Scilly: Fri. 23rd Sept. 2011.

Today I woke up early and thought about going back for yet another look at the waterthrush, but couldn't quite face it, and also, I thought given that I had already had such amazing views, it'd be good to leave the space to others who still want good views, so I stayed away this morning.  I was up at 05.30, and when I stepped out of the tent was blown away by the amazing skyscape that greeted me, so I ended up painting this instead.  To be honest, I could easily spend my whole time just painting landscapes on Scilly, there's always a good view around every corner.  But if there's a bird around, then I always want to paint that first! 

Later, after a walk around the Garrison, not seeing a lot, just a few Meadow Pipit and Chaffinch, I went to Tresco for the day for a change of scene.  I trekked around Castle Down, then Old Grimsby, Borough Farm, and finally the Great Pool.  All favoured old haunts where I've seen so many great birds in the past...  But today nothing of any note.  Only 15 or so birders came over today and I saw virtually no-one for most of the day, but also no notable birds either.  I have been contemplating staying on Bryher to try and look for un-discovered birds.  One has to look so incredibly hard to find birds (most birders don't even look properly and don't use their ears either - I see it time and time again).  You have to spend time in the field, and also have that other crucial element - luck.  It seems very hard to believe that all the Nearctic passerines that arrived on Scilly after Hurricane Katia all arrived within a 500m radius of one point on St Marys.  Where the hell were all the others?  Yet people were out searching - there were other birders scouring other parts of St Marys, and people looking on St Martins, Bryher, and Graham Gordon and Doug Page searching on St Agnes.  So where were the birds here?  Who knows...  Maybe they were overlooked?  Maybe there just weren't any?  Or maybe they all just homed in on the largest island, yet that seems so implausible given that we all know birds do turn up on the off-islands.
I decided that given how much I've spent on getting here, I don't want to come away empty-handed; I want to leave with sketches of something, rather than potentially nothing!  So I have decided to spend the rest of the time looking at birds already present on St Marys, as well as looking for new birds here too (there are always places where people have not looked, and there is always a chance that something has turned up in a place since the last person looked).
Anyway, my haul from Tresco today has amounted to six Pectoral Sandpipers, all from the Swarovski Hide at the Great pool - OK, someone else found them, but I am very chuffed to see a multiple count of an American wader.  I can now say I saw a flock of Pec Sands in that vintage autumn of 2011 when record numbers of American waders crossed the Atlantic! 

Back on St Marys, I thought about returning to Higgo's Pool again, but then thought better of it when I noticed there were already a few people looking there.  Amazingly though just as I paused along the dump clump track to scan the waiting birders, I saw then all look up - the bird must have just flown, and sure enough I picked up the Northern Waterthrush as it flew toward me and dived into the cover of some sallows in the dump clump.  I continued on up to the airport where I was joined by Kris, and eventually had quite good scope views of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, after the airport had closed for the day.  I was a bit concerned that we might get arrested for trespassing onto the airfield.  These days they're paranoid about airport security and terrorism.  Kris reckoned it'd be a good spot to pitch my tent!

St Marys, Thurs. 22 Sept 2011.

Another great day on Scilly!  Up early again this morning and around the Garrison, not much happening.  So, around 08.00 head back to Higgo's project pool on Lower Moors again to see if the waterthrush is around still.  I still feel I haven't properly got to grips with the bird's precise structure, shape and markings.  Not long after arriving, another old friend and top illustrator, Ren Hathway turned up.  We spent over an hour there waiting but no sign of the waterthrush.  Amazingly we heard the long-staying Bee-eater fly over us whilst waiting at the pool, and later still Ren suddenly spotted a Wryneck perched up in the nearest adjacent Willow which I barely got onto before it flew across the pool and perched up in an Elm where I managed to scope it and get a quick sketch before it disappeared from view.  Later we decided to go and have a look for the Black-and-white Warbler on the other side of Lower Moors.  Just as we reached the allotments by the town dump, I suddenly heard the Northern Waterthrush calling at very close range about 8-10 ft up in some Elms - it's never been heard of here before!  Despite scanning we just couldn't see it perched, but then suddenly it flew out giving naked eye views only as it attempted to cross the mound of the tip walls, before returning and seeming to perch up in the line of elms between the footpath and the tip.  After several anxious minutes of hearing it call a couple of times it went silent.  Was it still there?  Had it gone?  We then decided to head back to the pool, several minutes walk away.  While we were approaching the pool, we met another birder who'd just seen it there 5 minutes earlier - it had clearly flown here straight from the tip.  We failed to see it again and went back to the old plan of looking for the Black-and-white Warbler.  More time passes, and no joy with that.  Decided to head toward the airfield when I suddenly heard the Bee-eater calling at 12.58.  I franticly scan the sky, and bingo, finally see it this time, such an elegant shape, long-winged, and I can even see the tail streamers.

