Isles of Scilly - part 3 (6th - 9th October 2017)
Saturday 6th October: Set off for town with the intention of spending the day on Bryher, but the boatmen seemed to be having a day off. Had a quiet stroll around the Garrison and other parts of St Marys
Sunday 7th October: A misty murky morning which cleared sufficiently for us to take a boat trip out to Annet, the Western Rocks and Bishop Rock - the first time we have been out to Bishop Rock. Around the western rocks the sea mist was quite thick and we couldn't see Bishop Rock until we were within about 20m of it. This was as calm a sea as we have seen around scilly, between the islands the water was glassy smooth, but even in these conditions the waters around Bishop Rock were rough - how did the lighthousemen ever land there and then climb up the ladder to the door? - which is 1/4 of the way up the outside of the lighthouse. And once there, there was nowhere else to go - just a lighthouse on a rock in a rough sea. I suppose they could have done a bit of fishing. We had good views of Atlantic Grey Seals and a fleeting view of a couple of Purple Sandpipers on the Western Rocks. Otherwise the trip was fairly quiet until we returned to the main islands on the west side of Tresco. Here we found a feeding flock of Gannet with an entertaining group of Common Dolphins - and a Balearic Shearwater and a Sooty Shearwater flew around us. I also obtained my first and only Scilly tick of the trip (a bird I had not previously seen on my trips to the Scillies) - a Western Yellow-legged Gull. Re-entering the island ring between Tresco and Bryher we found a Spoonbill and a curious melanistic Great Black-backed Gull - it was entirely black apart from a white head.
Sunday 7th October: A misty murky morning which cleared sufficiently for us to take a boat trip out to Annet, the Western Rocks and Bishop Rock - the first time we have been out to Bishop Rock. Around the western rocks the sea mist was quite thick and we couldn't see Bishop Rock until we were within about 20m of it. This was as calm a sea as we have seen around scilly, between the islands the water was glassy smooth, but even in these conditions the waters around Bishop Rock were rough - how did the lighthousemen ever land there and then climb up the ladder to the door? - which is 1/4 of the way up the outside of the lighthouse. And once there, there was nowhere else to go - just a lighthouse on a rock in a rough sea. I suppose they could have done a bit of fishing. We had good views of Atlantic Grey Seals and a fleeting view of a couple of Purple Sandpipers on the Western Rocks. Otherwise the trip was fairly quiet until we returned to the main islands on the west side of Tresco. Here we found a feeding flock of Gannet with an entertaining group of Common Dolphins - and a Balearic Shearwater and a Sooty Shearwater flew around us. I also obtained my first and only Scilly tick of the trip (a bird I had not previously seen on my trips to the Scillies) - a Western Yellow-legged Gull. Re-entering the island ring between Tresco and Bryher we found a Spoonbill and a curious melanistic Great Black-backed Gull - it was entirely black apart from a white head.
Monday 8th October: Managed to see Hawfinch in Green Lanes and 3 Great Northern Divers off Innisidgen on a final walk around St Marys. Lunch in the Atlantic and away on the Scillonian III back to Penzance. 6 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Great Skua, 2 Puffins, several Harbour Porpoise and some distant Common Dolphin were seen during a very calm crossing. Night at the Cliff House B&B in Portreath.