With the annual family holiday on Scilly approaching, and with Friday an inset day at school, we were free to head off to Cornwall earlier than usual. News of a Scarlet Tanager near Porthcurno broke on Thursday night, persuading me to bundle the family in the car in the hope of hastening our arrival in West Penwith the following morning. We made it as far as Okehampton before crashing in the nearest Chavelodge, and en route to St Levan the next morning the pager confirmed that the bird was still present.
Arriving at 11:00, it was seen once more in flight by a single observer about 100 yards from where the bulk of the crowd (including me) were standing before vanishing completely. This Robin was one of the few birds present, and I felt slightly mocked by its muted, melancholy sub-song. I hung around until 17:00 when my bored, tired children demanded a change of scene. Shortly after I left the pager reported - erroneously as it turned out - that the bird was still present, at which point I didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
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| Tanager food. But no Tanager. |
I returned on Saturday morning just in case and spent another three hours looking at the empty pear tree and elms where the bird had been seen the previous day but to no avail. On the way back to pick up the rest of the family, a scrambled pager message appeared in which I could just make out the gist of 'Sc8rlet Tan&ger'. A bout of cursing ensued until a follow up message revealed that this one was on the Isles of Scilly - where we were heading in a couple of hours time. Hope renewed, we touched down at 14:45 and I was on site by 15:00, only to find that the bird had not been seen since just after 14:00. It was not seen again.
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