ISLES OF SCILLY PELAGICS-SOUTH POLAR SKUA

With five sightings of South Polar Skua being seen off the Isles of Scilly in the last couple of months, my good friend John Pegden organised three pelagics to try and see this species, and twelve of us finally agreed to go across.

I met up with Dan Pointon, Mark Sutton, and John Pegdan, and we headed down late morning. The journey down was full of optimism and conversation that we could see this rare bird. It was better to be out at sea than sit at home thinking what if!. Anyway, we called in at Cape Cornwall late afternoon, and we all got great views of a Melodious warbler, only my fourth for Britain. 

Melodious Warbler

Cape Cornwall in the evening sun

The evening was spent in Penzance at the local curry house after a long drive south.

We were all up at 6.30am and made our way down to the quay in Penzance, where the dawn sun greeted us behind St. Michael's Mount.

The Scillionian 

All ready for the Pelagics

The crossing over to the Isles of Scilly produced 5 Cory's Shearwater, 2 Great Shearwater, a Juvenile Sabine's Gull, and a Sooty Shearwater.

Here are the summaries of what we saw over the next few days:

Day 1 Pelagic

14 miles SW of St Mary's: 170 Cory Shearwaters, 10 Great Shearwaters, 2 Great Skuas, 12 European Storm Petrels and 250+ Short-Beaked Common Dolphins

Heading out of St Mary's

Great Shearwaters breed on Nightingale Island, Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha, and Gough Island. It is one of only a few bird species to migrate from breeding grounds in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere.

No South Polar Skua was spotted this evening as we passed the Bishop Rock lighthouse on our way back. We will try again tomorrow.

Day 2 Pelagic

Today, Dan, Neil, and I spent the morning walking around St. Mary's. We saw 2 Great White Egrets and 2 Common Rosefinches.

Dan and Neil 

Dan found two Common Rosefinches by St. Mary's airport, which showed well. We left St. Mary's at 1pm for the next Pelagic.

Adrian getting the bread in for the Pelagic from the local Co-Op

At sea, various locations: 15 Great Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwater, 2 European Storm Petrels, 4 Great Skuas and a Balearic Shearwater

Great Skua

Coming back into St Mary's

The evening was spent with my mate Higgo, who lives on the islands, having a few beers and a catch-up.

Day 3 Pelagic

Wolf Lighthouse and return: 2 juvenile Sabine's Gull, Arctic Skua, 80 Cory’s Shearwater, 20 Great Shearwater, Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater, 3 European Storm Petrel, 40 Short-Beaked Common Dolphin.

Wolf Lighthouse

Juvenile Sabine's gulls breed in the Arctic, and they migrate south to the Southern Hemisphere in the autumn, covering up 24,000 miles per year—the longest migration of any gull

Well, after three days of pelagics, we headed home with no sighting of a South Polar Skua. We did have a feeding group of >300 large shearwaters just west of the Wolf, seemingly an equal split of Cory's/Great, from the Scillonian on the way home back to Penzance.

Pelagic's already booked for next year. WE'LL BE BACK!