Having just got back from the ORCA Sea Safari from Plymouth to Santander, I thought that I was done for surveying for ORCA for the month. However, on the 23rd, I saw an email asking for a last minute backfill ORCA Team Leader for the day trip crossing from Penzance to Scillies. I was free that day and generally I need little encouragement to go surveying on that route. The only problem is formally I haven't finished my Team Leader training with ORCA. However, I did lead a survey on the Scillonian back in July and I had been on my second survey of the year on the Scillonian III in mid-Sep. So, I felt confident I could step up to the Team Leader role. Fortunately, Ellie in the ORCA office agreed with that & I was offered the role. Cue emails that evening to the other surveyors, Gemma Rae and Sharon Scurlock, who were on their second and first ORCA surveys, respectively.
The forecast was for a blustery crossing with the prospects of rain as a front was arriving in West Cornwall that morning. However, it should be dry & sunny by the time we reached Hugh Town and the forecast looked better for the way back in the afternoon. During my journey from Dorset that morning, I had driven down through showers, some of which were heavy. It was difficult to figure out how much bad weather lay in our path, but there were still short showers in Penzance. As I walked along the promenade towards our meeting point by the aptly named Dolphin Travern by the quay, it was clear from the flags that there was still a noticeable wind blowing.
We sailed on time. I completed the pre-survey briefing just before we were invited onto the bridge and we greeted by the ever friendly Skipper Dave Redgrave and his colleagues. Within a few minutes we started surveying. The surveying takes place from the open bridge wings and so the weather can play a significant impact in the surveying. Obviously, the wind and seas impact the sea state and swell and there was a sea of white caps and a swell of over two metres. More significantly, there was a Force 4-5 SSW wind and that left the port wing very exposed, with a bit of shelter on the starboard wing. This route can be lively at times, given the combination of the Scillonian III's flat-bottomed and the choppy seas off the Cornish coast.
After checking Gemma was OK on the more sheltered starboard wing for our first half hour of surveying, I experimented with a few positions on the port bridge wing. I quickly found a position right next to the side of the bridge wing, which was surprisingly more sheltered that being next to the cabin. The only problem was spray was being thrown up & the best you could do was to turn away at the last moment. But I was hit by three waves of spray in the first half hour. Fortunately, the ship changes course after leaving West Cornwall and that problem soon abated. These days, I tend to measure the observing conditions and compare them to the Southern Oceans, but then the Plancius is a bigger and more stable Expedition Ship. While I felt OK, I did worry for my two colleagues who were doing their first crossing on the Scillonian III. Fortunately, they survived OK, but I think they were glad once we reached the lee of the islands.
When we are surveying we typically spend eighty percent of the time scanning with naked eyes for close Dolphins, Porpoises and Seals with the final twenty percent of the time scanning the distant sea with the ORCA bins. While I was scanning with my eyes, I was keeping an eye on close Seabirds. On the crossing over I saw two pods of Short-beaked Common Dolphins, totally five and two individuals, respectively. I also saw twenty-seven Cory's Shearwaters, three Great Shearwaters, over thirty Manx Shearwaters and a close light phase Arctic Skua. I'm sure I missed more Seabirds that I would have seen with greater scanning with the bins, but I was there to survey for Cetaceans and not Seabirds, and any Seabirds on an ORCA survey are a nice bonus.
It was good to get ashore on St Mary's for about three hours. Time to have a wander down to the Old Town Church area and then loop through Lower Moors. There wasn't a lot being seen on St Mary's, but the interesting species were on other islands with a Western Bonelli's Warbler & Dotterel on Tresco and an Ortolan on St Agnes. So, I guess there weren't a lot of Birders looking on St Mary's.
I bumped into a Cornish based Birder, Dave, as I reached the Lower Moors hide. He was the RSPB Wildlife Officer for the day on the back deck of the Scillonian, so he had enjoyed a more sheltered position on the starboard side of the ship. I believe the RSPB put local birders on as Wildlife Officers on a weekly basis on the Scillonian for public engagement purposes. Sounds good, but sadly I'm a bit too far away to see if I could get involved in that. Dave had been looking for a Bluethroat which had been seen from the hide on previous days. Neither of us saw it. It was only seen once during the day according to RBA around 18:00. I gave it around twenty minutes before moving on. The Birding was very slow and I ended up photographing Butterflies. However, the first species was the endemic subspecies of Speckled Wood that is restricted to the Scillies.
Finally, at the far end of Lower Moors, I ran into a party of Chiffchaffs and a Spotted Flycatcher. They were the only migrants Passerines I saw on St Mary's, ignoring Swallows: but early afternoon isn't perhaps the best time of day for Birding. After leaving Lower Moors, I headed back to grab a coffee, meet up with Sharon & Gemma, before we returned to reboard the Scillonian III. The crossing back was good with two more singles of Short-beaked Common Dolphins, as well as, eleven Cory's Shearwaters, three Great Shearwaters, six Sooty Shearwaters and sixteen Balearic Shearwaters. Again, I would have probably seen more Seabirds if I had been scanning more with the bins.
Despite the challenging conditions on the way over, it had been a thoroughly enjoyable ORCA survey, with some nice, if brief, views of a number of Short-beaked Common Dolphins, as well as, views of a nice selection of Seabirds that flew by as I was surveying for Cetaceans. Plus, it was good to encourage two budding surveyors who I'm sure will both be applying for further surveys in the future.
I would like to thank the ORCA team to offering me my first unofficial Team Leader role on this survey and to the Scillonian III's crew for making us welcome. It's a shame that the Fin Whale that Skipper Dave videoed a couple of days before didn't put in a sighting during our ORCA survey.