So far during the 2008 season we have seen an excellent range of wildlife on the walks. The birding the highlight being a'purple patch'at the end of April where we saw Pallid Swift from Southern Europe on St Agnes on the 28th, found a Lesser Yellowlegs from North America at Porth Hellick on 30th and to cap it all found three Bee-eaters on St Martins the next day. Migrant birds continued to appear throughout the spring, some taking a liking to the islands and staying to breed. So we were able to see the first breeding Common Sandpipers as well as more Wheatear and Meadow Pipit pairs than have been seen on Scilly for many years.

The mid summer weather was pretty much the same as last year with a promising start followed by more than our fair share of wet and windy weather. Thankfully it came late enough not to affect our breeding land birds too badly with youngsters seen and heard on all islands. Some of the seabirds such as the Kittiwakes have not done so well, a pattern very similar to that seen in recent years. However the Common Terns have raised young for the first time in two years and are now feeding up prior to their departure for their African wintering grounds.

The damp summer has meant that many flowers are still in bloom with some of the spring species such as Bermuda Buttercup still being found. The Southern Marsh Orchids on the Lower Moors Trail have also done well and were seen on my St Mary’s walk during July.

By late July and into August many more Sandwich Terns were feeding in the shallow seas between the islands whilst on the freshwater pools Wood, Green and Common Sandpipers have been seen. Windy weather at the end of July brought good numbers of Cory’s Shearwaters close to the islands so that we could see them well from Horse Point on St Agnes. The irruption of Crossbills on the mainland has been seen here, where we have seen this pine loving specialist on Tresco and St Mary’s.

We have seen a trickle of Clouded Yellow Butterflies along with the more usual Red Admiral and Peacocks but dragonflies have been hard to find so far as I have only seen one Common Darter and a lone Migrant Hawker.

In the next few weeks we should begin to see some of the smaller birds such as flycatchers, warblers and chats passing through the islands on their way south and will be looking for the first of the Autumn Ladies Tresses orchids in bloom.

I am planning to continue my walks through into the second week of October, although I have a group from the Travelling Naturalist between 27thSeptember and 4^thOctober.