Isles of Scilly - Pelagic Weekend

Cory's Shearwater: Every couple of years I embark upon a birdwatching pilgrimage to the stunning Isle of Scilly. Autumn is probably high on most people’s wish-lists when they think about spending time here. Anything can, and does, turn up here throughout the year, which makes the islands worth a visit in any season, but Autumn brings the added excitement of Scilly pelagic trips.This time I was accompanied by Kristian Wade and Carl, top bunch of lads.

Let's first start with the word, what does it mean? he the word ‘Pelagic’ is derived from Greek, meaning 'open seas.'Some of the most exciting pelagic birding trips can be experienced on Scilly pelagic trips where they are usually conducted out of areas where nutrient-rich waters are found close to shore. 

We go out on the infamous passenger boat called the Sapphire skippered by Joe Pender who also runs these birding trips alongside a shark-tagging programme.

We booked these palagic trips about two months ago, after there had been regular reports of Scopoli’s shearwater I was keen to at least try for them.  This species is closely related to Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris borealis), and is pretty difficult to separate. 

One of the main ways and most reliable ways of separating Scopoli’s from Cory’s, is by observing the underwing feathers and pattern. Looking at it simply, Cory’s has a broader dark tip to the underwing, while Scopoli’s has a smaller dark tip, with more white on the primaries. 

There is more to it than this as there usually is in birding, the lighting conditions can vary plumage, and then there is individual variation in the species as well so I knew it was going to be a challenge but with a bit of luck I was hoping to tick one while down here.

The seas around the Scilly's are currently teaming with Cory's, to put in into context when I came down and did the palagics back in August 2020 we only saw a handful of Cory's, this time I had literally hundreds. 

Red-footed Booby: It is thought that the recent extreme heat across the contenant has had a real impact on these birds and they have extended their typical range. Cory's Shearwaters breed across the Atlantic archipelagos; the Azores, Canaries, Salvagems and Berlengas all have breeding colonies. Birds start to leave these colonies during August, with many heading for the Bay of Biscay.

Another bird that is likely been impacted by the unusually hot weather and rising sea tempuratres is this remarkable rare red-footed booby. Red-footed boobies are found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and they are one of three species of booby found in Galapagos!

This bird was spotted three weeks before I arrived on a pelagic but only for a short time and wasn't seen agin for another week or so, when the skipper Joe took the Sapphire out to a The Bishop lighthouse on the off chance that they might find it there. 

Well, they did! the bird was roosting on the netting at the top of the lighthouse and thankfully remained there until we arrived. I thought out twitching it as many other did in the first few days after it was refund. But I thought I would take a gamble and wait, this time that gamble paid off. 

Great Shearwater: This red-faced booby is the 2nd record for the UK after one rescued after being found in an exhausted state on the beach at St Leonards, Sussex back in 2016.

We were lucky enough to book on to four pelagic trips which maximised our efforts and likeliness that we could get something else, something extra special maybe?

Amongst the hundreds of Cory's where dozens of greats, this is another marvellous bird and one of the few species of birds to migrate from its breeding grounds in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere for winter.

Across our trips we saw increasing numbers and large rafts out at sea and had several indidules following the wake of the Sapphire putting on a superb show.

Personally, I really like these shears much more than Cory's, I think they have a more pleasing plumage pattern and look more interning than their larger relatives. 

South Polar Skua: During our Saturday pelagic, I was chatting to Scott Reid, an old friend of mine who lives on the island and volunteers on the pelagics. We were catching up, chit-chatting about bird when a small dark suck came in from the stern.  Scott immediately saw it and started to get animated.

He shouted out to the entire boat that we need to get a picture of this bird and just like that everyone raised their lenses and fires away. Bob Flood (the doyen of pallid sea birds confirmed South Polar skua a few hours after we departed. 

European Storm Petrel: We were straight in the Mermaid pub that night celebrating with a few pints joined by Jack Bucknall, Joe and Scott reliving the dream of an absolute mega flying over the boat. This skua will live long in the memory and will easily become the rates bird of the weekend and top-trumped the red-footed booby.

Wilsons Storm Petrel: Saturday also brought our biggest number of stormy's that came in to feed on the slick left behind by the chum, a fishy, oily bait that enrages shearwater and petrel closer to the boat but Friday during the shark trip we bagged a single Wilson's stormy. 

We struck lucky here as this was the only Wilson's of the weekend and showed well at times from the back f the boat as it swept in up and down the slick. 

European Storm Petrel: All the stormy's were incredibly difficult to photograph, these small black birds seemed to appear out of nowhere and disapeear over a wave. 

