Porthcressa beach and The Garrison, St Mary's

Our house that we had rented for this holiday was pretty near to this Ancient burial chamber up on a hill overlooking Hugh Town (the main town on St Mary's). On a couple of occasions during my week on the Islands, I did a circular walk which involved walking down past the burial chamber and onto Porthcressa beach below, then walk along the beach and up onto the hill in the distance on the left there which leads to The Garrison and then on down into Hugh Town.Here is another view of Porthcressa beach and Hugh Town from the Peninnis headland.The view is fabulous on the way down to the beach. In the distance on the right is the twin peaks of Samson island. Samson is the largest of the uninhabited islands. It used to be inhabited, but was abandoned back in 1855, leaving its cottages empty and wildlife reigning over its gorse covered slopes.From this photo of Porthcressa beach, you might almost imagine you were in the Caribbean!Here is the path down to the beach on a less clement day! I guess the view wasn't quite as magnificent this day! (-:

Those benches would be lovely to sit on when the weather was a bit clearer!On the path along the bay there was this Herring Gull quite happily standing in a puddle (probably admiring the view) (-: His reflection was too good for me to miss too, and I managed to get off a few shots of him taking a drink.

A juvenile Herring Gull wasn't quite so much of a poser. This was the best view he would give me.The ubiquitous Oystercatchers (Oiks for short) were dodging the waves on the beach.One got caught out and flitted a little way along to dodge this little wavelet!I don't think it's going to have much luck landing there either! (-:On up past the beach and you have to walk through the outer wall of The Garrison to get up on top. Here's one of my friends Dave having to duck down to get through. I only had to duck a little bit! (-:Up on top and the old canons are still in place, ready to fight off all comers.On this particular day, it was misty and drizzly with the promise of heavier rain to come. My three birding buddies are up ahead of me deciding whether to walk the whole way around The Garrison in the rain or not. They did. I on the other hand, decided to return to the house for a cuppa tea instead! Wimp or what! (-:The walk around the garrison starts here with a lovely tree covered walkway. This is a good area for passerines to take shelter when going through on migration.You can't see it in this photo, but Porthcressa beach is now down below on the left.Eventually you walk out of the tree covered area onto an area of gorse and bracken with stunning views over to other islands. This I think is St Agnes in the distance.

I've done this photos slightly out of sequence (again)! Below are a couple of photos taken of a Yellow-browed Warbler along the leafy pathway. This small and very flitty warbler is a vagrant to Britain from Siberia. It winters down in south east Asia so is well of course I'm afraid. These aren't brilliant photos as it was quite dark under the leaf canopy and the bird was staying in a patch of trees with the sun behind and I would had to have been standing in mid air over Porthcressa beach to get the sun behind me, so I guess that wasn't going to happen! (-:

This Collared Dove on the other hand was more than obliging by perching on a bare branch with the sun behind me. I love the lichen hanging down on that branch.We had an amazing influx of migrant Painted Ladies in Britain this year and they were still being seen here on the Isles of Scilly in mid October. As with alot of insects, this one was taking advantage of the late nectar from Ivy flowers.Having walked all the way round The Garrison, you end up in Hugh Town and the harbour area.I thought I'd stick this one in last with our Union Jack flying high over The Garrison on St Mary's with the island of Tresco in the background. There will be one more post from the Isles of Scilly before my journey back to the mainland and Cornwall.