Scilly – day 29

“What’s your favourite bird?” Stupid question, and for me it’s impossible to answer. However, when pushed I might well say Pallas’s Warbler. I absolutely love them. I’ve seen quite a few but never found one of my own, so this week I’ve been secretly determined to find one by working Carreg Dhu gardens and Holy Vale every morning, two places where I’ve seen them before. Well no, obviously I still haven’t found one, but, when taken in context, this morning I actually found something a lot bettererererer than a Pallas’s Warbler.

Just as it was getting light I was heading up the road towards Carreg Dhu to short-cut into Holy Vale, and as the light came up I noticed a definite increase in the number of calling Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests along the roadside hedges, like millions n’ stuff. Ooh, a high pitched trilling call coming from the gardens – woah, was that a Treecreeper? Then a Redwing flew over, so surely that’s what I misheard? Then another burst of what was surely Treecreeper. Is that even a good bird for Scilly? I thought it might be, so I decided I’d better see it. Amongst a mixed flock of Blue Tits and Goldcrests I saw a Treecreeper… err… creeping up a branch – such  a boring cliche. I phoned Spider who dropped the phone as I was telling him what I’d found, and he tear-arsed it over to the gardens and quickly relocated it. I think that everyone who cares about their Scilly list thankfully managed to see Treecreeper this morning before it went missing this afternoon.

I was told that this was the 11th record for Scilly. Putting this into context, there have been 65,722 records of Red-eyed Vireo and 447,689 records of Buff-breasted Sandpiper on Scilly. So Treecreeper is a very good bird for Scilly.

Having flogged prime places for my favourite bird over the last six days, I’ve failed miserably to find a Pallas’s Warbler. But hey ho, I did find a Treecreeper. Now, another – more shit – way of putting Treecreeper into context, is that every time I walk from my house to Co-Op in Glossop, I usually see a Treecreeper in the park I pass through. Oh yeah, hip hip hooray. (*insert smiley face*)

Top Photo: Tree creeper – rare bird on Scilly.  Mark Medcalf, Scotland (Birdtracker on Flickr)

Random Posts:

TomMckinney: The Isles of Scilly 2011: Northern Waterthrush, Upland Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, American Golden Plover
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney: Scilly – day 2: Two days in and I haven’t seen the Waterthrush. It’s not for lack of effort. It’s complicated. It ma
Category:Uncategorized

CharlieMoores: Extremadura and the EL50 Swarovisions (guest post): Okay, a new voice here on Birding Blogs? Well, hopefully not ‘new’ as in never heard of before, but
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

Similar Posts:

TomMckinney:Scilly – the final day: Two things about this trip to Scilly were inevitable – 1) it would have to end at some point; 2) des
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney:Scilly – day 4: Two boat loads of birders, including some of our party, were disappointed and frustrated on a trip t
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

Rebecca Nason:Going for Gold: Goldcrest Christmas I thought I had managed to get away with going through all of freezing October,
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney:Goodbye Slender-billed Curlew?: Last Monday Alan Lewis, presumably having been tipped off with some insider information, posted an i
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

Rebecca Nason:Birds on the Beach . . .some are clearly cold!: Birds on the Beach . . . . This morning I have started to look through a large selection of Chiffcha
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

Tagged as: birding UK, scilly, tom mckinney, Treecreeper