Scilly, Part IV

 Wednesday, 6th July

On the 6th we decided to venture further into the island, and set off broadly in the direction of a circuit around Porth Hellick, Higher Moor and Holy Vale, with a return down Rocky Hill Road, where we had heard tell of Kangaroo Fern. We must have spent a bit of time in Hugh Town (I think we were lunch shopping), as Tim spotted Musk Storksbill on the side of a bit of rough ground/pavement edge. This completed our Erodium set; a satisfying feeling.

We came across a few plants, and the expected Greater Tussock Sedge in Higher Moor, as well as a few insects, including Rush Veneer. My photos of that are too out of focus to even post. Fortunately we bumped into a man who knew exactly where the Kangaroo Fern was, otherwise we'd probably have walked past it. 

We also had a lot of Rose Chafers, one of which we had seen earlier in the week.

A stand of Grey Alders were being dismantled by some cute Striped Alder Sawfly larvae.

Remarkably, we still had some energy to do an hour of rock pooling in the late afternoon, having been told that the closest pool to the beach is a good spot. It was still open to the sea at this level of the tide, but we found a couple of things, including the much-anticipated Star Ascidian.

Thursday 7th July

Today we decided to go to St.Agnes, though not before we finally got Smaller Treee Mallow, a species that gave us the serious runaround. Having been looking for a Tree Mallow, but a bit smaller, Pete finally bagged it after we had resolved that it was nothing like "a tree mallow". In fact it's a small herbaceous plant. which is probably a Tree Mallow by dint of being a Lavatera, which it isn't any more (spoiler alert - it's a Malva)

St.Agnes - not the most productive, but we caught up with Lampranthus deltoides finally

sand bar

Apparently I didn't take any pics of the nice patch of Yellow-horned Poppy , which is a bit of a shame. Here's some Sea Holly from Gugh instead.

We did visit the fantastically-named Wingletang Down, but to be honest there wasn't much to see there, with all the fancy clovers being apparently long-since over. Everything was dry as a bone into the bargain.

Best of the day for me was Goose Barnacles, attached to the bottom of a buoy near the sand bar.

Then a bit of mothing in the evening again, which also turned up Tubular Water Dropwort. 

Dolicharthia punctalis, a nice SW specialty

A bristletail, as yet unidentified

One of a few rowdy Cockchafers

Friday, 8th July

A last day (almost) to home in on target species with laser-like focus resulted in about a 50% hit rate on our list, with some records clearly having been not-to-be-repeated one-offs. You can see in the above track a failed attempt at what look like they must have been spoil heap plants at the end of the road, followed by a successful attempt on House Holly Fern in Porth Minick. We also managed to jam into a much-awaited Bermuda Buttercup along the road. It was the only one of the trip! Equally we found two plants of Small-flowered catchfly, one of which was still a bit green. The flowering, sadly, was clearly long over.

The weather was horrible throughout - yet somehow we muddled through.

Saturday, 9th July

Saturday morning was going to be all about sorting the luggage to be picked up and then maybe a brief local tour before boarding the ferry.. That's what it was going to be, at least, until I got a message before seven that there was Prickly Stick Insect to be seen across the road! We did have a half hour while our host changed out of his jammies, so luggage was hastily thrown together, breakfast was downed and we set off for a last quick feast of invert loveliness.

Prickly Stick

Privet Hawk

Four-spotted Footman

We set off toward the Garrison to look for a plant in Newman's Battery, which turned out to be a private garden, and not to apparently have the plant anyway. We did, however, manage to catch up with another dew plant - the mysterious, and much less common than we were led to believe, Heart-leaved Iceplant.

And that was that. Two of us gave it an hour up top on the ferry before settling in for a snooze. Pete quickly retrieved his car and was on e road, leaving Tim and I to pick up a few plants that we'd scooped gen from Seth's blog on - Pink-headed Persicaria, Rosemary, Krauss's Clubmoss and Canary Herb-robert were very quickly in the bag. Since my car was in the park and ride right by Guval Church and Tim needed to be back at the bus station it would have been rude not to.

By two the next morning I was safe and sound in bed in the Kingdom of Fife. Had it all been just an elaborate dream? Well, there are (some) photos. Time will tell whether there's enough on the islands to go back for. But then we didn't get sunfish. And I didn't get Wilson's. I reckon it's worth another visit.

And the obvious question? 176 species. So far.

Scilly, Part III

Monday 4th July

On the 4th we went for a wander round the closer section of St.Mary's, taking in the dump, lower moor and Old Town, before the evening pelagic. 

The dump was a good spot, where had Kangaroo Apple, Giant Rhubarb, the giant Echium (lots in gardens) and Fig-leaved Goosefoot among others. We also managed to grab the first German Ivy of the trip beside the road.

The most bizarre find at the dump was Giant Umbrella Sedge, which we could make head nor tail of. It was only when Pete grabbed a bird report from the post office that we found it identified in the plant section with photos of the exact same plant(s)! That bird report has a lot of great non-birdy stuff in it.

