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| Packed an ready to go |
Penarth Boy, and now Scilly Isles supremo, Will Wagstaff is on the record
as having said that birding on the Scillies is “either feast or famine”. Having ‘dined out’ twice before on the birding
cuisine the islands has to offer and having had our appetite well and truly
satisfied on both occasions, it was with great anticipation that Gethin and I
(accompanied by Mrs JJ) returned to Scilly for another helping between 23rd
and 30th August this year. On the menu was a delicious combination
of Surf ‘n’ Turf – a couple of
pelagics for some seabirds, accompanied by the prospect of juicy morsels on
land in the form of some ornithological waifs and strays.
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| Scanning Hayle Estuary at high tide |
Hors d'oeuvres
Before setting out on The Scillonian, we chose to stay a
couple of nights in Penzance and squeeze in a little birding locally at RSPB Hayle Estuary. On a sweltering hot day there were already signs of some return wader
passage. We quickly ticked off: Ruff (3);
Whimbrel (1); Greenshank (3) and a Common Sandpiper. There were also plenty of Curlew,
about half a dozen Redshank and, in amongst them, were a good number of Teal, a
pair of Wigeon, Little Egret (6) and a Mediterranean Gull.
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| Don't be fooled - the sea got a lot rougher. |
Main course
We found last year’s birding on the islands a little bit nouvelle cuisine: the portions were
small, but very tasty – an Icterine Warbler and a couple of Citrine Wagtails
being the two tastiest dishes. This year’s island fare was sadly a bit
WeightWatchers: nothing to get excited about. Gethin and I spent a lot of time
grilling legendary hotspots such as Porth Hellick, Lower Moors, The Garrison,
Holy Vale etc as well as venturing over to Tresco, Bryher and St Agnes. That
vital ingredient – the wind – was blowing (very lightly) from the wrong
direction so it was the usual blend of migrants we encountered: Wheatear, Blackcap,
Chiffs, Sedge Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, hirundines etc. The various pools served
up some Snipe, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank and Redshank,
while the beaches had Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Sanderling.
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| Great Shearwater from the Sapphire (Photo: Joe Pender) |
Dessert
If birding on the islands was a little bit slimline, then
both pelagics we went on had the same calorific value as a deep fried Mars bar.
If you’re birding between July > August on the Scilly Isles you must book on
to a Scilly Pelagics trip, led by Bob Flood and Ashley Fisher aboard the Sapphire,
skippered by Joe Pender. Joe's a great photographer and I recommend you have a look at his blog. The knowledge these guys have of seabirds is just
awesome. They are the Michelin star chefs of pelagics!
The winds may have been light when we were there but the
swell on the sea was heavy during both our trips. Dosed up on Stugeron, nothing
was going to affect Gethin and my appetite for petrels and shearwaters. But, one
poor dab was responsible for bringing up several portions of Soup of the Day throughout
an entire 5 hour trip as he undertook a little bit of extra-curricular chumming
barely having left the lee of the islands. There’s nothing worse and, once we’d
returned, he told me he’d never go on a boat again!
The first pelagic had healthy helpings of some very special
seabirds, all of whom came in very close to the boat enabling the photographers
on board to fill their boots. We had 10 Great Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters,
Great & Arctic Skuas, dozens of Storm Petrels, a corking adult Sabine’s
Gull, Common Terns and, unusually for mid-ocean, a Peregrine tanked past!
If the first pelagic trip was a feast, then the second was a
banquet. Everybody on board (apart from the poor soul with mal de mer) stuffed
their faces on 48 Cory’s Shearwater, 24 Great Shearwater, a Sooty Shearwater, 300+
Storm Petrels and several Great Skuas. An experience Gethin and I will never forget.
Interestingly, as we sat in the Sapphire ahead of our second
pelagic, we witnessed a major Scilly Isles twitch which had local resident birders
sprinting down to the harbour at St Marys. The bird that caused such excitement
was a Little Tern – a very rare bird on the Scillies. One birder told me he’d
seen more Fea’s Petrels in Scillonian waters than Little Terns!
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| Little Tern at St Mary's Harbour (Photo: Joe Pender) |
A wafer thin mint . .
. ?
On the morning of our departure from the islands Gethin and
I were sitting in a café, chewing the cud and digesting the birds that the
Scilly Isles had served up (as well as some coffee and a toasted teacake). We
were delighted with the seabirds of course but, greedy as most birders can be, we
felt that the absence of tasty birds on land meant that the holiday as a whole
lacked that little bit of ‘icing on the cake’.
The Scillonian would sail in 3 hours to take us back to the
mainland. “Have one last look on BirdGuides, Geth” I said, and there it was: Western Bonelli’s Warbler showing well at
Content, St Marys. Panic. Where the hell was ‘Content’?! We flew out of the
café and jumped on a taxi driver half asleep in car. “Can you take us to ‘Content’
please?”
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| Cory's Shearwater from the Sapphire (Photo: Joe Pender) |
We arrived at ‘Content Farm’ (the fare was £5!) only to be confronted
by another problem: there were no birders visible anywhere. Only on the Scilly Isles! The bird could be
anywhere. We ran around like maniacs and, just as we were about to give up, Gethin
found not one, but two birders: Martin Goodey and Will Wagstaff no less. A
short wait later and the Western Bonelli’s Warbler – which had the decency to give
its diagnostic call a couple of times while we were there – was in the
bag. Thanks to the kindness of another
Scilly birder who offered us a lift back in to Hugh Town, we made it back to The
Scillionian with some time to spare (and without incurring the wrath of Mrs
JJ).
Review
Our August 2014 Scillies trip served up yet another load of fantastic
birding dishes - you could say we were 'Content'! If we were to be really picky, it was a disappointment that Wilson’s Petrel, Balearic Shearwater and Fea’s Shearwater weren't on the menu on
the pelagics this year – they must have run out, because all three of them had
been seen from the Sapphire the week before we arrived! But it was another yet
another memorable trip which I’d recommend to everyone. We’ve already booked
our Scillies ‘table’ for August 2015.