Ren had headed off to the north end of St Marys by this time, while I was still looking for the Black-and-white Warbler.  So I was amazed when he called me on his mobile just ten minutes later to say he was watching the Bee-eater perched up in elms just opposite Watermill House, near Borough Farm, Maypole.  So ensued another epic Scilly route march all the way to Higher Moors, then Holy Vale, and finally to Maypole. I'd forgotten how much sweat and toil Scilly can be at times. Would it still be here?  Would it fly off two minutes before I arrived?  Thankfully it was still there when I arrived, and afforded stunning views - the best views of Bee-eater I've ever had in Britain, and the painting below doesn't really do justice to this stunning bird - I will have to do another painting of it.  I spent a couple of hours watching it and also venturing to Newford duck pond in the vain hope of seeing the Blue-winged Teal that was still here yesterday - alas it was not to be.  I returned to Watermill House where the Bee-eater was still performing, catching wasps and Bumblebees, and switching its direction of perch by 180 degrees in a split-second!  Whilst here, a visiting birder who'd hired a bicycle had managed to lean it against a stone wall oblivious to the wasp's nest within.  The wasps were soon swarming all over the bicycle.  I think the hire company had to wait until dark before retrieving the bike.  It's certainly good security against bike theft.

Late afternoon, I shared a taxi back toward Hugh Town and then wandered back to Higgo's pool, where yet again after a patient wait the Northern Waterthrush performed amazingly well until dusk.  I spent the time feverishly sketching the bird, getting all the crucial lines onto paper as fast as possible.  Finally I felt I've captured the essence of this bird.  These sketches will do to make some new compositions when I get home.  With a rapidly moving bird there is no time to turn the page, just have to get the next outline in before it leaves my memory.  Hence multiple images tend to accumulate on the page...

St Marys, Wed. 21 Sept 2011.

After yesterday's deluge, today was quite the opposite - bright sunshine and brilliant clear blue skies!  I made my way back to the pool behind the Dump Clump on Lower Moors, where the Northern Waterthrush re-appeared this morning, being watched by just Bryan Thomas, long-time resident bird photographer on Scilly, and myself.  Just two people watching such a mega in the UK these days, that's hardly believable!  The bird performed superbly in the bright sunshine, even Bryan was pleased with his photos, this being his fifth attempt at photographing it.  Despite the excellent views, I was still struggling with trying to portray the bird; still trying to comes to terms with its shape and structure, always difficult when the subject is constantly on the move. Some of the images below are ok, but the watercolour below right isn't quite right.  While watching the waterthrush, the Solitary Sandpiper flew in and it was possible to see them both in the same field of view through the 'scope!  Around 08.40, we saw the waterthrush perch briefly in an Elm tree - the pencil sketch in the the bottom right is quite accurate.  It then disappeared in the direction of the dump clump: it's morning performance was over. 

Now I was faced with a new dilemma: which North American passerine to go and see next?!  Black-and-white Warbler on the far eastern edge of Lower Moors, or the Northern Oriole on the Garrison?  Having seen two of the former before I chose the latter.  The oriole had been showing well all morning while I'd been at Lower Moors, but by the time I reached the Garrison, it had gone to ground, and I spent some five hours looking for it, during which time old birding pal Kris Webb strolled by and managed to relocate it in the cypresses above Morning Point!  He's just so good at finding needles in haystacks.  It wasn't until much later, at 16.47 that the oriole finally gave itself up to me.  For the next hour-and-a-half I was able to really study the bird through my 'scope and attempt the field paintings below in the evening sunlight.  A fine end to the day.  I felt completely exhausted though with just being on the go the whole time - hours spent looking for the bird, and then when it finally did show, utter concentration in having to completely focus on the bird and to completely ignore all distractions.  Like the birder's dog that crashed into my feet several times while I was trying to study the bird, it's owner completely unconcerned...  Also several birders trying to talk to me while I was trying to paint, sorry if I ignored you, I just have to work sometimes and seize the moment.

