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The Isles of Scilly 2009Posted at 5:25 PM on Sunday, October 18, 2009
Eastern Isles from St Martin's Isles of Scilly 16/10/2009 We've just come back from 4 memorable days on the Isles of Scilly. Not a cloud in the sky it was like being on the Carribean. The first thing we saw when we arrived was a Basking Shark.
Basking Shark Its just a shame there were not many birds the best we saw was a Rose Coloured Starling which I'd seen twice before.
Rose Coloured Starling They are not very Rosy this time of year, just another little brown job!!
Rose Coloured Starling It's the second year on the trot that I haven't had a life tick on the Scillies. I did get 8 year ticks though Merlin, Sooty Shearwater, Bonxie (Great Skua), Hen Harrier, Rock Pipit, Firecrest, Spoonbill & Rose Coloured Starling. This brings my annual total upto 197 for the year. There were 2 life ticks around though (Red-throated Pipit & Radde's Warbler) we tried for them but didn't see either. There was a Red-throated Pipit on St Martin's which we went to try to see on Tuesday. We spent many an hour looking but had no luck. We did see Minke Whale, Rossi's & Common Dolphins & Harbour Porpoises though and Sooty Shearwater, Bonxie, Redstart and Hen Harrier while we were there. It was acually quite a "magic" day.
The boat to St Martin's
What Red-throated Pipit!!!!! The only Pipits we saw were Meadow and there was no shortage of them.
Meadow Pipits We actually spent 2 days on St Martins as a Radde's Warbler was there on Thursday. It had been seen first thing but didn't show again that day. I think it's been seen there since though. There was another Radde's Warbler seen on St Mary's later that day which we went for but all we saw when we got there was birders walking around aimlessly. We had nothing better to do so we joined them for a while. For the past few years there's been a white Coloured Blackbird at Morning Point on the Garrison on St Mary's we'd never caught up with it before but we seen it this time.
"White" Blackbird
"White" Blackbird I managed to get a few more photos of birds, they do tend to pose for you on the Scillies
Whooper Swans there were 10 on Porth Hellick pool
Whooper Swan
Wheatear we saw about 8 of these.
Stonechat these were all over the place
Oystercatchers everywhere you looked
Mediterranean Gull in Porth Cressa
Kestrel by the Golf Course
Greenshank Porth Hellick Pool
Bar-tailed Godwits on Porthloo beach, the left one still in summer plummage
Where have all the House Sparrows gone? to the Isles of Scilly if you ask me!!
House Sparrows taking a dust bath We don't only find birds on the Scillies these 2 Stick Insects were in Old Town Church Yard
Stick Insect
Stick Insect A few birding spots on St Mary's
Porth Cressa we saw the Merlin here
This is known to birders as "The Dump Clump" it's a bit of a wood by the Rubbish Dump. We've seen Red-breasted Flycatcher here in the past
Holy Vale good for Firecrests "so they say"
Giants Castle noted for Snow Bunting, the only thing we've seen here is a Rock Pipit. Well I just had to go and see my walls didn't I.
Harry's Walls
The view from Harry's Walls
The Scilly Ambulance
Finally Longstones Cafe we're always Knackered when we reach here. They are noted for keeping "Exotic" species of moth in the fridge (rare ones which have landed on Scilly. Well that about sums it up other than to mention all the Butterflies we saw Large and Green viened White, Speckled Wood, Peacock, Small Copper, Red Admiral and Painted Lady we did think we had seen a real rarity it looked like a Painted Lady Mainly Orange with Black winged tips but it had white eyes on it's wings. The concensus was that it was a Painted Lady abbarition. Well we may not have had any Life Ticks but we a had a truly marvellous 4 days good digs at the Lionnesse full of friendly birders with good banter or should I say "Piss taking" The Isles of Scilly are wonderful, the weather was ecceptional (hence no birds). The only thing that spoiled it was the journey there and back which was horrendous 3 times the M5 was closed in front of us. We did finally arrive home safe & sound completely exhausted.
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