So says John Lee in Bonkers Birding, his fast-paced and entertaining book about an activity that has kept him enthralled for most of his life
In several visits to the isles, he has seen many great species, but this location now appears to be dropping off his radar.
In a paragraph that won't best please the tourist board, he writes: "I am sad to say that October on Scilly now seems to be very much in decline.
"It has become ridiculously expensive to get and stay there. For the cost of a week's holiday, you could easily go abroad for half the price.
"I think many birders are now opting for the Continent or the States instead. It all just feels like a rip-off."
Lee is Head of International Security at the European Investment Bank, based in Luxembourg, but he grew up, one of two sons of a GP in Castleton, Derbyshire, and studied English at Aberdeen University.
His varied career has also included spells as an inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police and at the Britannia Building Society prior to its takeover by the Co-op.
He is a dedicated fan of Sheffield United FC, but birding is his chief passion, and his book describes the highs (and a few lows) along the way.
There are fascinating accounts of the exotic birds he has seen on holidays in, among other places, Cuba, Spain and The Canaries, but the strength of his writing is in its humour and his refreshing readiness to be controversial where he feels it is appropriate. It is a book with 'attitude'.
For example, he was not impressed with the hospitality, he encountered at the "much-vaunted" Finca Santa Marta hotel in Spain's Extremadura region when he and his brother, Tom, turned up, "ravenously hungry", only to be told no food was available.
"What kind of establishment allows their paying guests to turn up mid-evening without giving them the opportunity to book a meal? It was as if they just did not give a damn."
They found a restaurant nearby, but the next day were charged 12 euros each for a pack-up lunch they had to make themselves from what was left of the buffet breakfast
Continues Lee: "The one breakfast we had was average, our room was not that clean and the customer service was poor."
Critics of Lee's approach will probably pinpoint his 'consumerist' approach to birding. He is an out-and-out twitcher, with a huge carbon footprint.
This is reflected in the section on his quest - in the company of hundreds more twitchers - to glimpse a thick-billed warbler at a particular site on Shetland.
"The assembled throng panicked and charged en masse towards the area - it was like being in a herd of stampeding wildebeest."
There is no indication that the author has given anything back to the hobby or that he has much concern at how bird populations are being decimated both in the UK and overseas.
The sole exception comes in his reference to the cirl bunting of which he writes:
"Cirl buntings are very much confined to Devon in England, but they should be far more widespread.
"In Italy and Spain, you can see them all over the place, but their range in the UK has contracted hugely.It just shows how intensive farming and probably climate change has impacted the British countryside.
"It is a shame because cirl buntings are beautiful birds and our countryside deserves them as part of it."
But there is no questioning his appreciation of birds as in his description of the peduline tit he saw in Stodmarsh (after first pleading with a "gobby" birder nearby to pipe down).
"It was a. cracking male on a reed mace, feeding away in glorious sunlight. A little-orange coated highwayman complete with a black robber's mask - a miniscule Dick Turpin in feathers."
Bonkers Birding is published in paperback at £8.99 by Brambleby Books (www.bramblebybooks.co.uk)
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