Cory's Shearwater: I didn't know where to look at times. There were dozens of shearwater surrounding the boat, and stormies feeding on the slick as we drifted and bobbed on the sea. 

Manx Shearwater: Maxies were more numbers on the ferry crossing then the pelagics but we did have a few bird rafting with the larger shares that gave us an opportunity to get Perry close before they flew off. 

There were time when the sea was pretty rough and were were getting rolled around on the large swells. I'm not particularly good on boats and have been known to get pretty severe sea sickness. 

Cory's Shearwater: This time however I was fine, I always took some sea sickness tablets, Kwells are for prevention of travel sickness and made sure I ate a good breakfast before boarding the boat. this might sound country her productive but it's definitely a good idea.  

Great Shearwater: Unfortunately we didn't connect with any Scopoli’s, others did while we were on the same boat, but I'm not claiming a bird that was togged and I may or may not have seen it, that's called cheating. 

Arctic Skua: Apart from the massively mega South Polar skua we also had two Arctic Skua including this dark phased bird which was frantically cashing the gulls and shears that were following the boat.

We also had a pale phased bird that shot passed the boat, these birds have a well-earned reputation as avian pirates, stealing much of their food from other birds, chasing them down until they drop their food. 

Cory's Shearwater: Shearwaters have an incredible capability to follow smells. It means that they can navigate in complete darkness without relying on their sight, making it easy for them to find their way to the colony at night. During daytime, seabirds are wandering the sea looking out for fish, squids or crustaceans. 

Common Dolphin: Along with sea birds we had dozens of common dolphin and a handful of Risso's on the Sillonian Ferry crossing. 

Red-baked Shrike: We stayed at the Garrison camp site on St Marys in a rede-tent, a pre-erected clamping tent with air beds and a stove. Pretty decent if you can't get any accommodation on the island. 

This gave us the opportunity to spend some time birding on the Island.  

Wryneck: we managed to catch up with a male red-backed shrike and a juvinile woodcut shrike, but the highlight was this striking wryneck that Ian Ellis relocated and we went back for on our last day. 

This was a mega trip and a really enjoyable adventure with some great people and great birds, I'm defiantly looking forward to my next Scilly pelagic.  

23/08/2020 Scilly Isles Pelagic

European Storm Petrel: I’ve long hoped to go on one of the regular pelagic trips that run from the very beautiful St Mary's, the largest of The Isles of Scilly. Although we were only able to do one of the three trips that we originally booked, as the ferry crossing was cancelled due to storm-force winds. 

Great Skua: Still we struck gold with the ‘shear’ number of birds. A truly wonderful experience. Gary, Patrick, Damian and I travelled down separately and stayed at the Garrison Campsite on St Mary's. A nice campsite with good facilities close to Hugh Town. The only negative was the very steep hill you have to embark on to get to and from the campsite.

We have had this trip booked for at least a year and thought we were all prepared, then Covid19 struck and we were worried the pelagics would be cancelled or that the island remained locked down. Thankfully this didn't happen. But storm Ellen was on her way. She struck with 60mph winds which forced the ferry crossing to be cancelled.

Sooty Shearwater: Due to this we were unable to attend the friday pelagic, so keeping the sunday pelagic, we also booked onto the Monday one instead.

The Sunday pelagic trip left the key at 8am with Joe Pender as Skipper of the "Sapphire". As we left bread was thrown from the start but as a good number of herring and lesser black-backed gulls followed.

As we journeyed south there were a few Shags on the rocks and sandwich terns in the bay. Eventually some gannet joined the flock of gulls that were following us and we had some fast flybys from a sooty shearwater and a couple of euro-stormies. 

Gannet: We stopped about 13 km South of St Mary's and Joe started to fill up a chum bag.
Now I've been told that this chum smells bad, but nothing prepared me for how bad this actually was. It was so bad I overheard Joe say 'even the maggots are dead'!

Wilson's Storm Petrel: We drifted here while the chum bag leaked its irresistible oils across the water leaving a smooth pale slick in our wake.
With the strong smell of rotten pilchards and fish oils wafting in the air it didn't take long before we struck gold.

Not long after a few euro-stormies and several fulmer joined flew in to check out the smells we had our first Wilson's giving us a chance to see their golden yellow webbing on their feet.

To everybody's surprise two Balearic shearwaters did a flyby from the boat and kept on flying westerly, along with several distant Manxies.







