Isles of Scilly 2019

On a crazy whim, we decided it was high time we ventured down to the Isles of Scilly in the autumn. I hadn't visited this wonderful archipelago, hanging some 26 miles off Land's End, Cornwall, since 1993 and my better half had not been at all, so we booked up for a week and set out to enjoy a few days of what ever the weather provided. The drive down from Norfolk takes time, but we were able to enjoy a quick look at Land's End in the late afternoon, before overnighting locally and arriving on the main island of St Mary's the following day. 

With our wide interest in natural history, we knew there would be plenty to do, even if bird migration failed to produce the goods - and bird migration is really what Scilly is all about in the autumn. As it turned out, we hit things pretty nicely, with a good mix of very rare birds around, plus a fair share of regular migrants to keep us occupied. Rare visitors that had been blown off course from North America included Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Red-eyed Vireo, White-rumped Sandpiper and Blue-winged Teal - a lovely cluster of New World species! Other highlights in the bird line included two Pink-footed Geese (a long way from wintering in Norfolk!), Eurasian Spoonbill, Spotted Crake, Wryneck, Common Raven, Greater Short-toed Lark, Blue Rock Thrush, a good number of Yellow-browed Warblers and a very confiding Snow Bunting.

A combination of British autumnal weather, bird behaviour and human behaviour often makes bird photography difficult on Scilly, so I didn't take much in the way of bird photos, but you'll find a couple of videos of the remarkably confiding Blue-winged Teal and Spotted Crake on my Facebook page.

Eurasian Wrynecks are the weirdest of woodpeckers. Cryptically coloured and easily passed off as a piece of wood, this bird looks perfectly at home on the arm of a bench on Peninnis Head.

As we left the house in Hugh Town, St Mary's one morning, this Rock Pipit was mooching around in the road right outside the front door!

Several White Wagtails were feeding on the roof of a building in Holy Vale. This is the continental counterpart of our Pied Wagtail and both forms can sometimes be found breeding on the Isles of Scilly.

One of the very much lost, waif and strays on the islands during our stay. This Red-eyed Vireo would have been making its first trip to Central or South America for the winter when adverse weather swept it across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Splendours of Greece - Part 4

Ever onward on our Greek adventure, we swapped the wonders of Parnassos and Delphi for the slightly cooler scenery of Mount Oiti. Although just a short drive to the north-west, Oiti is very different to Parnassos as it has vast areas of open, grassy slopes above its treeline and feels just a little cooler, which all provides a different suite of species to enjoy. This is a much-less travelled part of Greece than the busy slopes around Delphi and it was very much down to the knowledge of our local guides, David and Christos that we were able to find our way around and enjoy some of Greece's rarest plants - as well as great birding, butterflies, food, drink - and all that wonderous Greek ambience! So here's some pictures from fabulous Mount Oiti:

Once you've meandered your way up the dirt roads (and taken all the right turns!) and found your way above the treeline, Mount Oiti reveals itself as a wonderfully undulating and rolling plateau that is just crying out to be explored - this is my kind of place and my kind of trip!

Along tracksides on the way up the mountain, the mysteriously dark purple spikes of Epipactis subclausa were pushing through the dirt. It will be another week or more before the flowers on this localised orchid are ready to open, though.

Unlike the orchid above, this species was at the peak of flowering. Datylorhiza saccifera is scattered throughout southern Europe but is always rather local and we were pleased to find a nice colony in flower in wet grassland beside a small stream.

A few plants stand out on the 'much wanted' list; some because they are rare or localised, others because they have beautiful flowers and some because they are simply different. This plant has the lot and was one of my top trip highlights! This remarkable little plant is Rhynchocorys elephas, a partially parasitic plant in the broomrape family that is found scattered at a few locations in eastern Europe and Asia Minor.

When you see the flowers of Rhynchocorys elephas close up, you can see why it has been given the name of Elephant Head!

Many species of thistle grow to magnificent proportions in the Mediterranean region and provide a huge amount of nectar for local insect populations. This species is Onopordum illyricum, one of the cotton thistle species.

Plants whose appearance belie their true relationships are always fascinating, as they have clearly set off on their own evolutionary path and may one day be far enough genetically from their origins that they warrant the creation of a new plant family by taxonomists. Looking at the rich, sulphur yellow spikes of Bupleurum glumaceum (one of the hare's-ears), it is easy to forget that it's in the carrot family!

Everywhere you go you can usually find members of the campion family and this is especially true in the mountains of Greece it seems. Several spots that we stopped at on Mount Oiti gave us the opportunity to study Petrorhagia phthiotica (now that's a mouthful!), a species found on only two mountains in Greece and nowhere else in the world!

Everyone knows dandelions are pink, right?! Well, it's not quite a dandelion but pink-flowered members of this group of plants always seem a little at odds with what we are used to. Podospermum roseum or Pink Viper's-grass was uncommon but widespread on Oiti during our visit.

