Its been a strange day,
the Storm Ophelia or rather the winds associated with the storm hit during the
night and hit hard, it was tough birding today and the scenes on the quay were
very reminiscent of ones over 17 years ago when Steve Blain and I stood and
watched the massive breakers engulf the Mermaid, I again spent some tie down
there late afternoon, not late enough to get the close views of Leach's Petrel,
but I digress.....
When I say Quality ,
not quantity , I didn't actually see that many birds today , in fact, compared
to yesterday , I think I would struggle to count on both hands Goldcrests and
Chiffchaffs , but those I did see were good value in the Scilly sense ! Even if
they were only in 1's and 2’s!
I had to get the bike
back to Porth Mellon by 3 pm - so the morning was two wheeled and the afternoon
two legged, after a very blustery ride round the coast , I ended up at
Innisidgen , where I stayed for nearly 1.5 hours. 1st piece of Scilly quality
was the Skylark that came in off the sea calling , battling
against the wind that was blowing offshore here , 4 white birds battling low
over the waves eventually revealed themselves as 4 1st Winter Black Headed
Gulls !, they headed off inland.
Then a tuu had me
looking up - a brilliant Lapland Bunting headed east just
above head height, disappeared round the corner in the direction of Watermill
cove
Continued scanning
the sea in the vague hope that the GND might put in a show, but then a small
Black seabird appeared approx. 2-300 yds. out , quick check of lack of Carpal
band and a few white flashes of underwing - a Storm Petrel ! First
one I have seen from the land on Scillies - it batted past at a fairly good
speed (it had a tail wind) and veered out towards Great Ganilly. Brilliant set
of birds and all different and unexpected
A Stonechat, 1 Curlew
and 2 Meadow Pipits were the only other birds of note seen here
Watermill Cove was
very windy and bird free (the RBF was relocated late afternoon, but no sign
first thing) the best conjured up here was a Chiffchaff, a Goldcrest and a
Siskin.
The aftermath of the
wind was beginning to show in the fallen branches and pine needles that were heaping
up on the road, it was quite tough going riding into the wind sometimes, a
quick stop at Newford found another 2 Chiffchaffs, 2 Goldcrests and the Yellow Browed Warbler calling deep from the back of the pond, hung around
a bit to see if the Grey Wagtail was going to visit – he didn’t!
I then decided to head round the south side of the island to
Old town as it was getting near hide tide and they were expecting big rollers
to come crashing in, on the corner of Maypole, a single Hawfinch was still in the Lichen covered hawthorn and a Redwing was
sheltering from the gale in the corner of the field! This was to be the only
bird I saw on the trip.
The rest of the ride down to Old Town was uneventful and the
Flapjack and Jacket Potato when I arrived was excellent, was meeting Dave and
his wife, who were over with the Sandwich Bay Bird group, lovely conversation
about birding , the islands and diving – when I left the café, the waves were
huge and they had shut off the road to Old Town Church, I took a detour through
Lower Moors , again paying my respect to the empty area by the boardwalk that
hosts the Spotted C rake every time I leave J
Bumped into Lloyd and his mum in the lower moors hide, 2
Teal and plenty of Mallard, but little else, continued to Shooters Pool where a
cracking female Grey Wagtail was performing nicely and allowed me to finally
get my camera out and take some pics.
All too soon I was back on the bike as I was due to drop off
at 15:00, the bike duly dropped off ( by the way – St Mary’s Bike hire - https://www.stmarysbikehire.co.uk/
is awesome and def. worth using to whizz around the islands, great customer
service and a great price.
Now back on two feet, I started to head towards the co-op as
needed essentials for Phil and Helen, Red Wine and Bread – staple Scilly fareJ, whilst on route I took
quite a few photos of the ever increasing swell bashing over the quay, thinking
this would be a repeat of 2001 when Steve Blain and I got some great footage of
waves crashing into the harbor, I headed down! It was equally as tremendous. A Rock
Pipit fed around my feet as it clearly had been pushed off its beach, a
Turnstone was also washed off his roost rocks! I then left (about 10 mins too
early it turns out!) to walk back up to Bants Carn, a quick pop into
Porthcressa showed that this side of the island was getting equally battered
and the Sand from the beached was all over the grass and in the road.
Just as I was walking past Porthloo, Dick came on the radio
with a Leaches Petrel off the Quay! I couldn’t quite see it from Porthloo so
headed up onto Golf course via Juliet’s , after about 10 minutes scanning I
finally picked out one of the 2 birds seen earlier struggling into the roads !
Who would have thought Leach’s Petrel
and Storm Petrel both on the same
day from St Mary’s!
On a bit of a high, I checked the Golf course on the way back,
a cracking Peregrine was hanging in the wind over Bants Carn and a Raven
cronked loudly as it battled with the wind and headed off north. A White
Wagtail was sheltering in one of fairways and a few Goldcrests were calling in
the pines as I walked back in the gale. I brought a new windproof coat from Rab
before I left for the islands and it has been phenomenal! Will review in
another blog post. Walking back and didn’t see anything, fantastic pasta bake
and Cheese Bread. Conversation was brilliant and always and an easy couple of
hours drifted by, shower and spoke to my very understanding wife, Kellie before
hitting the sack.
Brilliant day with 7 trip ticks added
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