CASPIAN STONECHAT on Scilly

A first-winter male CASPIAN STONECHAT has been present on St Agnes (Scilly) since Monday, showing well in St Warna's Cove. It represents only the 4th record for Britain and the first since the male at Virkie (Shetland) on 7th May 2006. The British Birding Association now recognises four species of stonechat on the British List - Caspian, Siberian, Stejneger's and Common.

Today, Chris Heard and I succeeded in our goal of seeing all four species of Stonechat in Britain, the bird affording fabulous views in the sunshine. I took well over 300 photographs of it, a small selection being reproduced here. It was not as well marked in the tail as we had expected, so was most likely a western individual, most likely from Turkey, Georgia or Armenia...