Isles of Scilly, 2023 Pt.2 - 26th September, 2023

I had, originally, intended to have this second instalment of my account cover another two days of our recent holiday on the Isles of Scilly. I then realised that just this one day would result in a blog post that was more than long enough - sorry folks! 

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

Tuesday, 26th September

In spite of having had a poor night's sleep, I was up relatively early for us - 07.00. I then had a relaxed breakfast, after which, my first job of the day was to go and pick up the buggy that we'd hired for six days from the excellent Scilly Carts, taking Melanie along with me.

 

As there were five of us, I'd booked the hire of a six-seater cart. We trotted off to Scilly Carts, arriving soon after opening time and, after filling in the necessary forms, were headed back to base. I'd been concerned that the abrupt transition from level road and pavement to a steeply sloped drive might be a problem due to the long wheelbase of the low-slung six-seater. On arrival, we carefully tried puting the cart on the drive and found that we only had about 2 cm clearance with just me in the cart. With five of us in, I suspect that it would have grounded. A quick call to Scilly Carts and we were headed back to exchange the cart for a four-seater. This did, of course, mean that our options for travel were slightly limited. This is the cart that we ended up with.

The forecast for the day was for warm, but rather breezy, weather with sunny spells - and this is what it turned out to be.

 

Having missed out on seeing a Wryneck the previous afternoon, I was  determined to have another try. I set off, on foot, along Porthcressa seafront, dipping into Becky's Scilly Cakes  to choose my cake that the girls would pick up later.

I then headed towards the path that runs on the west side of Peninnis to Peninnis Head. As I passed the allotments, I stopped by a large patch of ivy to photograph some of the many Ivy Bees that were enjoying it. Ivy Bees have become very common on the Isles of Scilly.

 

Ivy Bee (Colletes hedera) - Porthcressa Allotments

A couple of Red Admirals were also in attendance.

 

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) - Porthcressa Allotments

I continued along the Peninnis West Path, seeing a few Small Copper butterflies as I went.

 

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) - Peninnis West Path

Before reaching the head, I saw a couple of pipits on a drystone wall. My ID skills are sadly lacking when it comes to pipits, but I reckon the most likely candidate is Meadow Pipit, which is very common in this area.

 

probable Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) - Peninnis

I spent half an hour on Peninnis head at the spot where the Wrynecks had been seen the previous day. No Wryneck was seen, but I did get some shots of a Wheatear - a species that never fails to excite me.

 

Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) (female) - Peninnis

There had been a stiff westerly breeze along the west side of Peninnis and on the head, so I set off down the east side towards Old Town. As I neared the point where the path levels off and passes through the drystone wall, I put up a bird that I'd not noticed, which flew and dropped down into the ground vegetation. It then flew out again and landed on the drystone wall at a distance. My usual modus operandi is to take the photos first and then check for ID.  Through my binoculars, I was not sure of its identity, but when I zoomed in on my photos I found I'd photographed a Wryneck! These are very heavily cropped images.

 

Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) - Peninnis East Path

As I approached Old Town Church I spotted a Speckled Wood butterfly that looked a bit unusual. The Speckled Woods on the Isles of Scilly are a different sub-species to those found on the mainland. The main distinguishing feature is that where the mainland sub-species tircis have pale cream markings, the sub-species insula on the Scillies have markings that are more orange. This particular specimen had much smaller markings than usual. 

 

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria insula) - near Old Town

I continued through Old Town Churchyard, seeing nothing of interest, and walked down the road to Old Town and turned off to Lower Moors.

At the ISBG hide at Lower Moors, there were two Snipe. Again, just distant shots were obtained. I didn't get any shots of the Migrant Hawkers that were sticking to the far side of the pool.

 

Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) - Lower Moors

On the approach to the hide, on the railings as I left, were two Common Darter dragonflies. Here's one of them.

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (male) - Lower Moors

Just along from the ISBG hide I also photographed a Speckled Wood  butterfly.  This was, in appearance, much as I would expect this species to be. I think that you will agree that it looks rather different to the one shown earlier.

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria insula) - near Old Town

I carried on to Rosehill Garden, hoping to find more dragonflies, but only found another Common Darter.

Continuing to Porthloo,  I found a few birds on the beach, including some Pied Wagtails, but only photographed a Rock Pipit. 

 

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Porthloo

 It was now time to get back to base and fix myself a very late lunch. 

That afternoon, Melanie drove me out to the entrance to Higher Moors where I had frustratingly distant views of a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper that blended in so well with the background that I couldn't find it in my viewfinder. I took a few shots with the camera pointing in roughly the right direction and found that I'd actually managed to include the bird in just one of the shots. Here is a very heavily cropped image, from which you can problably understand the difficulty I had.

 

Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) - Porthellick Pool

After about half an hour I lost the bird and gave up as I'd tentatively arranged to meet the girls at Porth Minick beach where they were going to collect sea-glass.

I took the path that goes over Salakee Down, seeing little as I did so. My timing was such that, as I approached the airport runway turning circle,  the sirens started and I had to wait for a plane to taxi up to the circle and turn before taking off.

