Saturday 8th October 2011

   Today is the start of my yearly trip to the Isles of Scilly. Sadly, only had a week this year, so made the most of it by starting early Friday evening and getting to Cornwall before first light.
   We started at first light in the A30 layby just west of Drift. Good start it was too, we had at least 2 of the 3 Black Kites which had been around the area for a while. There were also at least 6 Buzzards.
   We then got the Scillonian ferry to St Marys. From the ferry we didnt have too much, but 3+ Manx Shearwaters, Bonxie and 2 Arctic Skuas were the highlights.

   Then onto St Marys, first thing for me was to get the tent up, then decide where to start. The Northern Waterthrush was very tempting, but i knew it would be top of many other peoples lists too. So, i went to Lower Moors and was greeted by very close views of the Lesser Yellowlegs and slightly more distant views of the Wilsons Snipe. As luck would have it, most of the people in the hide soon left and soon after the Wilsons Snipe flew in and fed very close to the hide. What a great start, the Waterthrush can wait a bit!!!!

Wilson's Snipe

Lesser Yellowlegs