Profile avatar
scottinscilly.bsky.social
Seabirds | Scilly Birding | Scilly Pelagics | Rockpooling | On the magical Isles of Scilly 🏝️ Seabird Feed: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:25f3ymfqqg6cjzijggpbdz7q/feed/aaacp4v7qldjy #seabirds www.scillyrockpoolsafaris.co.uk 🦀
74 posts 1,708 followers 535 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter

Enjoyable rockpooling in Scilly this week, the highlight being this superb Polycera quadrilineata which performed beautifully for our safari group #ScillyRockpools #Nudibranchs 🦑

A little ray of Scilly sunshine… Male citrine wagtail on Bryher this evening. A top spring find by John O’Sullivan earlier in the day! Amazingly my first male citrine wagtail ever, anywhere! 🙌 #ScillyBirds

News from Fogo this afternoon that the lights will be turned off from today, thanks to swift action and communication by the Projecto Vito team 🙌

Am switching from Twitter and putting my last few posts from Twitter onto BlueSky: 2 Black-capped Petrels from pelagic, 4 miles west of Sao Filipe, Fogo, 21 March, around boat for 27 minutes by first last photo. This photo by Kirk Zufelt. #seabirds

Mist netting Cape Verde Petrel Pterodroma feae, 21 March, in conjunction with research of Projecto Vitó Cabo Verde (on Fogo) - Herculano Dinis, Jacob Gonzales Solis and team. 23 birds processed. Much learning. #seabirds

An exceptional first 3 (of 7) days pelagic seabirding off Fogo, Cape Verde with 18+ hours spent at sea and c.150km traveled so far. Many highlights, but this mornings black-capped petrels steal the headlines… undoubtedly the best ever views of the species in the Western Palearctic! #seabirds

First day on Fogo & an early morning seawatch from our São Filipe apartment balcony… no less than five minutes in & a black-capped petrel flies through my scope!! Large numbers of Fea’s petrels, Cape Verde shearwaters, red-billed tropicbirds, and a Boyd’s shear also. This afternoon we go to sea 🌊

This pied crow initially arrived on St. Mary’s for a day in late December before returning in February, settling in Old Town where it has been residing now for the past fortnight. Some interesting decisions to be made on the recent ‘influx’ of the species in to Europe! #ScillyBirds #rarebirdsuk

I have one space available on the 2025 Challenger Expedition to the continental shelf edge. The 2024 trip yielded Madeiran storm-petrels, barolo shearwaters, a fea’s-type petrel & much more, all in British waters. Sept 14th-22nd from Plymouth. Email [email protected] for more info #seabirds

A pleasant start to the birding year on the Isles of Scilly. Nothing remarkable currently, but plenty of chiffchaffs on the beaches, a couple of long-staying great egrets, a handful of black redstarts & plenty of ducks, divers & seabirds offshore are keeping it all ticking over #ScillyBirds

Pied crow around Hugh Town this afternoon! Can’t say I saw that coming, even with one lingering at Land’s End. The 26 mile sea crossing certainly adds intrigue when assessing the likelihood of them hopping the Strait of Gibraltar or the Channel. Regardless of origin, a very cool bird! #ScillyBirds

Little auk taken in to care yesterday after initial release attempt was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, it passed away in the night. A sad end for Scilly’s first little auk since 2016 - a wonderfully charismatic little bird! #ScillyBirds #Seabirds 📷 courtesy of Mark Baker 🙏

🦑

Update by Dan Gornall on our Yellow-browed warbler project "1) Mainland Shetland > Carmel Head, Anglesey 2) Lundy > Lower Moors, Scilly. Especially interesting southerly re-orientation from Shetland. Many thanks to the ringers & birders who reported these". 📸Reg Thorpe. @alexanderlees.bsky.social

Still my favourite strand line discovery to date - a female Phronima sedentaria (‘monster in a barrel’) - Isles of Scilly, October 2023! An amphipod crustacean, she parasitises salps, devouring them from the inside, forming a vessel to raise her young 👽 #MarineLife 🦑 #ukwildlife

An excellent morning down the Porth Hellick ringing lanes with a dusky warbler, two yellow-broweds, four sibes (tristis) amongst the chiffs, a water rail added some variety, and I found a Richard’s pipit whilst showing the dusky to a crowd of two! November eastern magic 🙌 #ScillyBirds 🪶

#seabirds Some great opportunities on a superb island in 2025 🙌

As more people arrive to Bluesky, a reminder to use the Seabirds feed for posts relating to seabird research, conservation, pelagics, seawatching, expeditions, identification & photography. Like & pin the feed, and contribute to it by using #seabirds in your posts! 🌊🐦🙌 bsky.app/profile/did:...

A busy morning at Porth Hellick yesterday with a substantial arrival of chiffchaffs. Approx. 40+ moved through the ringing site from the coast over 3 hours, 24 of which were ringed including two Siberian chiffchaff. Also ringed of note was a yellow-browed warbler and a fieldfare #ScillyBirds 🪶

The goose barnacle Lepas hillii is a rare visitor to Britain. Separated from the common L. anatifera by its orange collar & brightly-edged shell plates, this tropical ocean drifter occurs only occasionally in odd ones & twos. So to discover 60+ on Scilly this week was truly remarkable! #MarineLife

An eastern-themed end to a pleasant and settled October on Scilly #ScillyBirds #UKbirding

A wonderfully confiding 1w dotterel on Shipman Head Down, Bryher #ScillyBirds #UKBirding #ukwildlife

The confiding lesser yellowlegs at Stinking Porth, Bryher, yesterday afternoon. A very enjoyable hour spent with a wet belly watching & photographing this very sleek nearctic wader #ScillyBirds 🪶

A steady start to October on Scilly - nothing to get the adrenaline pumping so far, but a steady flow of migrants and scarcities. The next seven days holds eastern promise 🤞 #ScillyBirding

The inaugural Challenger Expedition to British waters on the continental shelf edge was a resounding success! We recorded 24 species of seabird inc. the discovery of 2+ Madeiran storm-petrel, 4 barolo shearwater, 1 fea’s-type petrel, & 192 Wilson’s storm-petrel #seabirds More updates to follow…

Place filled. Thanks to all who shared the post 🙏

Scilly’s first gull-billed tern in 24 yrs spent y’day afternoon feeding along the tideline of Porthcressa Beach for a crowd of appreciative observers. Absolute Scilly gold & the first ‘gettable’ record for the islands, with all previous birds being ‘one-dayers’! #RareBirdsUK #ukbirding