Wizard of a bird

The second trip to Scillies this Autumn meant a bit of a rejigging of sailing days to beat Storm ‘Callum’. Boats and planes after our revised sailing were being cancelled. We made it before the bad weather hit … by half a day. While the sun was still out on our first evening we were treated to an absolute stunner of a bird. A Merlin sitting on a wall having just fed. It showed well. Probably better than any perched Merlin I’ve seen in half a century of watching birds.

The next day, long after the Merlin had left, the prey item was examined. I suspected it to be a Meadow Pipit. There were a lot about. How wrong could I have been. It was a Jack Snipe!