Scillies 2015 - Other Wildlife

As is always the case of Scillies when there are not a lot of birds about or whilst you are looking for new birds there is always something to see. In previous years there have been tons of Stick Insects around or migrant butterflies such as Monarchs, Clouded Yellows or Painted Ladies but the one good thing about getting the pan-listing bug is places like Scilly have a whole suite of species not found on the mainland. I did a tiny bit of digging and managed to find a few bits I wanted to see. I also had the bonus of a Small Copper ab schmidtii on St Agnes which I had never seen before.

Small Copper ab schmidtii - St Agnes

Other than the interesting Small Copper above there was very little of interest on the butterfly front with Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady seen most days but only in small numbers. As I get more into the pan listing I have found I don't have dates and details for many of the common plants so I busy trying to get them back onto the list but below are some of the flowers which were new for me , next year I need to gen up on what might be available in October as most of the decent stuff has already gone over. Of note the Least Adders-tongue took two trips to St Agnes! But we were also looking at birds the first trip at least!


Bermuda Buttercup - Oxalis pes-caprae

Corn Marigold - Glebionis segetum

Lousewort - Pedicularis sylvatica

Sea Campion - Silene uniflora



Small-flowered Catchfly - Silene gallica

Three-cornered Leek - Allium triquetrum

Wire Plant - Muehlenbeckia complexa

Least Adder's-tongue - Ophioglossum lusitanicum

Least Adder's-tongue - Ophioglossum lusitanicum

2015 has proved to be the best year for me personally for seeing cetaceans off the Scilly Isles every day Common Dolphin and Harbour Porpoise were see in good numbers with a huge number of the latter around the islands most days. Ian and I also took the chance to try and see Bluefin Tuna which Lucy McRobert had found earlier in the trip which we managed to see successfully. It was incredible to watch them literally throw themselves clear out of the water on a couple of occasions. We also managed to see a couple of Minke Whales off Giant's Castle too which is always nice.

Common Dolphin - Horse Point, St Agnes

Common Dolphin - Horse Point, St Agnes

 Finally on the 'other wildlife' front I managed to find a Speckled Bush Cricket which is supposed to be not that common on Scillies but I am sure I have seen them before on the Garrison. There were tons of the usual inbred Black Rabbits about and yet again I dipped seeing a Scilly Shrew...!


Black Rabbit - Garrison, St Marys

Speckled Bush-cricket - Sally Port, St Marys