Tresco

The survey noted that the garrison had recently been increased to 125 men, and presumably these reinforcements were foisted onto the small native population.

Gun platforms were sited on the islands of St Mary's, Tresco and Kew.

The armoury on St Mary's was full of muskets, pikes, armour and gunpowder, even in 1637.

That survey noted, among the artillery pieces, one large mortar, six culverins, 21 demi-culverins, 20 sakers and four minions.

Now that's an impressive array of firepower.

And by 1642, there were 165 soldiers in the garrison.

That small castle on St Mary's had been enlarged into a modern star fort with two more forts on Tresco.

So these and the island batteries ensured that the calm waters of St Mary's Road had been turned into a killing zone.

A

couple of days we did some off islands and I think three or four of us got off the boat to Tresco.

And as you know, Tresco is a very big island with lots of habitat.

So you could wander around the islands and not really see any other birders.

So the chances of finding your own stuff was greatly increased.

But the headline act on Scilly in recent days has been what, David?

I believe you're referring to Sora, of which there's actually been two birds on Scilly, one that's been giving itself up for quite a long time on St. Mary's, and another one popping up on the Great Pool over at Tresco.

So that's a American rail, the most widespread and abundant rail in America.

Pretty common summer visitor across much of Canada and the US.

Is that still

running? It didn't run for a few years and now it's got going again and they built a new heliport in Penzance and it flies to Tresco from Penzance.

So yeah, Isles of Scilly.

We'll post a link on our podcast page.