Long-tailed Skua: The unmistakable dark, stocky, brutish shape appeared on the horizon as the great skua came to check us out, flying right over the spectators on the deck. Also a long-tailed skua came flying past.

This smart juvenile didn't hang about and raced right past, up and along the slick.

Sabine's Gull:  For me one of the highlights was seeing my favorite UK gull, the sabs gull. We had two, one sporting a full back hood.

These exquisite gulls came close to the boat, as did the fast-flying Wilsons and Euro-stormies, so lots of great birds around.  We even had several sightings of common dolphin, as well as a single Sunfish which looked very strange as it flapped it's fins in the air.

These black-headed sized gulls are in fact the only member of its genus, the Sabine's Gull is like no other gull. Many of its behaviors resemble those of terns more than gulls.

When they fly they have a very shallow flight pattern, bobbing up and down as they pick food from the surface of the water.





Scott Reid, who volunteers on the boat, was the dedicated spotter and bread thrower, but it wasn't only bread he was throwing overboard, he also threw popcorn and mealworms. And it was the mealworms that the sabs gulls were interested in.

Unfortunately the fully hooded individual didn't hang around and flew off up the two mile slick and out of sight.  However the adult winter bird, the one lacking the stunning black hood did stick around.

It even sat on the water close to the stern giving us all some really excellent views. A really nice treat as we watched dozens of stromies whizzing around too.

Great Shearwater: As I was leaning over the side of the boat trying to improve my lens reach, I heard Scott shout 'great shears'. The whole boat turned their heads as we caught a glimpse of the bird flying towards from the other side of the boat, the side in the strongest light.

All I could manage was a few frame bursts before the bird disappeared and I wasn't quick enough to adjust my camera settings, so ended up with some back light washout images.

Image quality aside I was just pleased to see one close up, especially knowing that on the Friday pelagic trip they had in excess of 30 birds many right up to the boat. So I was just pleased to see one.

Throughout the pelagic we had a couple of greats, many of which kept their distance and one of which was getting chased down by a great skua. We even witnessed the bird crashing on the the surface of the water, possibly to evade the advances of the skua. Pretty cool.

Great Skua: The great skuas were real brutes and bullied their way in to the gull flock, scattering the gulls as they took the monopoly on the slick feeding of the floating fish bits.

European Storm Petrel: These small black gems were a real joy to watch as they pogoed on the surface of the water, or whizzed up and down the slick. Spray and prey was the only option with these fast flying birds, hold down the cameras trigger and hope you've got one.

Wilson's Storm Petrel: We were spoilt by the numbers of Wilson's .

Wilson's Storm Petrel: The pelagic was brilliant, much better than I anticipated and I can't recommend it enough. Every birder should see this as a real birding pilgrimage that everyone should experience.

Our totals were 14c Wilson's storm petrels, 10 great shearwater, 5 Sabine's gulls that consisted of 3 adult and 2 1st summer birds. 4 long-tailed skua, 2 Balearic shearwater, 4 sooty shearwater, and up to 150 European storm petrels.

Also a good supporting cast with fulmer, common dolphin, great skua, gannat and sandwich tern.










The Scillonian Crossing

Manx Shearwater: Let's talk about the crossing on the Scisillion, or otherwise known as the vomit rocket, a strange name coined by the Scilly islanders and a name that is only partly correct.  The ferry takes three hours to cross, so not really a rocket, but it did make me vomit and feel very sick indeed.

The crossing over to the Isles of Scilly on the Scillonian can sometimes award you with some good views of seabirds, and knowing this, our group grabbed some seats on the open deck, binoculars in hand (and a sick bag for me).

On the way out we had dozens of Manxies, gannet, fulmar and a few euro-stromies, but the highlight was a single Balearic shearwater.

Sooty Shearwater:  On the return journey with calmer seas, lighter winds and no vomiting, we managed to get 2 shooty, 3 great, 1 Cory's, 1 great skua, 8 euro-stormies and several common dolphin, a much more pleasant trip back.

Great Shearwater:  Overall we had a really fantastic time a real adventure with the odds stacked against us.

Our original inbound ferry and our rescheduled outbound ferry were both cancelled, in addition we received some of the most shocking customer service from Penzance Helicopters, who are simply a bunch of charlatans - they told us one thing then did the opposite. A disgusting company that I hope I never have to deal with again. However, Bob Flood who runs the Scilly pelagics, was an absolute diamond, a really understanding guy who was very accomodating. Thanks again Bob, you're a legend. Special thanks to Scott too, a good old mate who not only gave us some really good gen but offered a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement when we were having problems once the ferry was cancelled.