Isles of Scilly, 2023 Pt.3 - 27th & 28th September, 2023

This third instalment of my account covers another two days of our recent holiday on the Isles of Scilly. It is a little shorter than my two previous postings, but if I had added a third day it would have been excessively long.

If you missed Pt.1 or Pt.2, you can find them by going to the bottom of this post and then clicking on 'Older Post'. 

Wednesday, 27th September

This day had been forecast for a few days as being one of awful weather due to Storm Agnes, with an official Severe Weather Warning for much of the UK,  including the Isles of Scilly.  The main factor was high winds, but heavy rain was in the mix too.

We woke to fairly strong winds with light rain. However, the wind soon picked up, and the rain became torrential. Some birding folks ventured out in the foul weather and some interesting birds were sighted, but I stayed at base, mainly because I couldn't contemplate going out without my camera, and my camera isn't waterproof. I did take some photos of the Humming-bird Hawk-moth which was now in the conservatory.

Humming-bird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) - from the house - Littleporth

After lunch it started brightening up, although it was still very windy, and so I took the buggy to Old Town and went into Lower Moors.  To my delight, the hide was empty apart from two other people who arrived at the same time as me. The juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper that had relocated from Higher Moors,  presumably to be in a more sheltered location, was immediately spotted and showed well.

Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) - Lower Moors

I spent a while here but it started getting crowded in the hide, so I departed, heading for Carreg Dhu Garden as this beautiful garden is in a sheltered long-disused quarry and often used by sheltering small birds, such as Firecrest. I found butterflies and two Humming-bird Hawk-moths, but no birds to photograph. 

Humming-bird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) -Carreg Dhu Garden

I next moved on to Higher Moors and, on entering Sussex Hide, found the unprecedented sight of  eleven Greenshank together. I have only ever seen single Greenshank.

Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) - Porthellick Pool

Little else was happening here, so I moved on to Seaward Hide, where only Mallards were visible. I sat out a heavy shower of rain then went along to Porthellick beach. Here there were lots of House Sparrows and three Turnstone.

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) - Porthellick Beach

What was more interesting to me, however, was the several stranded 'jellyfish'. These varied considerably in size from maybe 3 cm to 15 cm across. Some seemed to be absolutely crystal-clear, but a couple seen had a circular ring of a pinkish colour. I did not know what species these were, but an image I posted of the second one was was subsequently identified by the excellent 'Scilly Wildlife News' WhatsApp group as Crystal Jelly. This very attractive and bioluminescent animal is not an actual jellyfish but classed as a hydrozoan. It is, I believe, quite a rarity in UK but there were numerous sightings being reported in the south-west of UK at this time. According to an on-line article, "The species is typically found off the west coast of North America, identified from the Bering Sea to southern California. It’s particularly common in Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of Washington." I must say that I find this hard to believe!

Crystal Jelly (Aequorea victoria) - Porthellick Beach

I dropped back into the hides on Porthhellick Pool. At Sussex Hide, the Greenshank were still there, but put up by an arriving Grey Heron. This seemed to have prey, which looked rather like a small rodent, in its bill. I couldn't see clearly as this shot was of it at the seaward end of the pool.

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) with prey - Porthellick Pool

The Greenshank soon settled back again and seemed quite relaxed.

Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) - Porthellick Pool

Other than these, the only other notable sightings were a pair of Snipe in the distance, kindly pointed out by Julian Branscome, a member of the superb Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.

It was now time to head back to base.

Apart from a shopping trip to the Co-op, the evening was spent relaxing and writing up notes.

I'd been expecting the day to be a total washout,  but it was far from that.

Thursday, 28th September

The weather forecast indicated that a relatively dull morning would develop into a rather wet afternoon.  The girls decided that they'd like another attempt at collecting sea-glass on Treasure Beach (Porth Minick),  so I got Melanie to drop me off at the entrance to Higher Moors. The plan was that I'd see what was going on at Porthellick Pool and Beach, and then walk over Sallakee Down, past the airport turning circle, and meet them at Treasure Beach.

I saw absolutely nothing of interest until just before the airport turning circle, where I got some shots of a female Stonechat.

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) (female) - by Airport Turning Circle

Between the airport turning circle and Porth Minick, I spotted a Kestrel. My previous sighting of a Kestrel on the Isles of Scilly was on 14th March, 2020 when some photos I took turned out to be the confirming photos for Lesser Kestrel - a 'mega' that had previously been reported as a 'very interesting looking Kestrel on Porthellick Down' with a request for photos.

I had no such luck this time!

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) (female)

I arrived at Treasure Beach before the girls had departed from base, so had a brief look around. All I found of interest was something that looked like a tiered lump of jelly, but again was subsequently identified by the 'Scilly Wildlife News' WhatsApp group as being a Beadlet Anemone. It seems that it would have been a real treat to see this animal in shallow water with its tentacles open.

Beadlet Anemone (Actinia equina) - Porth Minick

As the girls had not appeared, I made a quick visit to Lower Moors, but saw nothing of any interest. I then hurried back to Porth Minick and found the girls had already got there. I spent a little while with them, but was concerned that I was going to get caught out by the forecast heavy rain, there being only room for the four girls on the buggy, so I set off to return to base.

I stopped briefly for a comfort stop by Old Town Cafe, and noticed that the forecast had moderated, with the rain now coming in later. I changed my plan and took the path round Old Town Bay towards Carn Lêh, getting some shots of a large and wonderful Hornet Hoverfly which, unusually, settled.

Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) (female) - near Carn Lêh

I went up onto Peninnis, seeing little of interest. 

As I descended the west Peninnis path a Grey Heron passed by, but the shots were binned. I was surprised to see some 'wild swimmers' who seemed to be launching themselves from what appeared to be a relatively inaccessible location, not far from Peninnis Head. 

Wild Swimmers - Peninnis

By the allotments I stopped by some Ivy where there were many Ivy Bees.

Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) - by Porthcressa Allotments

After a late lunch, we all went out to Carn Vean Cafe where we sat outside and enjoyed tea and cake. I was happy to be reunited with their fabulously succulent 'Jaffa Cake'. Because of the forecast rain, I'd left my now normal (non-waterproof) camera set up back at base and taken my old Nikon D7200 body with an old Tamron 28-300 lens (my only back-up equipment these days) with me. I found myself struggling to remember how to use this kit, but did manage some photos of the House Sparrows that wanted us to share our cakes with them. One even had the cheek to read the menu.

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) - Carn Vean Cafe

While we waited for Melanie to return with the buggy (it needed two trips to transport five of us in a four-seater) I took Lindsay part-way down the path from Carn Vean Cafe to show her the views over to Toll's Island and the Eastern Isles. Toll's Island can be accessed on foot at low tide, but the tide was in on this occasion.

View to Toll's Island from Carn Vean

View to the Eastern Isles from Carn Vean

We got back to base just in time to avoid the rain.

The evening was spent, as usual, catching up with notes, making plans, etc.

 

My next blog post, if all goes according to plan, will feature the next day of our stay, and will be a little different. 

In the meantime, pleased take good care of yourselves and Nature. Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard