Scilly 2023 week 2 - 23rd-29th September
On Saturday 23rd we headed out on a boat to Bishop's Rock. For the 3 weeks before we arrived at Scilly there had been a Red-footed Booby seen here regularly. Unfortunately the weather during our first week was such that no-one was able to get out to the Bishop to see if the booby was still there - and this was the earliest opportunity. It wasn't there - but we did get spectacular views of many Cory's and Great Shearwaters and several Sooty Shearwater, 4 Grey Phalarope and a pod of Common Dolphin.
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On Monday 25th two MEGA American passerines turned up - a Bobolink on St Agnes and a Northern Parula on St Martins - both had gone missing after the original sighting and both were UK ✔️s for Alison and I hadn't seen either since the 1990s. We opted for the Bobolink on the grounds that the St Agnes boat was due to leave an hour earlier than the St Martins boat. This proved to be the wrong choice as the Bobolink was not seen again and the Parula showed well on and off all afternoon. Nevertheless we had a nice walk around, enjoyed a Troy Town ice cream and saw a Short-toed Lark. Fortunately the Parula remained and we saw it well the next day.
On return to St Mary's we had our best ever viewing of a Scilly Shrew (Lesser White-toothed Shrew / Crocidura suaveolens) as it ran across the road and along the wall by the road as we walked back to Peacehaven. This species was considered at one time to be endemic to the Scillies, but is now known to occur on the Channel Islands as well.
Wednesday 27th was a write off in strong winds and rain. Thursday 28th was calmer. |
Friday 29th was sunny all day. I was back out on the water for a longer pelagic. We wasted time in very lumpy seas getting to the Bishop in the hope that the booby might be there. It wasn't. We moved north into calmer waters and again found flocks of large shearwaters.
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We also found several large skuas most of which were clearly Great Skua, but one was small-headed and very dark. Unfortunately I got the only (poor quality) photo of this bird which we believe was a South Polar Skua. I think this is only the 4th British record of this species. I also saw the bird that was the 2nd British record on St Mary's in October 2001 - but it had been taken into care at the time I saw it and so I had not added it to my British list. I have been asked not to publish the photos of the current record as they will be submitted to the rarities committee and we do not want public debate about the identification prior to the rarities committee decision.