Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly - 17th - 22nd October

It has been a long time since we had visited our cottage in Cornwall and so we had booked a long weekend away in Cornwall and on the Isles of Scilly. Due to work commitments we had to reduce our time in Cornwall and so we eventually only had one full day. We headed down on 17th and spent the afternoon and evening relaxing. On 18th the weather was foul but as it was my only birding morning on mainland Cornwall I headed out at first light and spent 1.5 hours seawatching at Pendeen in a F7 westerly with some heavy squally showers. There were many Gannet, Razorbill and Guillemot passing plus smaller numbers of Kittiwake. Highlights were four Arctic Tern, a single Sooty Shearwater, two Balearic Shearwater, three Manx Shearwater, four Dunlin and a Merlin which zipped westwards. News broke of a first year Subalpine Warbler at Cot Valley and I decided to have a quick look for it. The bird was in the bracken and scrub above the Youth Hostel and in the strong winds and heavy rain it was pretty hopeless and all I managed was a brief flight view of the bird as it flicked between two Hawthorn bushes.

On 19th we were up at 06:30, tidied the cottage and were on our way to Lands End airport for our 09:30 flight to St. Mary's. Arriving on Scilly at 09:50 on a beautiful sunny day we checked into the Star Castle Hotel and then headed out. We wandered out to Old Town Churchyard and spent some time here where the only birds were three Goldcrest and two Blackcap. There was no sign of the long staying Red-backed Shrike. We then headed through Lower Moors, a couple Yellow-browed Warbler called, the hide was devoid of birds and the long staying and confiding Spotted Crake did not show. After a relaxing lunch in Juliet's Cafe we headed out to Holy Vale where there were three Yellow-browed Warbler and then to Porth Hellick pool where there were eight Common Teal and 11 Snipe but no sign of the long staying Blue-winged Teal. It was now 15:45 and so we decided to head back to the Star Castle. A stop at Lower Moors produced a very brief view of the Spotted Crake and a single Water Rail which had just chased the crake away. It had been a slow start to our time on the islands but its always good to be back here.

Cot Valley as we flew from Land's End to Isles of Scilly

Grey Heron - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Porthellick Pool, St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

On 20th we headed over to St. Martin's and walked along the back of Par Beach before cutting up to the Day Mark and then headed back down to the road before walking along the spine of the island to the Karma Hotel in the west of the island where we had lunch. Birding was fairly slow going but there were large numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare with around 250 of the former and 50 of the latter. A Firecrest and two Yellow-browed Warbler were in the Middle Town area, a male Merlin on Chapel Down and two Stonechat. We caught the 15:30 back from St. Martin's and on arrival on St. Mary's we headed up to Lower Moors where the Spotted Crake was showing well as it preened in the boggy woodland at the Rosehill end of the trail. We watched the bird for a few minutes before it slipped away into the flooded woodland once again. We then headed to Porthloo Beach where there were around 45 Oystercatcher and a single Northern Wheatear. The main thing I wanted to see here was Portuguese Man' O War of which we soon came across five beached animals, although most were now bleached and colourless, one had retained its bright blue and pink colours. These strange creatures, dubbed locally as 'Purple Pasties', are not true jellyfish (which are single organisms) but a siphonophore, which is a colonial organism made up of many specialised animals (polyps) of the same species.

Greenfinch - St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly

Oystercatcher - St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly

View to north-west over St. Martin's from the Day Mark with White Island to the right

Redwing and Fieldfare - St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly

Dark Common Pheasant, these seem to be the common form present on St. Martin's - St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly

Redwing - St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly

Northern Wheatear - St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Crake - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Crake - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Crake - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Crake - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Crake - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Portuguese Man O' War - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

On 21st we caught the boat across to St. Agne's, one of my favourite of all islands, and wandered out to Wingletang Down via the Gugh Bar and back down Barnaby Lane. It seemed fairly quiet and the highlights were two Swallow, a single Northern Wheatear, Chiffchaff and two Stonechat as well as moderate numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare. At the top end of Barnaby Lane 'pishing' into the elms produced a Goldcrest and a single Yellow-browed Warbler. We then dropped down through Middle Town to Porth Cloose where a Spotted Sandpiper showed well as it fed along the strandline seaweed mounds. After lunch at the Turks Head we were on the 14:15 ferry back to St. Mary's and enjoyed a wander around the Garrison where eventually the Blue Rock Thrush showed fairly well but a little distantly as it fed on the beach at Morning Point. This bird has been present since 22nd September and is my second in the UK after the Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire bird on 3rd February 2017. There was little else to be seen and so by 17:00 we were tucked up in the Atlantic with a pint.

