Friday August 23rd - Monday August 26th 2024

A trip to Scilly to 'do the Pelagics' was long-awaited, I first started thinking about it properly at least 5 years ago when the sightings and social media stuff really became impossible to ignore. We were booked on the Friday evening and both weekend Birder Specials, with a Scillonian crossing either side for good measure.

The ferry looked a cert to produce large shearwaters and so it proved, by Wolf Rock I had lifer sightings of both Cory's and Great Shearwater. The Greats were more numerous and came closer, they were whizzing past the bow of the boat. It was stunning to watch. A handful of Cory's were more circumspect. We also got a brief view of a Sabine's Gull. On St. Mary's there was time to pick up an immaculate Pectoral Sandpiper at Lower Moors. It was quite evocative to wander around this place and the lanes and think about some of the twitches and general mayhem from the halcyon days of the islands, especially when you know birders that used to do it

The evening Pelagic was incredibly exciting, a real sense of adventure but the calm approach of the Scilly Pelagics was reassuring and it seemed very well-organised. The formula is very simple; sail out, chuck bread for the gulls, rely on that to interest other birds, arrive at some suitable point, put out chum, then drift slowly and see what happens. I thought it was funny that this highly evolved and renowned operation still relied on loaves of bread in the first instance...

We had some incredible views of Great Shearwater within the first 30 minutes or so, with a few Cory's, then as we started to chum the Storm Petrels began to appear, this was a lifer for me. Finally a Wilson's Petrel was called, and that was my fourth lifer of the day, fantastic! I was still adjusting to the rolling of the boat while we drifted so I can't say I had crippling views, it was too hard to keep my bins steady, but I got a couple of views to see the projecting toes and appreciate the more direct flight approach. We saw a few very close dolphins and a sunfish too.

The next morning was full of anticipation as we hadn't seen anything much other than the 'core targets' per se and the conditions were going to be better. Soon after we hit the open sea a 'feed' was spotted, i.e. a feeding flock of birds and potentially some fish and cetaceans. We throttled back and got the seminal views of shearwaters floating on the water, bobbing up and down within 50m or so. Mainly Manx but a Great and a Sooty in there too. As we carried on a skua was shouted. and we all saw a small bird tracking in, which had to be a juv Long-tailed. Soon after this we had Wilson's Petrel off the stern and so another shout of 'Skua' had most of us turning round, to see a Great Skua gliding right above us.

Or was it? Bob Flood calmly shouted 'probable South Polar!' and the camera shutters were going like machine guns. In truth I had managed to detect that the bird was a bit puzzling from my limited experience of Greats, it wasn't as bulky or aggressive looking, and it didn't have the very striking white wing flashes I expected. It also looked very plain and dark, but I had been thinking about Pomarine, not the Mega! Of course the material feature turns out to be the wing moult, which is what the ID was actually based on. As it circled a couple of times and then drifted away, we were conscious that this was a seriously good sighting; evidently when the ID is established in the moment on the boat everyone is happier.

My tally for the trip was around 50+ Great Shears, 5 or so Cory's, 25+ Storm Petrels, 3 or 4 Wilson's, plus the stunning LT Skua, the South Polar and 2 Great Skuas which were interesting to consider just after the close relative. We noted that the reported counts were much higher than this, which is intriguing. I am not very good at counting though...Also of note as we steamed in, we heard a muttering of 'Pteradroma' and apparently 3 or 4 of the spotters and other veterans around the cabin had seen one distantly. But for anyone like me reading the sightings on Birdguides, don't imagine that everyone on the boat sees absolutely everything and they are all coming to bread. We had no bloody idea sat in the back!

Next morning started off feeling like 'After the Lord Mayor's Show' but the sea was calmer and with the birds we'd seen it didn't seem to matter. As we steamed out the large shears were all Cory's though, and as we started chumming they were coming closer. A bird swooped in off the port side and Flood cheerfully said 'This one looks interesting...' and then said 'That was probably a Scopoli's' and when it came back around it was called as such. Hmmm! I didn't see any features myself, I saw the bird but it felt like a missed opportunity. 5 minutes later the same thing happened again! They called Scopoli's Shearwater, but then 'its a different bird' and this time I got the smaller size and essentially everyone got on one feature or another in the moment. So just the 2nd Mega of the weekend then! Again to call the birds directly in the moment is the dream, and the photos were there for all to see in any case.

As exciting as this was, and then soon after we had a pristine juvenile Sabine's Gull that tap-danced for us, but the real joy of this run was the petrels as we drifted. The light was incredible for good views, brighter than Friday but flatter than Saturday, so suddenly every petrel you saw had visible wing markings and was much easier to ID quickly. There was a period of 30 mins or so where I didn't even use my bins too much, you could pick up the Wilson's by eye flying in by their jizz and the wing panels. It was unreal.

The final highlight for me was as we headed back in. The weather had got squally and as the rain was coming down I got on a dark looking shearwater in the distance and nearly shouted Sooty straight away. I should have in hindsight, lesson learned, but I was trying to work it out myself and it wasn't a Sooty, wasn't big enough. As it tracked in I saw it was around Manx size but dumpier and with darker underparts behind the wings. I finally said 'possible Balearic' at this stage but sadly nobody else got on the bird. Back in harbour I mentioned it to Bob and the spotters and they said one of them had called one at the same time, so they were happy to take my call on it. I was quite chuffed that they trusted my ID to say the least, I half expected some pushback. They even put it on Birdguides!

So the pelagics were over, and we just had a free morning on St. Mary's and the ferry back to look forward to. The island was very quiet for birds, there has been a fall of Wrynecks since of course, but we saw precious little on our walk, although the abundance of Swallows was nice, suggestive of most of the UK a few years ago, much like the numbers of House Sparrows. The ferry was good, a flatter sea made it easier than the outward, and the highlights this time were lots of close Cory's, 3 spanking juvenile Sabine's Gulls through together in a group and a single Storm Petrel that I refer to as in open play rather than from a set-piece.

Reflecting on the experience, it is something I will never forget, bits of it felt like a dream. Beforehand I was concerned about being seasick, what sort of views we'd get, if we'd even see a Wilson's! The movement of the boat does need getting used to, it rolls a lot in the swell and you have to find your balance but by Sunday we were all completely fine with it. They are long trips so it has a gruelling quality, you are definitely ready for a brew and a sit down when you get back. But if you are OK with that (and it wasn't like we were rowing the thing!) then the experience is unmissable.

The quality of the birders on there was stellar but there was no arrogance and it was a warm and friendly atmosphere. We sat near Richard Stonier as he chucked bread and mealworms for hours on end, and he was a gentleman in terms of answering questions as well as obviously calling the birds. The operation is refined at this stage, we spoke to guys that had been on trips a few years back and not seen anything like our stuff, but you can basically rely on the large shears and petrels these days. So all in all one of the best birding things I will ever do, sensational.