24 th December 2020
One day, I always thought that I would see a HUMPBACK WHALE off Scilly. Maybe while seawatching off one of the south points off St Mary’s. I never thought that I would observe one only two seconds from my backdoor out off the Garrison like I did late this afternoon!
What a mega day! Returning from doin a taxi to airport, I had a quick look at the Dump allloments, where a Little Bunting was found three days ago. Staring into the weedy field for a good ten minutes, bordering the main path, the bunting got up from feeding in the long grass only meters away from me to my right. It was ‘ticking’ non stop perched in the nearest Hawthorn only to return to the same area where it had flown from. At Lower Moors, the trees were being pushed around by the frezzing cold strong northlies. However, the Yellow-browed Warbler was still very vocal but nothing else of note. No change at Porthloo with the 2 Iceland Gull, the single Black Redstart and a Merlin dashed through.
This is the only Little Bunting I’ve seen this year and my second December record after finding one with 2 Reed Bunting nearly twenty years ago on the 3rd at Ennor Close, Old Town
Both Iceland Gull were still favouring Porthloo
There were also 2 Common Gull
An Eider has been hanging around off the slip way at Pendrethen for the last few days and it’s been awhile since I’ve seen one. While observing it, I was getting blown all over the shop trying to gets photos. A single Whimbrel was roosting with Curlew and Oystercatchers nearby. It was almost 15.00 and I just finished my dinner when footage of a HUMPBACK WHALE came on the local Bird WhatsApp Group. It was filmed from the Meridian between Tresco and St Mary’s out in The Roads moving north towards the former island. Very shortly afterwards, Richie Aston had picked it up off Green Island and a few minutes later, I had joined Robin, Richie, Scott and family, looking out into Crow Sound at the front of the Star Castle. It wasn’t long that there was a loud shout from Richie. False alarm! He had chipped his finger nail on his door handle of his car while opening it. Then he gave another shout and I thought what’s he done this time? Brushed his leg against a nettle. But no! This time he had got the whale and my first view was distant off the SE end of samson. For the next hour, a few locals made it up the hill and were all succesful in getting a glimpse of the certacean. We had distant but good views of the whale in the choppy waters as it came up to the surface and with your naked eye you could catch the water blow on and off. It don’t matter what it was doin, I couldnt believe that I was so lucky to observe a Humback Whale only a few seconds walk away from my door! Unless you take the longer route like I did in the exciment of seeing the whale. It was still present in the same area just before dark and hopefully I’ll get better close up views of it tomorrow from my kayak.
The Eider off Pendrethen showed well but was always making tracks outside the bay in the choppy conditions
It was nearly two years ago that I saw my first 2 Humpback Whale only meters away from the boat I was on in the Gibralter Straights Hopefully tomorrow I’ll better photos of the whale in my kayak if the weather conditions are right for me to get out there.
For the Health of the British Public, Boris Johnson MUST GO | Professor John Ashton
“If Boris Johnson was a manager of a football team, he’d be gone by now. If he was the chief director of a FTSE 500 company, he’d be gone by now” 00:00 Boris Johnson MUST GO 02:21 The Mutant Strain 04:00 What to believe? 05:32 Winging it 06:49 Hammer House of Horrors 08:23 It. Did. Not. Need. To. Be. This. Way. 09:04 There are no limits to the shallowness of this government 10:33 Despair 12:46 Narrative 13:31 How many lives could have been saved? 14:31 Panic buying, food shortages & trouble on the streets 15:42 2021: Worst yet to come? 16:29 Take Back Control Join the Future of Journalism ► https://www.patreon.com/DoubleDownNews Support DDN ► https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr…
SCILLYSPIDER 2 