The pelagic turned up Poor Cod and Blue Shark, and a distant Wilson's Petrel, which I didn't see. It was too far away for me to have been happy ticking it but Tim got a look at it. We saw a few compass jellyfish from the boat. One Blue Shark was caught for the tagging program It was all a bit frantic (and grim, to be honest) when the shark was on board so I have no photos of it on the boat and poor ones as it came aboard. Happy that shark tagging might help conservation but even the tagging is quite a brutal thing to watch.

Tuesday, 5th July

Tuesday had been earmarked for Tresco, for which our expectations were too high. It's highly likely we could have made more use of our visit, but the weather was good, the island was nice, and we did add a fair few plants, including Peppermint-scented Geranium, Fennel-leaved Pondweed and Bugle Lily, as well as Dune Robber Fly and Dune Villa (the bee fly Villa modesta).

My favourite plant of the day, maybe the trip, was the weird Senecio glastifolius, which we first found as wholly gone over, then as leaves, then with flowers, allowing us to nail the ID (Tim's magic phone app identified it on leaves, I think). Woad-leaved Ragwort. Shiny thick leaves, purple flowers. Naturally I didn't take any photos of it with flowers.

Shrub Goldilocks

Tree-of-love

Woad-leaved Ragwort

After a suitable rest we did a bit of moth trapping at the dump, with dusking forays down to Old Town bay. Sand Dart was a nice find on the bay, while Kent Black Arches was the best of the trapping.

Sand Dart

Scilly, Part II

Sunday 3rd - marine

In the afternoon we had our first go at rockpooling. We made our way over the large cobbles to the edge of the tide, which it turned out later was not the best tactic we could have pursued - the rock pools higher up the shore were more accessible and better. It wasn't the best time of the year by far, and the low tides were quite high. This was going to be the lowest of the week, though. We still had some fun things.

The Thongweed was much in evidence, both with thongs and as buttons

There were superabundant Montagu's Crabs in amongst the Green Shore and Broad-clawed Porcelain crabs. We didn't see any other crabs - not even a single hermit, though these are apparently on the eelgrass beds. Many of the Monty's had spawn.

There were a few new seaweeds, including Eyelash Weed.

And a couple of my most anticipated species - Snakelocks Anemone and Cushion Star. 

Another anticipated species, and one of my favourites, was Lightbulb Sea Squirt.

All in all, not a bad start. There were a lot of other species we might have hoped for, but there was no way we were going to get big returns on such a high tide. Another metre might have made a lot of difference, and we did find another couple of things later in the week. I wouldn't mind giving Scilly rock pooling another bash at a different time of year - and with more knowledge.

Scilly, Part I

Photocopied map from the new flora

Friday 1st - pre-game

Briza maxima was the first thing I saw when I stepped out of the car in Penzance. There was also pavement weed Nasturtium and plenty of Mexican Fleabane on display. Had I paid attention I would have had other things, but I did get them at the end (to be resumed)

The Scillonian III was waiting for us in at the quay.

and the first of many fish and chips to build up the stamina for the week ahead

Saturday, 2nd July

Leaving Penzance

Travel to St.Mary's by Scillonian III from Penzance, arriving in the afternoon. We saw some probably-Common dolphins, but not good enough views to be sure - for us, at least. Luggage took a bit of time to arrive with Island Carriers, but otherwise a drama (and excitement) free trip. Our luggage was picked up early on the way back so we must have been near the start/end of the circuit.

Our first look at the Scilly vegetation, with plenty of new things to look at as soon as we got off the boat. Bizarrely, I didn't take any decent pics of the abundant Aeoniums, even though it's kind of a signature plant of Hugh Town. I do have this Fleshy Yellow Sorrel, though.

We had a quick tour of the Garrison on Saturday night, picking up a few plants along the way, including Hairy Bird's-foot Trefoil and Sea Storksbill.

Purple Dewplant (Disphyma crassifolium) is everywhere, both in gardens and out and I got my first gripping views of the legend that is Annual Mercury. We had some nice Jersey Cudweed, Rubus ulmifolius and Hoary Stock, all together in a little storage yard beside the road. Don't expect me to remember English and scientific names. Not at the same time, anyway.

Sunday, 3rd July, terrestrial

With rock pooling awaiting us in the afternoon a short trip to Peninnis Head was scheduled. There were plenty of bits and bobs encountered, with a trip-target Teloschistes albicans (Golden Hair Lichen) waiting for us on the rocks beneath the lighthouse.

First, we zig-zagged down Buzza Hill and this Silverleaf Everlastingflower was on the hedge to the hospital. It is also everywhere else too, though.

Balm-leaved Figwort is also almost ever-present. I didn't photograph the leaves - of course not!

We also saw the short, papillose leaves of Pale Dewplant, though I can't recall if we recognised it at the time. Let's say we did and move on.

Cape Daisy (Osteospermum jucundum) is also just about everywhere, apparently in every single garden, and inevitably elsewhere too. Flat, toothy leaves stand out from the crown.

I also had my first ever Conehead (Long-winged - straight cerci), though I did think I had a cricket at first.

Another ever-present on the islands is Karo - Pittosporum, with some rather aesthetically-pleasing seed pods.

And finally ... the Teloschistes near the lighthouse. It's the yellow stuff in the foreground on the right here. The rock formations here are a feature in their own right.

Sunday 3rd,  marine ... later