Scilly Autumn 2024

When I visited Scilly in April just a few months ago, I decided that this would be the year that I visit the islands in autumn.

While I have visited Scilly every year of my life, the time we generally go as a family falls in the summer, seeing as this was when we had the longest school holidays as kids. Our strong family connection to the islands meant I fell in love with the place at a young age, and yet I was largely unaware of Scilly's global status as a birdwatching hotspot. As I grew older and became more and more interested in British birdwatching, it became obvious through national bird news alerts and the annual publication of the Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review that the islands were the place to be in autumn. As such, over the last 10 years or so I have been determined to make it to The Scillies during the autumn birdwatching season.

Scilly’s geographic position 30 miles off Land's End makes it one of the UK's hotspots for drawing in American species blown off course during their migrations across the Atlantic, as well as north-eastern Siberian and Scandinavian species that bottleneck down through the British Isles towards the archipelago. Mix these with the more regular migrating species that use Scilly as a stop-off between their breeding and wintering grounds, and the islands make for a hugely diverse bird haven during the autumn. As a result, Scilly has become somewhat of a mecca for birdwatchers since the mid-20th Century.

My trip started with a reasonably rough (but thankfully dry) crossing on The Scillonian III, where I caught up with a few classic seabirds including manx shearwaters, gannets and shags. When I arrived, I was keen to see some black redstarts, which are beautiful little birds that, despite being relatively common in Scilly during the winter months, I had never seen on the islands before due normally visiting in the summer. Throughout the week, I would become very familiar with this species, which flock in small groups and feed busily on rocky beaches and working boatyards.

Over the next couple of days, I visited the two islands of Bryher and Tresco, which were holding on to a number of species which I had never seen before on the islands. The highlight of these was the very confiding dotterel on the heathy north-end of Bryher. This is a bird in the plover family which can be found breeding during the summer in the Scottish Highlands, before returning to their wintering grounds in Southern Europe and North Africa. Dotterels are often known to act very tamely, and the one on Bryher did not buck this trend, happily roosting within just a couple of feet of the regularly-used footpath!

One of my main take-aways from visiting Scilly at this time of year was that the community of visiting and local birders were friendly, welcoming and helpful. I was slightly nervous about this, as it's not long ago that you hear bad stories of highly competitive birdwatching, leading to tendencies of grumpiness and deceit within birding communities! However, this couldn't be further from what I experienced this week. Walking along beaches, footpaths and heathland would often lead to bumping into other birdwatchers, bringing with it the familiar and often repeated phrase of "Seen anything good today?". Others birding on the islands were always willing to share news of exciting sightings, help with directions, and generally collaborate to try and experience the best of the wildlife that an autumnal Scilly has to offer. On top of this, a bird log is held at the locals' Scillonian Club every evening, where members of the Isles of Scilly Bird Group record every bird species seen by visiting and resident birders on the islands, and generally gives a great opportunity to meet other birders over a beer. It was at the bird log that I met Jim, who organises the bird ringing on St Mary's, and I was lucky enough to join for a couple of mornings.

All in all, I ended my trip with 96 bird species seen, including 24 new personal species for Scilly and 4 new species globally (full eBird trip report found here)! I cannot recommend Scilly in the autumn enough for anyone who enjoys birdwatching, and I am already keen to book my trip for next year!