Melodious Warbler at Porth Hellick

I found this 1st summer/female Rose-coloured Starling at Green Farm this afternoon but could easily be the bird that Ritchie and Tony had briefly at Porthloo, six days ago.

  Another Sunday and another good day! Mid day, while watching a Swift in the ESE breeze over Giants Castle, Bobby 'Dazzler' Dawson let me know that he had a snatch of a song in the pine belt at the Porth Hellick side of the down which he thought might of been a sylvia warbler but didn't have time to wait around. Shortly afterwards, I found myself at the pine belt and could hear faintly a sylvia warbler further up the slope. It didn't quite sound like a sylvia warbler to me and thought maybe a Marsh Warbler and quickly recorded it and then put the news out so everyone could hopefully see it, although I had not seen myself yet. An adult Hobby passed by but by the time a few of the others had arrived, it had shut up and we never heard again. I left them to it and said I'm goin to go and search for a Rose-coloured Starling! I had the Hobby again later over Porth Hellick being mobbed by 20~House Martin followed by a Kestrel.


And here's that Marsh Warbler, I mean Melodious Warbler singing at the Porth Hellick pine belt

 And as I couldn't get the recording to work on my blog last week, here's the Great Reed Warbler croaking at Porth Hellick Beach last Sunday

And as I didn't put this recording on my blog when Mark Anderson and I found this CIRL BUNTING two years ago at Trenowth. As some birders were saying it was trash at the time because it was not seen again or they didn't see it maybe? So, for those who didn't believe us, although we both saw it, here it is singing!! Thanks to Magnus Robb and James Lidster

Much rarer than anything else today was this first COMMON HEATH MOTH for Scilly that Bobby 'Dazzler' Dawson found and took this photo at Kittidown

Distant adult Hobby over Porth Hellick

   At Green Farm Lane I found a Rose-coloured Starling! As there had been good numbers of Starling in this area and an influx of RCS in the country, I had been visiting Green Farm everyday hoping to get one. It showed well for a small crowd feeding in cut hay field. After an hour it proved to be more mobile and went missing. It wasn't until early evening after tea that Scott Reid relocated it back in the original field and here it gave us better and closer views near to the lane.

It's always good to see these stunning starlings and I expect more to turn up in the next week

Male House Sparrow

A Starling that has just taken a bath

  We both moved onto Porth Hellick to try for the Marsh Warbler. Ritchie and Robin joined us and as we waked up on the north side of the pine belt, we heard the warbler very briefly. We moved to the otherside, where Scott managed to see it very briefly before flying back into cover and identified it as a Melodious Warbler!! Bloody ell!! How can anyone make the mistake of mixing up a Marsh from a Melodious Warbler song because they sound completely different from one another? Well I did!

  On St Martins, early this evening, Viv Jackson had a Bee-eater over Middle Town towards lower Town

 Highlights in the last few days of May included, Ritchie and Tony finding a Rose-coloured Starling at Porthloo, 29th. Just as the fog had cleared, Darren Mason observed an Alpine Swift over Annet towards St Agnes, 31st and the first day of June there was a very unusual record of a female Red-footed Falcon following a cruse boat for 30 minutes off Scilly!!

From the album Trouble, out January 28, 2014 on Merge Records.