I spent the last day of my holiday on Joe Pender's boat with Bob Flood and Higgo. What a trip it was! We started off by heading past St. Martins, where we picked up 2 Common Scoters and 2 Grey Phalaropes.
Grey Phalarope
We were soon joined around the boat by 30 common dolphins. They stayed around the boat for ages, and it was an incredible sight to witness these beautiful animals so close.
Common Dolphins
Moving on towards the Severn Stones, the chum started to be put into the sea, and we soon attracted a Sooty Shearwater and a Great Skua.
Great Skua
A shout then went up as Joe saw a small skua on the horizon, which came right for us; it was a Long-tailed skua. I was made up, as this was a scilly tick for me.
Juvenile Long-tailed skua
As we reached Severn Stones, an unbelievable thing happened as we had 13 Grey Phalaropes fly past us and land on the sea. As we watched these, more kept appearing. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Even Bob Flood, who has done pelagics all over the world, was in shock. We must have seen over 50 plus.
I have never seen so many Grey Phalaropes.
The trip had been fantastic, and we also saw good numbers of Manx shearwaters and 2 more Sooty shearwaters on the way back.
Getting back to St. Mary's, a rainbow greeted us over the golf course. It had been a cracking few days on the Isles of Scilly with good friends and great birds. ROLL ON 2017.
