Another Scilly Sojourn, Pt.2 - 17th to 18th March, 2016

This is the second part of my report on our 2016 visit to the Scilly Isles. The first part can be found here.

Thursday 17th March

Today, the girls were booked in for a craft workshop in Old Town. After breakfast Roger departed for a birding session on some other part of the island whilst I spent most of the morning on Littleporth beach. I found that, if I sat very still and quietly amongst the rocks of Little Carn, the birds eventually came to me. I got some of my best photos of the trip that day, particularly of the Black Redstarts.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Littleporth beach

Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba ssp. yarrellii) - Littleporth beach

We were seeing quite a lot of Chiffchaffs in shrubby areas on the island, but the following bird seemed a little out of place on a beach and was messing about almost on the ground. It seems to have reddish legs, so I wonder if it was a Willow Warbler? Through feedback (thank you!), I can now say with some confidence that this was a Willow Warbler.

Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) - Littleporth Beach

Of course, I couldn't resist connecting with the wonderful female Stonechat again. In the following images you can clearly see her damaged left foot.

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (female) - Littleporth beach

For the most part, however, I was trying to get better images of the Black Redstart. I'd already got quite a few images of what I believed to be females. The first one is there because it (sort of!) has two Black Redstarts in the same image, and I'm relatively certain I'll never achieve that again!

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) (female) - Littleporth beach

My main focus was, however, on trying to get better images of what I now believed to be 1st summer males - but I'm still not certain! I'm particularly pleased with the last four images, especially the last one.

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) (male?) - Littleporth beach

After my session on the beach, I set off for a walk. I first went round the headland which is Carn Thomas, where there is a lifeboat station, to Porth Mellon. Nothing of interest was seen, so I crossed the road and went on the path which passes the island's rubbish dump. This is a good place for gulls but, as gulls are not really my thing, I didn't take a lot of interest, and continued along the path, ending up at Old Town. Here I made the mistake of deciding to take the path round by Carn Léh, over Peninnis Head, and back along the west side to Porthcressa and Littleporth. The mistake was that I'd said I would be back for lunch by 13h30 and I didn't set off on this leg until about 13h00!

Carn Léh is a spectacular rocky peninsular that juts out into Old Town Bay.

Carn Léh - St. Mary's

By the carn, I stopped to photograph the beautiful white flowers that we were seeing all over the island. I subsequently found out that these were known as Three-cornered Leeks as they were part of the Allium family, with triangular section flower stems.

Three-cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum) - by Carn Léh

Being in a bit of a hurry, I didn't take any more photos of interest but, at one point, small birds all took to the air and a raptor briefly appeared overhead from behind the drystone wall beside me and disappeared again, back over the wall, in 3 or 4 seconds. From the brief glimpse I had I thought it could have been a young Merlin.

As I was now only 5 minutes late, I stopped to take a few photos on the Littleporth sea wall as I approached base. Here's a couple.

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) (male?) - Littleporth

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)  - Littleporth

That afternoon, Lindsay and I took a walk locally. Most of the rubbish generated in the Scillies is exported to the mainland for disposal. This entails the use of vessels a bit like oversized landing-craft, and an interesting way of loading them from the beach, opposite the refuse disposal centre. The boardway over the sand is not a permanent feature, and is laid by a team of workers each time a boat is to be loaded.

Refuse disposal - Scillies-style!

After our walk, we returned to base and I found the Little Egret was a bit more visible than on previous sightings.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - Littleporth

That night we ate out at The Scillonian Club. The food was delicious and the service was good, but the portions were ridiculously large. The fries I had on my plate would have been more than enough for four people! Similarly, Roger's peas would have sufficed for all four of us. The prices were, however, extremely reasonable (and still would have been even if they were for reasonably sized portions), so we agreed that we'd all come back there on our last night.

Friday 18th March

We all had a relatively late start this day, and just pottered around for part of the morning. The place we were staying in had attractive gardens, front and rear, which largely featured plants which it would be nigh on impossible to grow on most of the UK mainland. Here's a small part of the rear (seaward) garden.

Garden -  Littleporth

I spent half an hour on the beach with Lindsay, and managed a few more photos.

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) (male?) - Littleporth beach

Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) - Littleporth beach

Having put together a picnic lunch, Lindsay and I set off for Old Town, via Buzza Tower. We then walked through Old Town churchyard, and on to Carn Léh, where we sat on the seat at the foot of the carn and had our lunch in total isolation. As we left to head towards Peninnis Head, I noticed a Little Egret fly in behind the carn. I went back to see if I could find it and, round the back of the tarn, on the seaward side, I noticed a heart-shape up on the rocks. I just hope this was in celebration of happiness.

on Carn Léh

A little further on, the Egret suddenly appeared, flying towards the airport side of Old Town Bay. For some reason I found myself being surprised at the distance between its legs!

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) -Old Town Bay

One of the attractions of Peninnis Head is the amazing rock formations to be found there. Here are a few examples (the second and third images are of the same formation from different angles) :-

Rocks on Peninnis Head

Not all the rocks, however, have been naturally placed!

Standing Stones - Peninnis Head

Hidden away behind the lighthouse I was disturbed to see a trap that had been set. It was baited with a large dead chick (no idea what it was). I reported this to the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust who have stewardship of the head, and who had no knowledge of this. They subsequently contacted me to say that they had investigated and found that it was set to try and catch an escaped albino Skunk! The owner was informed by the police that, in future, the trap could only be set if he was there to observe it.

There were a few Rock Pipit up here too.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Peninnis Head

From the lighthouse, we made our way to the seaward end of King Edward's Road, but turned left in order to stay on the head and skirt round the western side. Immediately we started seeing (and hearing!) Wren. I've never seen so many Wrens in such a short distance!

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)  - Peninnis Head

A little further on, Wren gave way to a couple of male Stonechats.

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (male) -Peninnis Head

It was while watching the Stonechat, which happened to be at exactly the same place as I'd seen the possible Merlin the previous day, that the bird suddenly appeared again! It was at almost exactly the same time as the previous day too. Again it was only in view for a few seconds. This time, however, I did manage some record shots which the Islands' leading birdwatcher, Will Wagstaff, subsequently pronounced to be Merlin - my first ever photos of one. It's a pity they weren't better!

Merlin (Falco columbarius) (juvenile?) - Peninnis Head

As we left the head, I photographed a couple of flowers.

Three-cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum) -Peninnis Head

Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris) - Peninnis Head

After coming off the head, as we skirted round the allotments of Porthcressa I got what are possibly my best ever portrait images of Wren. A raised tail would have been nice, however!

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)  -Porthcressa

Late that afternoon I spent some more time watching Littleporth beach and came up with a few more images. The first is not a good one, but it does show the fan of the tail.

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) (female) - Littleporth beach

From the bottom of the garden, I suddenly noticed a male Black Redstart in full breeding plumage at the end of the sea wall, in with a load of junk which had accumulated there. I took a few record shots before it flew out of sight. I tried to find it again, but failed! These were the best I could come up with, taken at a range of 65 metres (measured on Google Earth).

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) (male) - Littleporth beach

 - and that was my last sighting of a breeding plumaged male Black Redstart!

That night we had another splendid meal, prepared by Lynne.

The third (final!) part of my trip report will be in a few days time, and will almost certainly be somewhat shorter than this one. It will also feature a few new birds, not featured in the previous two parts.

Thank you for dropping by.