Early June had turned in to a tsunami of excellent rarities and so the appearance of something just as mega as last week's Lundy warbler wasn't entirely a surprise, even if the species was.
On the 14th June a non-birder photographed a large raptor on St Marys, Isles of Scilly, which was quickly confirmed to be an adult Egyptian Vulture. Shortly afterwards it was found on Tresco and provided the sort of views and experience that birder dream of for those fortunate enough to be on the islands that day. The photos were truly gripping.
Thoughts of escape likelihood on reintroduction offspring were quickly rebutted, this bird very much seems to be the real deal. It was an un-rung adult and the date fitted neatly with a handful of other recent northern European records.
Most definitely twitch on, and I managed to bag Malc and I two spaces on a charter boat from Penzance at 8am the next morning. We were joined by Mark Sutton and Simon Slade for the overnight drive.
The bird hadn't been seen since mid afternoon but seemed likely to be around and there were very few people looking, so we were hopeful.
Two boatloads gathered on Penzance quayside, and were naturally delighted when news came through that the bird was present again on Tresco, visible distantly from St Mary's. Game on and another boat trip.
The boats set-off bang on cue at 8am and we sped across the Atlantic. Shearwaters, auks and dolphins were seen but largely ignored. Messages continued to come through that the vulture was still sat. We were due to arrive directly on Tresco around 9.30. Then at 08.55 the disastrous news that the bird was no longer in the tree, possibly flushed by the first arriving helicopter of the day. Never mind, it was around and we were almost there. Plenty of hope.
As we approached Scilly we had been scanning, but of course it's impossible to do so from a speeding boat. Then after we'd slowed to ease in to the quay, a shout from the other boat. It was back in the tree!!! A white blob was visible, surely that was it....
Except it wasn't. A white branch at an annoying angle. And so the game began, half-baked non-birder sightings and complete string led us a dance all day. Hope repeatedly offered then once again dashed. But the long and the short of it was that we didn't see it. Even the morning's sighting was cast in to doubt for a while, but the distant photos do seem to show it really was there.
We probably missed it by under an hour. A bewildering dip. Where did it go? How on earth did it slip out without being noticed. A great bird in a beautiful location missed by a whisker.
We could have done no more to get there, but the ping pong of supposed sightings meant this was a harder one than normal to take. It's definitely the hope that gets you and the journey home was a long one. Unlike Simon, I could at least console myself with last week's successful trip to Lundy, he and plenty of other people dipped both.
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| Two high speed boats departed from Penzance, the Falcon and the Raptor. We were on the latter, but it proved to be our only raptor of the day sadly. |
As a footnote, just a few years ago the idea that vultures could appear in the UK seemed fanciful. The increased number of Griffin vulture records in Northern Europe in recent years has suggested that this species might get here eventually, but other species are much rarer. It's remarkable then that in no time at all we have seen two Lammergeiers and an Egyptian Vulture appear. Hopefully more of these superb beasts are yet to come.
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