So, should I go to Scilly?: 19/20 Sept 2011

Well what do you do when the weather conditions are looking amazing for yankee passerines to make landfall on the Western Approaches?  My long time birding friend Mark Telfer took the bold decision to go to Ireland to find his own birds - after all, if there are American passerines on the Isles of Scilly, how many more yanks are being overlooked in Ireland?  You can read his tales here. Although I am tempted by the allure of finding my own birds, I also felt a huge draw to Scilly: the newly arrived Northern Waterthrush just held too much appeal for me.  It's a bird I have longed to see since 1996; I'd always bitterly regretted not having left Scilly in October 1996 in order to see the one that turned up at Portland Bill that October.  I always remember seeing the legendary Martin Elliott's fieldsketches of that individual - what stunning drawings!!  That October I notched up the two Black-and-White Warblers, Buff-bellied Pipit and a Bobolink amongst others on Scilly, but I resisted going to Portland, I think mainly because it would have been a lot of stress and expense to have returned to Scilly afterwards - so I stayed put on the islands for a fortnight.  By the time I left, the Portland waterthrush had already departed; just gutting.  However I did have the reward of a Pechora Pipit at St Leven in Cornwall, a truly wonderful bird, and still the only Pechora I've ever seen in Britain. 
So in headless-chicken mode I set off as soon as I was able too, driving through the night to reach Penzance in the small hours of Tuesday 20th September. 
It's always an exciting feeling arriving in the West Country, and there are always birds in the harbour area.  It was good to get straight into drawing mode once at the quay and on board the Scillonian - there were several Turnstone foraging on scraps on the harbour walls.  The seascape was painted from the ship.

The crossing was fairly uneventful, three Storm Petrels being the highlight.  I gave up looking for birds though, as I was feeling so nauseous with the ocean swell.  Quite a strong westerly breeze, so I'm wondering what else could turn up.  Once we arrived on St Marys I went straight to the Garrison campsite and pitched my tent.  Already the slight drizzle had turned to a light but continual rain: the forecasted weather front had already arrived.  I made my way down to Higgo's pool on Lower Moors where the Solitary Sandpiper was still present giving great views.

Meanwhile the rain got heavier, and even though I had a full set of waterproofs on, and and umbrella up, it wasn't long before I could feel the rain seeping into my clothes.  I dared not leave in case the waterthrush showed, but soon other birders were drifting away as it hadn't been seen since mid-morning at least.  So I decided to sit in Higgo's Hide, and paint the above Solitary Sandpiper picture.  While I was painting, at 16.26 hrs I heard a high pitched, distinctive 'pik' call, and looked up to see a, the, Northern Waterthrush in the corner of the pool!!!  Unbelievable - it was still here and I was watching it!  I was stunned!  Earthy grey brown above with distinct lemon wash to the supercilium and the flanks.  The excitement was quite overwhelming and I was thinking, 'I'm the only person here watching in the rain, but there are other people who also really want to see this bird too'.  No mobile reception in the hide so I had to venture into the deluge and try and call people - no reply from anyone.  I rang RBA, and no-one answered so I just left a shaky phone message on their answerphone. I left my number so they could contact me.  I then went back to watching the bird - what if it disappeared never to be seen again?  I'd have been left with a few fleeting images which would be so frustrating.  Anyhow, thankfully the bird was still there, and with my brolly up to protect my scope, I was able to keep tracks on the waterthrush's movements.  I made a few very shaky outline sketches that didn't do justice to the bird (the painting below was completed much later), but the rest of it was done at the time. After what seemed like an eternity (it was only 20 minutes), the first of six birders arrived to see it before darkness fell, thrilled to bits!  Clearly the message had gone out on the pagers.

Busy

I've spent the past few weeks producing the five paintings below, amongst other things...

Above, the 2008 Collared Flycatcher at Portland, Dorset.

Rufous-breasted Accentor at Khumjung, Nepal, Nov 2009.

Short-eared Owl roost in Suffolk

Tibetan Snowcocks below Thorung La Pass, Annapurna, Nepal 2008

Swifts over Thetford Station.

August sketches...

Past weeks

It has been a busy time these past few weeks and I haven't been doing that much birding, although I have done quite a lot of painting.  This past week though, I just had to go down to the Isles of Scilly!  I will be updating the blog again very soon with latest artworks, so please have a look again in a few days.  In the meantime here is the cover of the latest BTO Wetland Bird Survey report for which I have painted the cover picture.  It is based on some Goosander I painted on Lake D at the Nunnery Lakes last December.