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. Michaels Mount.
The Scillionian
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All ready for the Pelagics
The crossing over to the Isles of Scilly produced 5 Cory's Shearwater, 2 Great Shearwater, 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
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 this evening as we passed Bishop Rock lighthouse on the way back. We go again tomorrow
Day 2 Pelagic
Today Me, Dan, and Neil spent the morning walking around St. Mary's. 2 Great White Egrets and 2 Common Rosefinch were seen.
Dan and Neil
Dan found two Common Rosefinch's 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 Petrel, 4 Great Skuas and a Balearic Shearwater
Great Skua
Coming back in to 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 Pertel, 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 equal split Cory's/Great, from the Scillonian on the way home back to Penzance.
Pelagic's already booked for next year. WE'LL BE BACK!