Late Grasshopper Warbler trapped at Porth Hellick

Northern Willow Warbler at Higher Moors

  This morning as I arrived at Porth Hellick ringing station they had a stunning Firecrest in the hand. I decided to stick around, but Jim was finishing early and as he came to furl up his last net, we got quite a surprise to see a Grasshopper Warbler in the bottom shelve!
  Jim went home and I continued to look around. In the Porth Hellick/Higher Moors area I managed too see 3 Firecrest, 25+ Goldcrest, 40+Chiffchaff and 15+Siskin. There was a slight increase in both crests and chiffs and at Lower Moors this was the case with 4 firecrest, 40+Goldcrest, 65+Chiffchaff and a male Brambling. At Porthloo Beach there was a Wheatear with 4 Black Redstart.

What a shock we both got when jim pulled out this Grasshopper Warbler from out of the nets at Porth Hellick proving to be the first November record on Scilly!

In the last 3 days Jim has trapped 3 Firecrest at Porth Hellick. Nearby later on I saw 2 Firecrest unringed.

There seemed to an increase with both Goldcrest and Chiffchaff today

She's a big Blackbird and she has probable arrived from Scandinavia with the winter thrushes 

Look at that pot belly on this Northern Willow Warbler at Higher Moors

On Sunday Jim trapped a Northern Willow Warbler at Porth Hellick. This individual has been at higher Moors since the 20th October when I first saw it. This is a big bird, moves around like a hippolais warbler and  with it's large pale bill, can give the impression of a Melodious warbler 

This Wheatear was with up to 4 Black Redstart at Porthloo Beach

Up to 15 Siskin were at Porth Hellick

  On St Agnes there were a Mistle Thrush and on Periglis, a Water Pipit. elsewhere on St Mary's the Pink-footed Goose was at Peninnis with a Short-eared Owl. Birders looking at over 200 Common Dolphins off the head also got a Sooty Shearwater.

Great band and a great song! The original song 'Again' is over 16 minutes long! I wasn't goin to put it on me blog. However, the long version could be longer! The harmonica attaches to this song perfectly. Archive are a musical group based in London, England, whose music spans electronic, trip hop, avant-garde, post-rock andprogressive rock. Over their twenty-year history, the band has released ten studio albums and enjoyed established success throughout Europe, while remaining little-known in their native Britain. Archive was formed by Darius Keeler and Rosko John in 1993. Shortly thereafter, Danny Griffiths, who had worked with Darius before in the UK breakbeat act Genaside II, joined the group. In 1994 after having created a sound, they were in search of a vocalist, and met female singer Roya Arab who joined them to sing on the demos Mother Records had paid for. Within weeks various record labels came knocking. The band released their first album Londinium on Island Records in 1996, a mix of dark trip hop (in a similar vein to Massive Attack), electronica and, naturally, their breakbeat and hardcore roots, but with the unequivocal match of string arrangements and almost baroque and classically influenced songwriting. The album received moderate critical acclaim and in Q magazine Peter Gabriel was quoted as saying, "Londinium was one of my most favourite albums of the year", but due to artistic differences, the band split up later that year.