A Scillies Tick?

Sometimes all things are not as they seem.

Earlier this week a little after we landed on St Marys in the Isles of Scilly we visited Little Porth. Here on the white sand and in the bright sunshine feeding on the tideline was an Ortolan Bunting. This was a young bird having a hard time despite the photo below indicating otherwise. The poor chap was infested with several ticks that were surely debilitating his ability to survive. He was around for a few days before disappearing; perhaps succumbing to a predator or the weather. I like to think otherwise. I decided in my mind he made a recovery and managed to head south onto the continent where he’ll grow up into an adult bird.

Speak to some of the old timers on Scillies and they will tell you of flocks of Ortolan’s in days past. Sadly no longer is this the case and we have to be satisfied with ones and twos. Maybe that will change and the Ortolan we saw on Scillies will do his bit in procreating the populations of the future. I hope so.