Isles of Scilly, 2023 Pt.4 - 29th September, 2023

This fourth instalment of my account covers just one day of our recent holiday on the Isles of Scilly. It was somewhat different to any other day that I have experienced when staying on the Isles. 

If you missed previous parts of my account, you can find them by going to the bottom of this post and then clicking on 'Older Post'. 

Friday, 29th September

I had originally planned to visit the Standing Stones Field, near Old Town, this day to see if I  could find the Red-backed Shrike that was being seen there from time to time. However, the forecast was for the best weather day of the week - mainly sunny with temperatures around 17°c and gentle breezes, and a pelagic trip was on offer. Looking out of the conservatory window, the sea was almost as flat as a mill pond and the girls were trying to persuade me to go for it. It was scheduled to be a five and a half hour trip and, having been told that there was a loo on board, it seemed a feasible proposition. The trip was scheduled to start at 09.30 and as I had got up rather earlier than usual I spent a little time in the garden checking what was on the beach. There was nothing exciting but I took some shots of Oystercatcher and Herring Gull from the garden.

 

Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) - from the garden, Littleporth

Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) - from the garden, Littleporth

I left base at 09.00 to go to the quay, and arrived to find that I was first in the queue. By the time that our boat, the MV Sapphire, arrived it appeared that a massive queue had developed, but this turned out to be a large contingent wanting to go to St Martins. The boat for St Martins arrived and used the Sapphire as a bridge to board their passengers. This boat soon filled and another boat was summoned and moored alongside the first boat, Eventually, both St Martins boats were filled and we were able to board.

Being first on board, I chose a seat on the aft of the boat on the port side. In the event, this turned out to be an unwise decision.

It started well enough, and I took some distant shots of Shags on rocks.

 

Shag (Gulosus aristotelis)

As soon as we were out of the sheltered seas of the islands, heading for the Western Rocks, we hit rough seas. At times, the boat seemed to be rolling from about 40 degrees one way to 40 degrees the other, and pitching almost as much. After an hour, I was questioning my decision to go on the trip, with almost nothing seen. Eventually we started seeing the Bishop Rock Lighthouse (usually just referred to as 'the Bishop') at a distance.

 

Bishop Rock Lighthouse

Here's a shot of the rough seas which might give an idea of what we were experiencing.

 

Rough Seas - The Western Rocks

I did manage to get a poor shot of a Gannet on the water.

 

Gannet (Morus bassanus) - near the Western Rocks

After being out for an hour and a half, we arrived at the Bishop, where a Red-footed Booby had been being seen regularly during the preceding weeks and this was, of course, the main reason for us heading to the Bishop. 

 

Bishop Rock Lighthouse

The Bishop is an impressive structure, built in 1858, and at 49 metres high, the tallest lighthouse in UK.

 

The Red-footed Booby was not seen when we were there, with just some Shags round the base and a gull up near the helipad where the Booby usually roosted.

 

Bishop Rock Lighthouse

We then headed north to try and find some birds. By the time we'd been out about two and a half hours, I was getting concerned as to how I was going to last another three hours without going to the loo which was towards the front of the boat, as I'd  never make it from my position at the stern. At one point I'd tried to change position to the bench that was less than a metre in front of me, so that I could look in the opposite direction when a sudden list had me crashing to the floor on my back. Fortunately there was no damage to my camera or binoculars, or to me!

It then seemed that suddenly we were seeing birds, and the sea became a little more calm. I believe that the rough seas had been largely due to us being in relatively shallow water, and that now we were in deeper water things were more comfortable. Photography was still very challenging, however, and the large majority of my attempts were out of focus or totally off subject. 

 

Before I go any further with this account, I give fair warning that my ID skills when it comes to sea birds is anything but good, I consider myself a novice part-time birder with very little experience of sea birds. If I make any mistakes in my IDs below, please let me know, and I will gratefully correct the entry.

 

The first real opportunities came when crew members started putting out 'chum' to attract the birds. This initially attracted mainly Great Black-backed Gulls. I took a lot of shots of these, mainly to get practice in case anything more exciting came along, but I also rarely get an opportunity to photograph this species in flight anyway.

Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) - IoS Pelagic

The occasional Gannet passed by as well.

Gannet (Morus bassanus) - IoS Pelagic

We then started seeing Sheerwaters. I was a little disadvantaged as, although warnings of approaching birds were given over the tannoy, located on the bridge, the messages were lost to me in the rear of the boat as the noise of the engines, sea, and wind was being over-amplified by my hearing aids. Fortunately, the person next to me realised my predicament and kindly relayed some of the messages to me, but mostly too late! I must remember, next time, to remove my hearing aids.

I did manage to get some photos. This is, I believe, a Cory's Shearwater.

Cory's Sheerwater (Calonectris borealis) - IoS Pelagic

Our crew did an absolutely excellent job in finding rafts of birds on the water, and there were some wonderful fly-pasts too. Here are some more of my shots.

Cory's Sheerwater (Calonectris borealis) Great Sheerwater (Ardenna gravis) Sooty Sheerwater (Ardenna grisea) - IoS Pelagic

Cory's Sheerwater (Calonectris borealis) Great Sheerwater (Ardenna gravis) - IoS Pelagic

Cory's Sheerwater (Calonectris borealis) Great Sheerwater (Ardenna gravis) Sooty Sheerwater (Ardenna grisea) - IoS Pelagic

Cory's Sheerwater (Calonectris borealis) - IoS Pelagic

Gannet (Morus bassanus) - IoS Pelagic

Great Skua (Stercorarius skua) - IoS Pelagic

Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) - IoS Pelagic

Cory's Sheerwater (Calonectris borealis) - IoS Pelagic

Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) - IoS Pelagic

I was particularly pleased to get the Great Skua (alternative name 'Bonxie') photos.

 

The tally of birds seen during the pelagic - not necessarily by me, I hasten to add! - was 150+ Cory's Sheerwater,  80+ Great Shearwater, 7 Sooty Shearwater, 8 Manx Shearwater, 1 Arctic Skua, 4 Great Skua, 1 'large skua', 1 Grey Phalarope, 5 European Storm Petrels. 

You can see from the above list that I failed to see or photograph a number of these.

We returned to the islands from the north-east, a direction which I only realised when we passed the Daymark on St. Martin's.

Daymark - St. Martin's

Closer to home, as we approached Hugh Town, St. Mary's, my last shots of the trip were of Shags, once more.

 

Shag (Gulosus aristotelis)

By some miracle, I did manage to wait for relief until we disembarked just before 15.00, but in my haste to go to the loos on the quay, I left my camera bag on board, not realising my mistake until I reached base. My thanks to Skipper of the Sapphire, Joe Pender, for taking it to the ticket office.

 

Although I'd been very concerned during the first part of the trip, this turned out to be an absolutely wonderful experience, thanks to the great job done by Joe Pender, Bob Flood, and the rest of the Scilly Pelagics crew. Would I do it again? - you bet! - but I might be looking for one when the seas were a bit more calm. Maybe next time I'll be lucky enough to see some Cetaceans too?

On return to base, I had a very late lunch and a relax, spending a little time sitting on a rock on Porthcressa Beach, hoping for some birds to come to me.

The evening was spent on 'admin' and shopping at the Co-op and, as seemed to be the norm for this holiday, we turned in for a relatively early night.

 

My thanks to the whole Scilly Pelagics team for an exciting and memorable day.

 

 

I believe that my next blog post will feature the last days of our stay, and will be a little shorter than this one. 

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