Scillies 2017 Day 1 - Part 1

Oh it is so great to be back on the Islands

The crossing was a little "up and down" but spent most of it Sea watching with the following totals

Sooty Shearwater - 2 ( 3 were seen in total )
Manx Shearwater - 1
Great Skua - 1, poss 2
Arctic Skua - 2 (3 were seen in total )
Guillemot - 30+
Razorbill - 2
Kittiwakes - 40+
Gannets - plentiful !

Only the Great Skua came reasonably close , the Sooty's were quite close to the top end of St Martins.

An Adult Med Gull was in the roads as we docked

After dumping my gear at Neils digs opp the Scillionian Club , i called the bike hire place to go and pick up my Mountain bike for the 4 days as from tomorrow, i am moving to the Bants Carn area , which anyone who knows Scilly , knows its miles away ! , i also plan to bird mostly on my own and thought the speed to get to places first / early may pay off !

Once all packed up for the day ahead i cycled to my first port of call - Porthcressa Beach

Oystercatchers and Herring Gulls were the most obvious thing on view , but careful scanning and the Sandwich Tern was seen fishing out into the bay, another Ad Med Gull was also present

No sign of the Common Redstart by dibble and Grub , but it was interesting to see a few Portuguese Man of War which after googling i found out the following interesting fact buster !

"Anyone unfamiliar with the biology of the venomous Portuguese man-of-war would likely mistake it for a jellyfish. Not only is it not a jellyfish, it's not even an "it," but a "they." The Portuguese man-of-war is a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together." 

So not a jellyfish ! always learning !

There were about 6-7 along the beach

I then headed up Buzza Hill , checking the Starlings in case the juv Rose Coloured was still hanging around - it wasn't, Goldfinch and House Sparrow added to day list. Best bird was the young male Sparrowhawk that swept through Hugh Town 

a quick check of the Health centre fields only produced Collared Doves and the op of Carn Gwarvel lane held 3 Blue Tit, Great Tit and a 2 Goldcrest , little did i realise that Goldcrest was going to be quite plentiful

The field opp Nowhere ( insider Scilly joke ) seemed to be empty at first , but pishing for a few minutes and 7 Goldcrest were scolding me and a Robin was new for the day list

A quick stop in Old Town bay and i was very lucky to see a Kingfisher perched
on the old jetty , a few Rock Pipits and Starlings were feeding in the tide wrack, a Common Snipe flew over and out into the Bay 

The boys had alerted me ia the Watts App group thatthe Isabelline Wheatear was showing form the Hangers at the Airfield ...... It wasn't, 6 Linnets, a Kestrel and a Peregrine were the highlights

I then headed down to Porthellick seeing another 7 or 8 Goldcrest at various stop points and another Kestrel, this time a female that had caught a mouse ! it was struggling to take off with it but managed in the end

My trip to Porthellick and the rest of the days tour to follow in Part 2

Simon

13th October 2017