 

Continuing on my way on the south side  of Salakee Down, the only bird photographed was a Meadow Pipit.

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) -Salakee Down

From the path to Porth Minick, there are views over to Peninnis. I rather liked this view of the nearer rocky coast.

View from Salakee Down

As Porth Minick came into view, I couldn't see the girls there. I was only a few hundred metres from the beach when I got a message to say that they'd turned back because there was little beach showing as the tide was well-in (a spring tide), and were heading for base. I went onto what was left of the beach and found  two Turnstone there. I sat on a rock and waited patiently and soon one of them came close and allowed some relatively intimate photos.

 

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) - Porth Minick

A Rock Pipit was similarly obliging.

 

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Porth Minick

Whilst on the beach, a Coastguard helicopter passed overhead. I tend to be curious about such aircraft, and looked up details of this one from its registration. I was sorry to learn that it had been involved in a fatal accident on 4th March, 2022. When landing at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, the downdraught had blown over an 87 year old woman on a nearby footpath, who sustained a serious head injury. It also injured another woman in her 80s who was exiting her car in a nearby car park, when the downdraught caused the car door to slam on her, breaking her pelvis.

 

Coastguard Sikorsky S-92A - G-MCGY - over Porth Minick

The approach to Old Town from Porth Minick is lined with Amaryllis Belladonna, as are so many places on the islands. I couldn't resist a photo of a flower that, to me, epitomises the flora of the Isles of Scilly. 

 

Amaryllis belladonna - Old Town

A Glossy Ibis had been reported at Lower Moors, but was nowhere to be seen when I got there. I didn't stay long, but took the coastal path past Old Town church to Carn Lêh, where some climbers were busy.

 

Climber on Carn Lêh

On a rock in Carn Lêh Cove there were two Shags and a Herring Gull.

 

Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) + Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)  - Carn Lêh Cove

I then followed the path up onto Peninnis in the hope of a better sighting of Wryneck, but it didn't happen. It was good to see both male and female Stonechat as I was beginning to be concerned that I was not seeing this species on Peninnis - a usually reliable area for this species.

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) (female) - Peninnis

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) (male) - Peninnis

I also took some shots of Dunnock and Meadow Pipit.

 

Dunnock (Prunella modularis) - Peninnis

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) - Peninnis

I walked down King Edward's Road and by Peninnis Farm thought, momentarily, that I'd found a Stock Dove, until it ran towards me, flashing its leg bands! It was a racing pigeon looking to be fed. As I write this, on 18th October, this bird was spotted on 17th October in Porth Mellon. It seems it was supposed to be flying from North Wales to Belfast but got lost on the way, and has decided that it likes the Isles of Scilly - and who can blame it!

Racing Pigeon - Peninnis Farm

Almost back at base, I went onto Littleporth beach to photograph a pair of Turnstone. 

 

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) - Littleporth

It had been a record breaking day for me with my fitness tracker recording 24,087 steps (11.92 miles / 17.58 km). I am rather happy with this achievement as much of it was up-hill and down-dale and over uneven or rough terrain.

That night we were requested to batten down the hatches as winds of up to 55 mph (89 kph) were forecast for the following day, accompanied by heavy rain.

 

My bird ID skills are far from well honed and are, I believe, weakening (age and deteriorating eyesight) . If you disagree with any of my IDs, please let me know - I will be most grateful!

I suspect that my next blog post in, as usual, about a week's time will just cover the next two days of our stay on the Isles of Scilly. In the meantime, please take care of yourselves and Nature.

Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard

Anglian Adventures, Day 3 - 16th June, 2023

Herewith my account of the third day of my break in Norfolk. If you missed the previous two days, you can find them here:-  https://peglerbirding.blogspot.com/2023/06/anglian-adventures-day-1-14th-june-2023.html, and here:- https://peglerbirding.blogspot.com/2023/07/anglian-adventures-day-2-15th-june-2023.html

Friday, 16th June                    Strumpshaw Fen

It had been my intention to have an early start this day, and make a pre-breakfast visit to Strumpshaw Fen to see if I could find a Barn Owl to photograph. I was then going to come back to my room for breakfast and follow it up with a gentle day somewhere.

I'd set the alarm on my phone to wake me at 05.00, so was horrified to wake in the morning and find that it was already 08.15. I never sleep through an alarm, but what I'd done was select the time OK, but neglected to press 'save', so it hadn't activated.

I had my usual breakfast of cereal and dried fruit before leaving for Strumpshaw Fen, arriving at about 09.30. Having paid the entrance fee, I set off towards the Meadow Trail to see if I could have any better luck with Norfolk Hawkers in flight.

There was a bit of activity in the channel that runs beside the trail and I photographed a Four-spotted Chaser that was nicely posed.

Four-spotted Chaser (Sympetrum quadrimaculatum) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

A fellow with a camera pointed out something that he was not sure of the identity of - it was a dragonfly exuvia. I subsequently found out that it was that of a Norfolk Hawker.

Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isoceles) (exuvia) - Strumpshaw Fen

I suddenly noticed a Barn Owl in the far distance. It was between 400 and 500 metres away, and I took some record shots before rushing, via the trail alongside the River Yare, to my favourite spot for watching them, beyond the Pump House. 

Barn Owl (Tito alba) - Strumpshaw Fen

On the way, I stopped briefly to try and photograph a pair of birds that seemed to be having a squabble. I only got some poor shots of just one of them and I think it is just a common Meadow Pipit - please let me know if you think I'm wrong.

Meadow Pipit ? (Anthus pratensis) - Strumpshaw Fen

I had not had any further sightings of the Barn Owl after leaving my original position, and spent an hour and a half at what should have been an ideal spot, patiently waiting for one to appear again. Even the dragonflies were playing hard to get at this point, but I did find one obliging Norfolk Hawker before I decided to give it up as a bad job.

Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isoceles) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

It was time to head back to the Visitor Centre via the Woodland Walk to see if I could find some butterflies. I had been hoping to find White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary, but it seems that it was too early in the season for these. The best that I could find was another Brimstone!

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

From the Visitor Centre, I crossed over the railway line to the car park and spent a little time resting my legs and enjoying another picnic lunch. I then set off down Tinker's Lane, seeing nothing of interest as I went, and crossed the railway line again at the far end to head back into the reserve. Just inside the reserve were a few orchids, of which species I do not know.

Orchid sp. - Strumpshaw Fen

Further on, I was pleased to find a few damselflies, including a Variable Damselfly in an area that I'd seen my first ever, a few years ago.

Variable Damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum) (female) - Strumpshaw Fen

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)(female) - Strumpshaw Fen

Halfway along Lackford Run, I stopped to try and photgraph a distant Marsh Harrier. A month ago, I would not have stood a chance, but I'm now getting a little more used to the camera, although I still have a fair way to go!

Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

Beside the River Yare, I took photos of a colourful hoverfly and another Brimstone, before reaching Tower Hide. I can't ID the hoverfly beyond genus.

hoverfly (Parhelophilus sp.) - Strumpshaw Fen

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

I found Tower Hide to be almost full of people but did manage to find a space. Once again, there seemed to be little happening in front of the hide but, way over to the left, there was some Marsh Harrier action. Again, this was a little too distant for pleasing photography.

Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) (female) - Strumpshaw Fen

The harriers disappeared and I continued my travels alongside the Yare. 

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) - Strumpshaw Fen

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) - Strumpshaw Fen

At one point, I found a person taking photos at a gap in the landward belt of trees. He pointed out that a grebe was out on the water with a chick riding on its back. 

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) (adult with chick) - Strumpshaw Fen

The chick eventually hopped of the adult's back and I was interested to note that it had regained its buoyancy.

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) (adult with chick) - Strumpshaw Fen

The two of us left the area and were chatting as we went. Turning left down the trail that leads to the Visitor Centre, I almost immediately said "stop!" to my companion. On the trail, way ahead of us, was a Brown Hare, and it was heading our way.

Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) - Strumpshaw Fen

We stood stock-still, taking photos, as it came forward, stopped a while came forward again, stopped again, and then came forward until it can't have been much more than four metres from us.

Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) - Strumpshaw Fen

Remarkably, it stopped there long enough for me to set my camera to take some video - note the sound of a Blackcap in the background. 

You might find it interesting to see that video in slow-motion.

My companion and I then continued to the Meadow Trail and spent some time there photographing dragonflies and damselflies. I also managed to collect that exuvia which features in the second image in this blog post, and it is now in my small collection of exuviae.

 

A large part of Meadow Trail was closed off, due to the presence of longhorn cattle, including a bull.

Longhorn cattle - Strumpshaw Fen

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

Four-spotted Chaser (Sympetrum quadrimaculatum) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isoceles) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) (male) - Strumpshaw Fen

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum) (female) - Strumpshaw Fen

It seemed to have reached ovipositing time, as several species were observed in this activity at around 17.00.

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)(male+female ovipositing) - Strumpshaw Fen

Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isoceles) (female ovipositing) - Strumpshaw Fen

Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) (female ovipositing) - Strumpshaw Fen

I'll supplement that last image with a bit of video:-

 

I had been on site for getting on for eight hours and was getting to the end of my stamina. My walking distance was not far short of the previous day's record. It was time to leave Strumpshaw Fen, head a short way down the road to 'The Scottish Restaurant' for some speedy refreshment, and then return to the Travelodge. 

 

When planning this trip, it had been my intention to spend the following day at somewhere fairly local and then head home after hiving some lunch. However, a couple of days before my departure from home, I received a message to say thay I'd got a place on a visit to a dragonfly hot-spot in Northamptonshire on 17th. As this is a place that is not open to the public, I was keen to go. It did, however, mean I had to make a relatively early start in order to travel the 125 miles (201 km) and arrive at 10.00. This meant that I, once again, turned in relatively early.

Although I felt that, for some reason that I cannot fathom, there were far fewer dragonflies and damselflies around on this day, it had been another highly enjoyable time.

If all goes according to plan, I'll be publishing my next post in about a week's time. In the meantime, please take good care of yourselves and Nature.

Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard