Scilly Pelagic

Last Tuesday evening saw us on one of Joe Penders shark fishing/birders pelagic, where we chummed 5 miles south west of St Mary's, Tony Brown had other ideas and decided to chum just after a mile out ! then again at two mile, and then Three.......

TB pre chum...........

Joe's catch and release program has been going for a number of years now and has had some recoveries as far as the Cape Verde islands some several thousands of miles away !!


It was great to see BLUE SHARK up close and personnel, with only the one specimen caught that evening but double figure catches are common.

tag fitted

shaking hands with a blue shark.....

So to the birding, I wasn't expecting to see to much being fairly late in the seabird calendar but we did see at least 25 SOOTY SHEARWATERS some coming fairly close to the boat, at least 15 STORM PETREL, these tiny little birds are amazing how they spend there whole time out at sea.

sooty's

stormies

Four adult SABINES GULLS were seen late on, and several Bonxies passed as did several Manx's.

The most amazing experience of the evening was the sight of some 200 to 300 Common Dolphin, where many came up to the boat to check us out and played around in the surf, and even riding the bow on a number of occasions, truly magical experience.

TB post chum........

Peninnis Head

Peninnis head became our regular patch for the week and was a good indication if anything new was arriving, and Tuesday afternoon it turned up trumps when we stumbled on this fine Ortolan.

This Lap bunt was a regular feature too.

Scilly Waders

Back from a superb week on scilly with Blowmonkey and Dick with TB joining us for a couple of nights,
not the rarest of week's but with some good supporting cast of scare's.

Scilly is a great place to see waders :

this dotterel was on the airfield.

as was this buffy

these greenshank on porthhelick

Common snipe on lower moors.

found this cracking Pec on aggy

jammed in on this stilt on the hayle.

and some nice bar-wits

Shrike Porn !

Just back from West Canvey Marsh RSPB where this superb juvenile Red- Backed Shrike showed incredibly well despite the dismal weather.

Sorrento - Italy

Back from a family wedding in Sorrento - Italy.  What a beautiful place.  My first visit to this country and was very impressed with the culture and scenery but absolutely not good for birding!!  Not that it was a birding trip but I obviously packed the bins and camera, but should have not really bothered.

So why is Italy so poor for birding??  The habitat is outstanding, mixed wooded hillsides with plenty of Olive and Oak plantations and its September!!!  Thought I would be tripping over migrants ......nope.

My first afternoon I found a Wood Warbler in the garden and .........................that was it.

Second day was an awesome day.  A day trip to, on and around the island of Capri, what a superb place and in between the boozing on the boat and site seeing just managed a couple of spot fly's a brief Sardinain warbler, Black Kite and several Honey Buzzard through.

Third day - Wedding - drunk.

Fourth Day - Hangover - still drunk

Day five - chillout around pool before home!  All dark eagle sp over + HB thru, Swallow.

Italy Trip list :

Yellow-Legged Gull
Black Kite
Honey Buzzard
Eagle sp
Collard Dove
Blackbird
Italian Sparrow
Serin
Sardinian Warbler
Wood Warbler
Jackdaw
Hooded Crow
Swallow
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Chaffinch
Greenfinch

Capri

Sorrento

aaaahhh  a bird, this was about the only bird I saw without it doing the bolt!! 

(probably because I stunned it with a bread roll!!)

Bring back the Easterlies.......

Another bright sunny weekend and back to being quiet on the patch, though i did add a fine Spotted Flycatcher in the adjacent ripple nature reserve amongst the long-tailed tit flock which was not expected.

Other than that the bay was pretty bird less bar the usuals.

Chiffy

Lesser throat