a Wryneck nearby at Morning Point and the Icky was still in the garden.

 However, even though the Icterine Warbler was on my doorstep, because of work being non-stop, I didn't catch up with it until yesterday and that was only for ten minutes, because of work. Fortunately in that short time, it performed very well chasing the 2 Willow Warbler feeding in the same tree. I also had 5 Pied Flycatcher on the Dead Pine Walk just around the corner.

The Icterene Warbler eyeing up on a tasty morsel

  Also yesterday from 18.00 I found myself seawatching off Deep Point in gale force SW. The first bird I picked up was a Cory's Shearwater and an hour later 31 Cory's, 1 Sooty and 1 Baleric Shearwater had passed west (The latter shearwater was only seen by Robin who joined me briefly) For the next hour I was called back to work and returned again and from 20.00-45 I observed another 30 Cory's Shearwater, including a line of 7 together, and 9 Manx Shearwater. Altogether 61 Cory's Shearwater moved through.

  On St Agnes, Horse Point from 13.30-17.30, Doug Page counted 20 Cory's Shearwater. Graham Gorden took over from 17.30-19.10 and got 42 Cory's Shearwater, 3 Great Shearwater and a single Grey Phalorpe. While out on Joe Penders Pelagic they had 42 Cory's Shearwater and 5 Great Shearwater. 

Before all this happened I made a brief visit to Porth Hellick and there were now 2 Wood Sandpiper but only 2 each of Common and Green Sandpiper. I also had a Hobby over Porthcressa which was later observed in other locations of St Mary's by other observers. 

There are now 5 Dunlin at Porth Hellick

Snipe

 Oak Egger at Porth Hellick

    This morning in an hour I had 4 Cory's Shearwater and Graham had 8 birds off Horse Point and a single Grey Phalorpe, St Agnes. An all day Joe Pender Palagic produced 4 Wilson's Petrel, 25 Cory's Shearwater and 7 Great Shearwater.

  On the 17th August Graham Gorden had a Melodious Warbler in the pines NE of the cricket pitch, St Agnes. Some ten minutes later he found the first Wryneck of the autumn in the Parsonage. Also, at least 8 Pied Flycatcher and a single Tree Pipt. He also picked out a new juvenile Yellow-legged Gull joining the individual from a few days ago.
  The following day Viv Stratton had a Grasshopper Warbler at tennis courts, Garrison on St Mary's.


Watch Mike McCready of Pearl Jam let fly on his guiter with the amazing Star Anna 

10-SPOT LADYBIRD on St Mary's

This 10-SPOT LADYBIRD, found by Bob Dawson at east end of Porthcressa Bay, was the first Scilly record since 1973! Note the yellowish legs.

  With stiff easterlies overnight, I made a visit to Porth Hellick first thing this morning only to note down more or less the same birds that have been on the pool for the last few days. 2 Green Sandpiper, 4 Dunlin, 3 Sand Martin, 2 Swift, 2 Teal, 12 Greenshank, my first Water Rail of the autumn and a single Painted Lady. There was also a single Spotted Flycatcher at Carn Friars. Only an adult Hobby and a single Green sandpiper were at lower Moors. At mid-day, news came out that there was a Wood Sandpiper at Porth Hellick but it wasn't till gone 14.00 that Jim Almond and I made ours ways to the latter site. The bird showed well and a call to Graham on St Agnes proved it to be one of the two juveniles that he had on the Big Pool yesterday as he observed an individual leave the St Agnes after 11.00 this morning.

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper at Porth Hellick

Juvenile Green Sandpiper Lower Moors. There were up to 9 birds on Tresco yesterday

3 of the 4 Dunlin at Porth Hellick

Up to 12 Greenshank were at Porth Hellick

Only a handful of Willow Warbler in the Porth Hellick area.

Large numbers of Linnet scattered around St Marys

  Yesterday I pulled up at the front of Star Castle and everyone jumped out. One of the children that got out shouted 'Look at this!' I thought he was pointing at Dave who was waiting for me next to the steps but he was pointing to the ground. 'I got pretty excited, as there crawling in the grass was the larva of a Deaths-head Hawkmoth! I picked it up to put it in a pot and it felt soft and baggy. When Dawson saw it he told me that it's in this condition because it's ready to hit the ground and pupate. After everyone had seen it, Martin took care of the larva and now we can all look forward to the day when it emerges from the soil in a container that Martin has got it in.

 

The only other Deaths-head Hawkmoth larva that I've every seen was in the campsite garden some ten years ago.

Small Copper

I observed up to 3 Comma together at Higher Moors 

Another pic of the mega find by Bob Dawson of the 10-SPOT LADYBIRD

In the last month over 10 juvenile Yellow-legged Gull have been observed on St Agnes including this individual today Robin Mawer

Migrants are just starting to trickle through with single Spotted and Pied Flycatcher on the Garison today and yesterday the first Redstart of the autumn was at Porth Hellick. Wheatear were in over a week ago in ones and twos. However, today's highlight was a brief Icterine Warbler in the campsite garden, Garrison that Chesney found. Hopefully we will all connect with it tomorrow 

Another great band that no one has heard of. Blitzen Trapper is a Portland, Oregon-based experimental country/folk/rock band associated with Sub Pop Records,^[1] Vagrant Records^[2] and Lojinx. Formed in 2000, the band currently operates as a quintet, with Eric Earley (guitar/harmonica/vocals/keyboard), Erik Menteer (guitar/keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums/vocals/harmonica), Michael Van Pelt (bass), and Marty Marquis (guitar/keyboards/vocals/melodica).^[4] Blitzen Trapper self-released its first three albums. "Wild Mountain Nation" was No. 98 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. The release of Furr in 2008 was a high-water mark for the group as their eclectic new songs received a two-page feature in Rolling Stone. The album was ranked No. 13 on Rolling Stone's Best Albums of 2008^[6] while the title track was ranked No. 4 on the magazine's Best Singles of 2008.^[7] The albums Destroyer of the Void and American Goldwing followed, to similarly high acclaim.