Saturday 20 August 2016

Scilly Pelagics - August 2016

Another August, another set of pelagics. This year I did 7 pelagics with the first pelagic of the year being a private 'charter' for Scott's stag do, or a 'Staglagic'. This was without a doubt the best of the 7 and we were lucky to get 22 Cory's Shearwater and a couple of Great Shearwater (The only Cory's we saw on the trip). However, the star bird, and the species that has taken me back to the islands 3 times so far is Wilson's Storm-petrel. We were treated to at least 5 of these wonderful seabirds and they were on view from 18:25-c9pm. Just absolutely everything I had hoped for and it made for a fantastic evening! We ended up in the Mermaid in celebration and that's about all I can remember!










Later on the trip the weather wasn't quite on my side so there were several extremely quiet pelagics. Saturday's was the best of the further 6 pelagics though. A summary list includes:
Monday 8th - Sooty Shearwater.
Thursday 11th - Sooty Shearwater.
Friday 12th - Wilson's Storm-petrel, Sooty Shearwater, 4 Risso's Dolphin,
Saturday 13th - adult Sabine's Gull (self-found), Great Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, dark Arctic Skua, 5 Risso's Dolphin, 10+ Common Dolphin, 2 Minke Whale, Greenfinch! Also a Hooded Crow on St. Martin's.
Sunday 14th - 2 Sooty Shearwater, c40 Common Dolphin, Ocean Sunfish
Monday 15th - 1st summer Long-tailed Skua (self-found), 3 Common Dolphin