Dianthus tymphresteus is common in short turf on rocky ground on parts of Mount Oiti and is another locally speciality of southern Greece.

Viola aetolica is a little more widespread than some of the plants we saw, but still a real gem that dots the grassy landscapes with bright yellow.

The eyebrights are attractive little plants that can be common in grassy places but are often overlooked because they are very problematic to identify to species. Luckily for us, this teeny tiny species on Mount Oiti could only be Euphrasia minima and we happily added it to the ever-burgeoning list!

Always something of a masochist, I have a near-fatal attraction for trying to sort out the green and boring stuff such as grasses, sedges - and things like this. The creeping mats and green flowers of the ruptureworts are not everyone's cup of tea but here you go, this is Herniaria parnassica. I've often wondered if the ruptureworts were named by scientists who had to keep getting down to ground level to study them and then go through the process of getting back up again!

Last but not least, or in this case, very much least because - although you may not be able to tell from the photo - this plant was barely a centimetre tall and one of the rarest of the rare for us on this trip. Veronica oetaea is a startlingly rare speedwell that is confined to just two wet hollows on Mount Oiti. It is listed by IUCN as critically endangered, with a world distributional range of 0.04 square kilometres! The population is monitored regularly and management is required to maintain optimum habitat for the species.

The Splendours of Greece - Part 3

I thought of subtitling this post 'Getting High on Parnassos', for in this set of pictures, we are above the treeline, on the beautiful limestone slopes, rock walls and screes of the mountain. Although the skiing industry has permanently scarred some areas with its sterile steelwork and ugly blocks of concrete, much of Parnassos remains relatively unscathed and a magnificent spring and summer flora blooms. For some reason, up above the treeline, rummaging around on rocky scree is where I seem to be happiest!

Botany with a view! Most of us made a slow but steady walk up to the bottom of the snowline, where the real gems of spring are just poking out from the browned patches of grass.

Although its flowers are not showy, the little tufts of Silene parnassica were lovely to find and grow just above the treeline and close to the roadside in places. Despite its name, this species is quite widespread in the southern Balkans and parts of Italy.

The yarrows include many species that are popular as garden plants for their long-lasting flowers and also for their intricate leaves. We were too early for the flowers, but the woolly leaves of Achillea fraasii were in evidence during our visit.

One way to conserve moisture in the exposed climate of Mount Parnassos is to have lots of hairs, which will provide a more comfortable microclimate around the plant. This is shown nicely by the scruffy heads of Pilosella cymosa - one of the mouse-ear hawkweeds.

The subtle flower spikes of the endemic Corydalis blanda ssp. parnassica were a favourite with the group.

Crocuses are highly popular as cheerful garden plants and it's always a treat to come across them growing in the wild. Greece and Turkey together form the most important region for this genus,with many species restricted to single mountains. On Parnassos, Crocus veluchensis forms pale lilac patches below the snowline.

Buttercups can be a difficult group to identify to species, but the strangely-shaped leaves of Ranunculus brevifolius make it an easily recognisable plant as it pokes through the stones on the scree slopes.

Saxifrages are always popular and this one put me through my paces! I spotted the brilliant yellow flowers of Saxifraga sibthorpii through binoculars, peeping out from shady hollows on a vertical rock face above the lower snow slopes. A lot of puffing and panting got me up there to enjoy the orange freckles inside.

David was really pleased that we found this one - even if we did struggle up to the higher slopes and then find it right beside our picnic spot later on! The louseworts are a widespread group of hemiparasites and always worth hunting down. This one is Pedicularis graeca, a gem of the Greek mountains.

Geranium macrostylum is sometimes grown in gardens, but looks so much better in its natural habitat!

I posted one of the more showy mulleins in an earlier post, but this one is much more subtle. Verbascum epixanthinum with its single spike of flowers atop yellow-green, furry leaves brightened up the trackside near our lunch stop.

Yes, even grasses are worth a look on Parnassos! The tight, purple-tinged heads of Phleum alpinum are a common sight on the mountainsides.

Viola graeca is a very variable species that can be found on a number of Greek mountains above the treeline, as well as on Mt Gargano in Italy. 

A last-minute find after lunch before it was time to head down the mountain was this single plant of Astragalus apollineus. This species grows above 1700m on just three mountains in Greece.

The Splendours of Greece - Part 2

Having enjoyed the olive groves and hot slopes around and below Delphi, our Greece adventure continued with trips onto higher ground. Here we were into a wonderful patchwork of open, grassy meadows and extensive, dark stands of prickly Grecian Fir. Dirt tracks crisscross this wonderful zone, allowing access to areas further from the main roads. The sound of insects is everywhere, Hoopoes skip across the grasslands in search of mole crickets for lunch and a wonderful flora abounds.

A light shower passed us by, but allowed us to take some lovely shots of a dramatic sky behind this spectacular and very old Juniperus foetidissima.

