Lower Moors on St Mary's

One of my favourite places to go birding on St Mary's is Lower Moors. This is situated just north of Old Town Bay and is about a 20 minute walk from the house where we were staying. It is an area of reedbed with a pond that has two hides to look out from. This year there was an awful lot of algae covering quite a large percentage of the water which was pretty for photographs, but not so good for the birds. This photo below was taken one evening with the warm light of a beautiful sunset.One of the things I like about Lower Moors is that you can get quite a bit closer to the birds which made for some nice photo opportunities. This Common Snipe was happily feeding away about 15-20 feet from me.Here it is cropped in a bit.I like this shot alot, if I could just have got a nice glint in the eye, I'd have been a VERY happy bunny!This one is taken against a more camouflaged background.As well as two hides, there is also a well placed bird blind which we all made use of. This is Geoff, David and Jane watching something intently.Then it was my turn, we were probably looking at Snipe again as this is a favoured spot for them. I took a couple of short videos of the Snipe which I hope you can view by clicking on the following youtube links: http://www.youtube.com/user/24Winterwren#p/u/1/njXFiEdYt3g and http://www.youtube.com/user/24Winterwren#p/u/2/OD0AwPLnDEc I'm pretty new to putting stuff on youtube, so please let me know if it works ok.This photo of a lovely Grey Wagtail was taken in poor light so when cropped made it quite a 'soft' photo. They're such graceful birds with that long bobbing tail and subtle colouring.This next set of photos was taken in that beautiful warm evening sunlight. An adult Moorhen gradually made its way closer to the hide where I was sitting. I've never managed to get a decent photo of Moorhen, but these didn't turn out too bad. I love the rich colouring and reflections made by the bird and the grasses.

Not such gorgeous lighting, but this young Moorhen was puttering around in the grass just in front of my hide. They continually flick their tails up and down and this is used by the adults for display and warnings too.

Now, can you guess what this is??? Yes, the humble Starling having a preen on this handy perch which was sticking up in the middle of the pond! Looks like a yoga position to me! (-: I had a fun few hours in the hides at Lower Moors on this trip.

Isles of Scilly - Tresco

It was Monday morning and a brilliant blue sky day. After spending two days on the island of St Mary's, I thought it was time to visit another island. Most of the boats leave St Mary's for other islands around 10.15 to 10.30 each morning. When you get down to the harbour area there is a blackboard which tells you which boat is going to which island that day. You buy your boat tickets in advance and then just decide which island you will visit when you get down to the quay. I think this red one coming in was our boat for the island of Tresco.As we left the quay, I noticed the Scilly lifeboat moored up in the harbour. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Britain is solely funded by donations from the public and is manned by volunteers. They all have other jobs which get left standing when an emergency comes up. They do an amazing job and I can't praise them highly enough!A website which might be of interest is www.simplyscilly.co.uk this gives you a great overview of the various islands.

The boat trip to Tresco takes about 20 minutes. Because of the tides, we arrived at one quay and would be picked up later in the day from a different quay further up the island. Below is a view from Tresco over to the island of Bryher. Apparently on a low tide it is possible to wade over from one island to the other. This is something I haven't tried up to now and am not likely to as I can't swim! (-:Here is another view over to Bryher from New Grimsby quay.I've just now realised that I've not put these photos in the best order, but never mind! (-: After spending a couple of hours on the island finding and watching various birds that we'd been hoping to see, my friends decided they fancied walking the north part of the island for the rest of their time on Tresco. I on the other hand was in the mood to just find somewhere to sit and stare and soak up the ambiance of the place. So, saying farewell to my friends I ambled slowly towards our pick up point for later in the afternoon. I found my spot to sit and soak up the sun and sea at New Grimsby quay.

There would be two chances in the afternoon to get the boat back to St Mary's. At 2.30 and at 4.30. I knew my friends would be getting the 4.30 one back and I had about an hour or so till the 2.30 boat came in.

When I got to the quay the tide was well out so I had the opportunity to watch it gradually come back in (very relaxing).As I sat there on a comfy granite boulder (and yes it really was comfy!), I managed to get a shot of this Greenshank as it flew past me to settle on the far side of New Grimsby bay.I liked this succulent type plant that had nestled in amongst the granite boulders. It obviously doesn't need much soil to thrive!The colour of the exposed seaweed was fabulous. I haven't mucked about with the colour of these photos at all.There was also that wonderful briny smell of seaweed to enjoy too! On the beach this big beast of a Great Black-backed Gull gave me a steely glare! I'm not sure he was too keen on having his photo taken!Out of order I'm afraid, but here is a dodgy digiscoped photo of a Long-billed Dowitcher taken earlier that day. This is a vagrant to our shores. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo when he was awake.Back at the quayside, this was one of the local's fishing boats. I just liked the slightly rusty old look to the boat and that little sail stuck up at the back.This small rowing boat was waiting for the tide to come in too. Back in 2002 on a previous trip to these islands, I and my friends 'twitched' a Baltimore Oriole in a boat like this, but that's a whole 'nother story! (-:This last photo was taken back on St Mary's. It was on another day and the sky had a very brooding look to it. As I was looking out towards the island of Tresco the sun happened to come out and shine just on that part of Tresco where the lighthouse was. It made for a lovely photo opportunity I think. As usual, most of these photos would be better if clicked on to enlarge.

