Great Blue Heron on Scilly

Back in the day, Great Blue Heron was one of the few ‘firsts’ I thought I had a chance of finding on the Somerset Levels, but it was not to be. I had a bit of a scare, to say the least, when I arrived back from Arizona in early December 2007 and the first pager message I saw was ‘Scilly: No sign of the Great Blue Heron’, but everyone else had missed it too. Roll on, then, to April 2015…

News broke in the evening of Tuesday the 14th of Ashley Fisher’s find at Lower Moors. Two British records of GBH and he’s found both of them, in exactly the same place! What are the odds on that? I headed down overnight with Paul C, Bill Urwin, and Dave Gibbs. Skybus flights were fogbound, so everyone piled on to the Scillonian. News that the bird was still present in Old Town Bay came through early, but we would have to hope that the bird stuck until we got there early afternoon.

It didn’t. Nor was anyone sure which way it had headed into the fog. Lower Moors was an obvious focal point, but a few Grey Herons were collecting along the shore towards Carn Morval, so that area got heavily checked too. In all the to-ing and fro-ing, I got detached from the rest of my crew – usually a bad move, but ironically it worked out this time. When the bird was relocated at Holy Vale, Paul, Bill, and Dave were by Old Town Café, and I was still out on Lower Moors somewhere. They were quickly in a taxi with Franko, while I legged it back to the cafe with Jumbo and we managed somehow to blag a lift. The very quickest got to see the heron on the deck (Dan Pointon and Chris Batty among them), but it soon disappeared again. Franko diverted the taxi with the rest of my crew in it somewhere else in the hope of getting in the way of it. Meanwhile Jumbo and I got dumped at the top of Holy Vale. Discussing our next move with Kev Rylands, we heard a shout from down the hill – the bird was flying our way! It certainly looked good just on size as it flew past us low and quite close heading northwest, and I was assured it was the GBH, but it was still very foggy, and I was disturbed by the amount of white in the carpal patches. I wasn’t the only one, and much discussion ensued among the 20 or so that had seen it.

The bird wasn’t seen again that day, despite much searching, and I was the only one of our crew to have seen it at all (and that with some lingering doubts attached), so we stayed over. The next day was spent searching St Mary’s in vain, though I was with Dave when he found a Wryneck in Old Town churchyard, so that was a small bonus. Opinions varied about stopping over again, but I knew I had to leave. It was my Mum’s birthday the next day, and I had promised to be in Northumberland for a family meal out. In the end we all got on the Scillonian, only for the news to break as we were arriving back in Penzance that the heron had been relocated late afternoon on Bryher. Cue much swearing!

Great Blue Heron, Big Pool, Bryher
(Photo: Mark Dowie)

Paul drove back up to Somerset and dropped the rest of us off home, before heading back down to Penzance and scoring the next day. Bill and Dave went back on the Saturday and also scored. Meanwhile I drove up to Northumberland, and I am so glad I did, as it turned out to be Mum’s last birthday. As more photos appeared, I was also much happier that it was indeed the GBH that I had seen on the 15th, so I relaxed and enjoyed the weekend with the family, but I did want to see it better if possible.

In amongst all this, I had had to put off the MoT on my car to the Tuesday, and booked a return trip to Scilly for the Wednesday. Then late afternoon on Tuesday it became clear my car would not be ready – cue a manic dash to sort out a hire car. Phew, sorted!

The Scillonian was busy with birders the next morning. I chatted to Viv Stratton for a while on deck, then went below to discuss tactics with Chris Batty (likewise going back for hopefully better seconds) and his crew, and promptly missed a Hoopoe that flew alongside the boat! In recent days the heron had been mostly been on the Big Pool on Bryher, but had been on Tresco the day before, and then this morning we got news that it had been seen once more at Lower Moors on Mary’s but had flown off north again. Chris and co. decided on Tresco as the best percentage shot; I agreed and tagged along. No joy on either Great or Abbey Pools, but then news that it was back on Bryher! It was spring tides and at low water it was almost possible to walk across to Bryher from New Grimsby. Almost. When Stu Piner was chest-deep and still not halfway, we knew that wasn’t going to work (especially for Chris). We needed a boat, and pronto!

Great Blue Heron, Big Pool, Bryher (Photo: Mark Dowie)

I had the phone number for the jetboat Falcon – the tide was too low for that to pick us up, but the mailboat could ferry us over in about 10 minutes for £2 a head – would that do? Just a bit! The run from Annekie to the Big Pool was thankfully short, as was the wait for the bird to walk into view. At that point it was only us, Higgo, and a couple of others there, and the Great Blue Heron treated us to excellent scope views.

Meanwhile, things had got a bit messy on Mary’s – there wasn’t a lot of time for the birders there to get over to Bryher, see the bird, and get back in time for the Scillonian. Quite a lot tried, and the tales of beach landings on the outside of Bryher are entertaining in themselves. (I've done it before - it's fun!) Thankfully they scored, though some had very little time on the bird. Some decided against, however, and had to bear going back to Penzance empty-handed, while others celebrated. I hope they managed to get back another day and see it, though in some cases I’m pretty sure not – a mainland one would go down very well. I still regularly check the Grey Herons I see on the Somerset Levels, just in case.