Scilly - a day in the life.....

A new week and a bit of a birding hangover!!  It might have been a lacklustre Scilly for the diehards, it was a magic fortnight for me and lessons learned for next time. It's hard to adjust back to birding in Shropshire however, where expectations are minimal! Every day on Scilly produced something memorable but..... one has to return to normality I guess?

A typical day on Scilly....

1. Wake up, (optional pre-breakfast birding) then full english breakfast

2. Followed by a full days birding with a flapjack or snack to get you through to .....

3. an evening meal. Various pubs etc simply couldn't compete with the value on offer at the Scillonian! e.g. Fish and chips to die for..... (that's a family sized portion of chips underneath!)

I didn't actually put on any weight! An average of 4-5 miles per day walking with gear put paid to that!!

4. One or two beers  then........

5. sound night sleep.

Loop back to 1. and repeat :-)

Some simple stats...

14 days solid birding

2 pelagics

115 species seen

6 lifers for the trip

6 Tunnocks Teacakes consumed

27 fried eggs consumed

14 co-op flapjacks got me through every day (one a day that is!)

70 miles approx of yomping round

1 (very dodgy) pub quiz!

0  tick bites :-) (makes a change from Scotland!)

Will I go back? You bet I will......


The 2012 species list. The highlights in bold with italics for those

1. Great Northern Diver
2. Red-necked Grebe
3. Little Grebe
4. Manx Shearwater
5. Balearic Shearwater
6. Sooty Shearwater
7. Storm Petrel
8. Gannet
9. Cormorant
10. Shag
11. Grey Heron
12. Purple Heron
13. Little Egret
14. Mute Swan
15. Greylag Goose
16. Canada Goose
17. Mallard
18. Teal
19. Gadwall
20. Shoveler
21. Common Scoter
22. Peregrine
23. Sparrowhawk
24. Kestrel
25. Merlin
26. Common Pheasant
27. Red-legged Partridge
28. Water Rail
29. Sora
30. Coot
31. Moorhen
32. Oystercatcher
33. Ringed Plover
34. Curlew
35. Whimbrel
36. Lapwing
37. Turnstone
38. Redshank
39. Greenshank
40. Grey Phalarope
41. Common Snipe
42. Jack Snipe
43. Great Skua
44. Arctic Skua
45. Black-headed Gull
46. Lesser Black-backed Gull
47. Great Black-backed Gull
48. Herring Gull
49. Yellow-legged Gull
50. Mediterranean Gull
51. Kittiwake
52. Sandwich Tern
53. Common Tern
54. Black Tern
55. Puffin
56. Guillemot
57. Razorbill
58. Wood Pigeon
59. Stock Dove
60. Collared Dove
61. Swallow
62. Sand Martin
63. House Martin
64. Kingfisher
65. Wryneck
66. Skylark
67. Short-toed Lark
68. Richard’s Pipit
69. Meadow Pipit
70. Tree Pipit
71. Rock Pipit
72. White Wagtail
73. Grey Wagtail
74. Wren
75. Dunnock
76. Robin
77. Bluethroat
78. Redstart
79. Black Redstart
80. Wheatear
81. Stonechat
82. Whinchat
83. Song Thrush
84. Redwing
85. Fieldfare
86. Blackbird
87. Grey-cheeked Thrush
88. Blackcap
89. Whitethroat
90. Reed Warbler
91. Sedge Warbler
92. Willow Warbler
93. Chiffchaff
94. Arctic Warbler
95. Yellow-browed Warbler
96. Barred Warbler
97. Goldcrest
98. Firecrest
99. Spotted Flycatcher
100. Red-breasted Flycatcher
101. Pied Flycatcher
102. Great Tit
103. Blue Tit
104. Carrion Crow
105. Raven
106. Starling
107. Rose-coloured Starling
108. House Sparrow
109. Greenfinch
110. Chaffinch
111. Brambling
112. Linnet
113. Goldfinch
114. Lapland Bunting
115. Snow Bunting