Isles of Scilly - Peninnis Head

Hooray! Photos loaded up OK this evening! (-:
Today's post is more of a scenery one and all the photos will probably benefit if you click to enlarge them. I've marked on the map below with a red blob where our house was approximately on the island of St Mary's. We were just 2 minutes walk away from the footpath to Peninnis Head. The start of the footpath looks quite unpromising, but it soon opens out onto wonderful scenery.After a 10 minute walk you end up at the tip of Peninnis Head. The granite rocks here are both imposing and comforting. That may sound strange, but they're imposing in that as you walk amongst them, they tend to loom over you, but also, in less clement weather they can protect you from the worst of the weather coming in off the Atlantic ocean! This is a great place for a spot of sea-watching. I didn't get to do as much of that as I would have liked on this trip, but managed to get in an hour or so one morning (there's just so much else to do in a week!).The early morning light on these magnificent rocks was just stunning. In this photo below you can see the island of St Agnes basking in the morning sunshine.

I'm not sure how many lighthouses there are on the Isles of Scilly, I'm sure Steve from Shooting My Universe would have made it his business to find out! (-: This is the one at the end of Peninnis Head.It looked to be well maintained and was getting a repaint job done on it while I was there.I did manage to take a couple of shots of birds while walking on Peninnis. Not anything wildly rare, but they were posing nicely so I couldn't pass up the chance for some shots. This is a Rock Pipit unsurprising on a rock covered in beautifully coloured lichen.Here is a madly staring Dunnock (Hedge Sparrow) again on some lovely lichen covered rock.The east side of Peninnis has a gentler feel to it and I found these Agapanthus growing in an old bulb field. This is looking over Old Town Bay towards Porth Hellick and the airport.

There are some fantastic rock formations dusted over with that amazingly creamy green lichenHere the green lichen is joined by a vibrant saffron coloured variety. I find these coloured particularly attractive.The west side of Peninnis Head is much more rugged. The Granite outcrops really are stunning.

I would love to experience this area in some really stormy weather. I'll take it in gentle sunlight though! (-:Finally, I have another rock that reminded me of an animal. This time I thought this looked like a pair of penguins snuggled up together! Yes or no??? (-: More from Scilly later....

Frustrated of Frome!!!

Hi folks

I seem to be having trouble uploading my photos onto blogger this evening. Due to some internal error apparently. Has anyone else had that message come up? It's all very frustrating!

Birding the Isles of Scilly - part 1

Over the next few posts, I'll be sharing with you my week long trip to the Isles of Scilly. This is a group of small islands just 28 miles off the south west tip of England. I've pinched the following introduction from a brochure about the islands as I thought it encapsulated this special place very well. "Escape to a place where nature cannot hide. A wild archipelago that basks in a mild climate. A place where the views flicker from sunshine glinting on the vast canvas of the Atlantic, to eerie fog and dramatic storm clouds thundering across the sea. A place where ships have foundered on granite reefs lashed by ocean swells. A place where the rugged coast is punctuated by soft, pearly beaches."
My other birding friends had already been on Scilly for a week and I would be joining them for their second one. I drove the 3.5 hours down to Penzance at the ungodly hour of 2am to catch the 7.30 flight on Friday. There are 3 ways to get over to the islands. My preference was by helicopter (apologies for the dodgy photo here. I was probably feeling a bit shaky for this shot just before boarding my flight!)The journey takes about 20 minutes and is quite exhilarating. On the way over, I could just make out some Northern Gannets flying way below me (birding already!) (-: In the photo below, I'm just approaching St Mary's which is the largest of the inhabited islands with a population of 1,590 and is 1,554 acres in size.Touchdown at St Mary's airport went safely. There were just 5 of us on the flight so as you can imagine, claiming baggage didn't take very long! (-:I mentioned other ways go get over to Scilly. There is the Skybus option which I've never taken so far. Could be fun though!The third option is to sail over in the Scillonian, a smallish passenger ship. I have done this in the past, but..........in order to be able to dock in the shallow waters around the Isles of Scilly, this ship has a shallow, flat bottom to it. In an even moderate swell this ship wallows about like a pregnant whale! I have never been sea sick so far, but I just don't like sailing on this boat. I leave that to my birding friend Jane who absolutely adores the crossing whatever the weather!Here it is coming in to dock at St Mary's quay.At this point, I thought I'd show a photo of my birding buddies. From left to right there is David, Me, Geoff, Jane and Dave. They're a great bunch of people and it was a pleasure to spend the week birding with them.No sooner had I downed some breakfast at the house we'd rented than Jane dragged me out the door and down to the quay to catch a small boat to the island of St Agnes. She knew that there was a life bird on the island for me and was keen to get me off to a good start. These small motorised boats are the most popular way to get between the five inhabited islands, for holiday makers anyway. St Agnes is the southern most island of the group and has a population of 90 people. It is 366 acres in size and is probably the wildest of the inhabited islands. If a bird gets blown off course from America, then St Agnes is probably the first landfall it would see. A few years ago, I 'twitched' an American Robin on St Agnes on my first ever visit to these islands. The photo below shows the small quay where our boat put in.In the bay by the quay, I saw this Shag diving for fish. It was really close in and didn't seem to mind me taking loads of shot of him.The water was so clear, it was fun to watch him underwater.As he surfaced each time, the water seemed to cling to his feathers. As we made our way inland, the views all around were fabulous. It was great to be back here after a break of several years!The southern half of the island is an area of heather and bracken and large granite stones and is called Wingletang. I don't know the reason for it, but it's a great name! (-:This rock formation reminds me of a running dog with it's ears laid back! (-:Back at the quay, I noticed this Rock Pipit on an incredibly green rock which contrasted nicely with the pinkish granite.It was a great first day on the islands and by the way, yes I did see my life bird.....a Red-breasted Flycatcher. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of it. I'll have more about the Isles of Scilly in my next post. Click to enlarge any of the photos.