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