Bobolink – Great Pool and Fraggle Rock Café, Bryher, Isles of Scilly, 15^th October 1996

Again, as had happened before, when this bird turned up on St. Marys on the 7th October 1996, I couldn’t help but start to anticipate this addition. Prematurely – but inevitably. Even as it moved from island to island I remained quietly optimistic. However, it unfortunately disappeared, or at least it did so until about 15:00 on Monday the 14th October, when news of it came over on the C.B., as we (Gilly - my ex- and I - just for clarity.....) were looking for the Red-eyed Vireo at Lower Moors on St. Marys. The news was that it was on Bryher. I was all for going for it, but it was suggested by the owner of the C.B. that there wouldn’t be any more boats. As the resultant pager message indicated that the bird had also been seen on the previous day as well, I became more optimistic again.

However, this mood plummeted when I later found out from Janine Cleary that Paul Pugh had gone to Bryher, once they had returned from St. Agnes, and plunged even further when I found out from Paul that the thing had been kicked a few times once it had gone to roost. I could have got there and now it might have gone.

Despite a heavy night Gilly and I managed to make it to Bryher on the first boat the following morning. However, circumstances were less than promising as it was windy and showery. As a result, it was a choppy crossing, so we were both very wet on arrival. We yomped across the island to the Great Pool area were the consensus was that the bird had last been seen in a patch of bramble and bracken on the west side of the pool. This was promptly surrounded and eventually the bird was sighted. However, it was not impressed by the audience, and flew over part of the assembly to the dunes behind Great Popplestones Bay, initially in the company of a Greenfinch, and not the following six Greenfinches, as was suggested by others birders.

Here, in the frenzy, it was flushed on three more occasions, giving further brief flight views. These were even less satisfactory due to my waterlogged bins, but at least I had heard it call, unlike most others there. Eventually, it flew to a hillside to the west of the Chapel. Gilly and I decided to walk towards it in an around about way, and made our way past the fields, leaving behind most of the other birders, many of whom failed to even follow it. As we made our way there, we saw someone in the distance moving across the hillside towards where the bird had disappeared.

Was he a birder? I was convinced he was going to flush it and shortly afterwards something flew over us towards the Fraggle Rock Cafe area – calling. It was it!

Working entirely on intuition, we followed it over the horizon where I found a rank grass field. Ideal!

After some ‘debate’ we settled down to watch over the field. I was convinced that the bird was in there.

Some ten or so minutes later I picked it out amongst the sparrows at the other end of the field, and got it in the ‘scope. Unfortunately, Gilly lost then it. Small groups of other birders were now nearby and although I had suggested to Gilly that we wouldn’t bring them over until we had good views, I did beckon two over.

We told them that we had it in the field, and then Gilly redeemed herself and re-located it on a fence in the field. We got one of the other two birders on it but after an all too brief period it flew off again over the Fraggle Rock Cafe.

Wow! We’d had a rarity all to ourselves.

In flight it looked fairly long-winged and bulky, with apparently lemon yellow under-tail coverts and throat. The call was a short, soft “pink”.

During the brief views, the highly striped upperparts, the lightly streaked underparts and the broadly striped head were seen.

The field where, fantastically, we were able to relocate the Bobolink.

Bobolink, Bryher, Scilly, October 1996 (photographer unknown).