Yellow-browed Warbler - St. Agne's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Sandpiper - St. Agne's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Sandpiper - St. Agne's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Sandpiper - St. Agne's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Sandpiper - St. Agne's, Isles of Scilly

Spotted Sandpiper - St. Agne's, Isles of Scilly

Blue Rock Thrush - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly 

Blue Rock Thrush - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Blue Rock Thrush - St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

View of St. Agnes from the Garrison, St. Mary's with the Scillonian

The 22nd was our final day and after breakfast we had a walk around the pines, campsite and Woolpack area of the Garrison where there were small numbers of Redwing, three fly-over Brambling, a couple of Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff. Spider collected us at 10:40 for our 11:40 flight and we stopped in Old Town where a New Zealand Spiny Stick Insect had been seen yesterday and after a bit of searching we found this superb 15cm insect dangling from a Pittosporum. Our flight was delayed by 50 minutes but our crossing was very smooth and the sea flat calm allowing us to see around 20 Common Dolphin from the air. We landed at Land's End at 12:45 and were home by 18:00.

New Zealand Spiny Stick Insect Micrarchus hystricuelus - Old Town, St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

The First Delayed Post of 2013

It's been a lot longer than intended to post my latest blog, what with Christmas and New Year festivities, preparing for the arrival of Sarah and my baby in the coming months and the joys of the end of year tax return time has just been too short to either go birding or post here.

My first birding outing of the year came as late as 19th January following heavy snowfall that bought much of England to a grinding halt. I ventured out on the local patch for the first time in 2013 hoping that the freezing conditions will have led to a reshuffling of birds at the site. It was not long before the first of the unusual visitors, for the patch at least, appeared with five Wigeon on the River Test flowing warm and unfrozen through its frozen flood plain. Next was a patch tick, a fine adult winter Mediterranean Gull loitering amongst an inflated Black-headed Gull flock (up from the usual 70 to 180 birds) on the snow covered fields. Then another patch record , a group of six Stock Dove and next yet another patch record a quite astonishing flock of 200 Lapwing settled in the fields, the previous highest count being a flock of 25 flyover birds. Other good patch bird included 30 Fieldfare, 6 Skylark, 11 Snipe, 3 Goosander and 6 Tufted Duck. So all in all, on a local scale I was very pleased with my first venture onto the patch in 2013, my sightings clearly being enlivened by a cold weather movement.

Cold weather movements were a feature of this period throughout the country with many species heading south and west to escape the severe conditions. Cold weather movements are often caused by freezing conditions on the continent causing birds to move west to the British Isles. The mild conditions of the British Isles, as a result of the warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, may result in large numbers of birds escaping the colder continental climate to winter here. These movements are driven by food shortages as a result of the frozen conditions. Classic families associated with these movements are Plovers, Thrushes and Skylarks - some such as Tufted Duck may undertaken local movements from frozen still freshwater bodies to more coastal or flowing waters which remain ice free while others may move hundreds of miles.

A visit to Pennington Marshes on 20th January revealed huge numbers of Fieldfare that had clearly escaped from colder conditions to the coast, which at Pennington was relatively snow free. Whether these birds were continental or of UK origin is not known. Fieldfare are usually nervous birds and difficult to approach but these birds were confiding, preoccupied with feeding after escaping frozen conditions. I estimated that there were around 2000 birds present but a constant easterly movement may have meant a significant underestimation in numbers. Intriguingly there were very few Redwing present, presumably these had moved elsewhere - perhaps further south?

 

A Frozen Winter Patch