Cream-coloured Courser

Cream-coloured Courser on St Martin’s, October 2004

I was at Anthorn birding, hoping to find a decent wader. The 1st Cream-coloured Courser in the UK for 20 years was on the Isles of Scilly and I was just hoping the bird would linger another 10 days as I would be on the Island then! Whilst I was scanning the Golden Plovers I got a call from Darren asking me if I want him to book me a seat on the chopper across to Scillies as spaces were running out fast! Hmmmm………..er…….yep!

We headed South to meet up with a mate of Darren’s in the Midlands (Carl). We had a kip before heading to Cornwall with Carl and his wife. We arrived at the Heliport just before 0700hrs. It was an anxious wait before we borded the Helecopter. This was the first time I had ever travelled by Helicopter so I was very nervous! Once we took off, I was still pretty stressed – the chopper was like a big noisy bus, and buses are not supposed to fly! The views as we flew along the Cornish coast, across the see and into the Isles of Scilly were amazing. However I was not relaxed until we had landed again. Once we had landed we took the but to Hughtown and got onto the super fast boat that had been chartered (the guy who set up the charter missed the boat!). We were very swiftly on St Martin’s and marched our way up the path towards the fields that the Cream-coloured Courser had been favouring.

As we turned the corner and looked into the field, there was the Courser actively feeding. This bird was amazing, like no other species I had ever seen. It was very charasmatic as it moved around in a very animated fashion. The bird did not seem particularly worried about all the birders present as it approached pretty close to us at times.

We continued watching the bird for some time and I managed to take a few pictured in between the really heavy downpours! By lunch time it was time to catch the boat back to Hughtown.

Once we were back on St Mary’s we made our way to the Golfcourse where we got some nice views of the two Buff-breasted Sandpipers that were present. These birds showed really well at times and made a nice addition to the experience of the trip. We then made our way along to Pennenis Head to see an adult Short-toed Lark. This bird showed really well at times, the rich rufous tones to the crown suggested that it was of the western sub-species.

We had a look around other areas of the Island before checking into the airport before flying back to Penzance. It was a long journey back home, but it was well worth it! What a result!