Changes to the taxonomy of the lizard orchids has made my brain hurt - this used to be called Himantoglossum jankae, but I think it's now Himantoglossum calcaratum. Either way it's a spectacular plant to find above Delphi.

We usually think of stork's-bills as having pink flowers, so the lemon yellow of Erodium chrysanthum comes as a surprise. We found a fairly extensive colony of this Greek endemic, which is confined to just nine areas in the whole country.

The spectacular flower spikes of mulleins have long been a favourite of mine and the Delphi areas has an abundance of these wonderful plants. This one is Verbascum speciosum ssp megaphlomos which is a particularly showy species.

Insects are still plentiful in the Greek hills and we were never short of things to look at. The chunky Parnassos Stone Grasshopper Glyphanus obtusus is something of a brute and an exciting species to find, since it's current known, world population is confined to just three small locations in Greece.

We found Glanville Fritillaries skipping across grassy glades with the Grecian Fir zone on the mid-slopes of Mount Parnassos.

The pinks can be a difficult group to identify, with many of the species being very variable in appearance, but they are always eye-catching - the large, salmon-coloured flowers of Dianthus biflorus are especially striking on Parnassos.

I shall mention no names, but one member of our group was particularly hoping to see the endemic Parnassos Peony; thinking we were almost certainly too late and that the flowers would be well past their best, David did an amazing job in weaving a path through the glades and trees until we eventually found this deep, blood-red beauty. Don't tell anyone, but there was a little tear of joy from a certain person!

The ascalaphids or owlflies always draw attention to themselves as they wing through the grassy clearings. They have something of the look of stocky dragonflies, but have prominent antennae and are most closely related to the lacewings. This one is Libelloides ottomanus, one of the eastern species in Europe.

 

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring! We checked under a few pieces of wood from an old, tumbledown shed and found this fabulous Nose-horned Viper. They're fine so long as you use your biggest lens to photograph them! 

David's local knowledge was repeatedly invaluable in turning up local specialities in the insect line. A soft buzzing from the bracken stems soon led us to a sizeable population of the endemic cicada, Cicadetta hannekeae which was described for science as recently as 2008.

The subtle, bell-shaped flowers of Deadly Nightshade hang discreetly below the large leaves, their gentle nature belying their poisonous potential. Deadly Nightshade is a glorious plants, but every one that I've found in the UK ends up battered down by those who would rather spread fear to children than teach them about the natural world.

The Splendours of Greece - Part 1

One of the extra trips that I was able to lead in 2018 was a wonderful tour of the alpine slopes and forests of Greece's Mount Parnassos and the Delphi region. This was a truly amazing trip, with a wonderful group, while also introducing me to two new Greek friends that I had the privilege to lead with - David Koutsogianopoulos and Christos Kotselis. From the Mediterranean warmth and sublime views of Delphi, we travelled up above the treeline onto the scree slopes of Mount Parnassos, via the wonderful forests of Grecian Fir that abound on the lower slopes. A little further north, we enjoyed the splendours of Mount Oiti -an area I had never visited with my birdwatcher's hat on, but which not only abounded with great plants, but also provided one of the tour highlights when we chanced across some 50 Eleonara's Falcons hawking dragonflies in the late afternoon light! Here's a few photo highlights from 2018 - and note that I'll be leading this tour again in June 2019 so let me know if you're interested as there's still just a few places left - or click here to book!   https://www.naturetrek.co.uk/tours/the-wildlife-of-delphi-mount-parnassos-and-mount-oiti

This first post starts with some of the delights of the warmer, lower slopes:

Italian Cypresses, limestone hills and stunning views - it must be Delphi!

With Davi'ds local knowledge, we snapped up our first rarity even before we got to Delphi. A scruffy roadside spot gave us  the range-restricted Convolvulus mairei, a southern Greece speciality.

Rock faces around Delphi are studded with the yellow button flowers of Inula verbascifolia, a very unusual fleabane.

Blue-purple spikes of Scutellaria rupestris ssp parnassica grow right along the roadside. 

Some of the local plants are very different from their relatives in the UK. The pale, greenish-yellow flowers and trailing stems of the regional endemic Asperula lutea bear little resemblance to our local bedstraws.

Stands of Scutellaria orientalis sprawl over the ground in areas of loose scree 

It's pretty much impossible to visit Delphi without bumping into the local Rock Nuthatches. These highly vocal birds easily make their presence known and build their out of mud, stuck onto the stone ruins of the ancient oracle site.

A naturalist sure be ever on the look out - even when touring antiquities! This fabulous Dahl's Whip Snake popped up amongst the stones of the ancient walls at Delphi and seemed mesmerised by our presence, remaining stationary for some minutes while we took photos. 

Large Tortoiseshells are always a treat to find since they seem to spend such a short period of their life on the wing. This one was warming up on a roadside rock wall shortly after breakfast one morning.

As we exited the museum at Delphi, a bright red blob low down on the wall of the building cried out to be investigated. It proved to be a male Ladybird Spider - a widespread though not especially common species of jumping spider.