PELAGIC TRIP ALL DAY FROM 9:30 - 3:30PM
WEATHER; high cloud with a lot of sunshine, very light breeze, chilly onboard.
We had perfect weather conditions for a pelagic, the sea was calm with a slight swell and the light was excellent we could see for miles out there. You would expect there to be hundreds of sightings and that is exactly what we got!
After just five minutes out of the harbour we saw our first Cory's Shearwater we went on to see a couple more before too long, they were just fly-bys but not too far away.
A few Guillemots sat on the water and a crowd of Gulls followed the boat because we were throwing out chunks of bread to attract them. A Great Skua came in to harrass the gulls and gave us nice views, we also saw a couple of Sunfish drift by and quite a few Portugese Man-o'-War sat on the water and drifted by from time to time.
it was an almost full boat with 60-70 people onboard.
After an hour or so we found our first raft of Shearwaters, a good size too. At least 200 birds were sitting on the water, mostly Cory's but also some Great Shearwaters we never got too close to them.
a Cory's Shearwater in flight and many more sitting on te water
the same again but a little closer, you can see one or two Great Shearwaters in with the Cory's.
Dolphins and Grey Seals popped up now and then, and at least three Blue Sharks drifted by as we headed further west from the islands. We passed Bishop's Rock Lighthouse just as we noticed large numbers of Gannets feeding in the distance.
record shot of a Great Skua
For the next two hours we had the most magical 'shearwater-time' you could image, we drifted from raft to raft of mixed birds, the majority of which were Great Shearwaters, but included in the mass of birds were Sooty Shearwaters, Great Skuas and the odd Gannet. We got so close to these birds it was hard to focus your binoculars on them.
Great Shearwaters
A Sooty Shearwater in with the Great Sheartwaters, a one time the captain turned off the engine so we could hear the calls of the Great Shearwaters, it was amazing!
On a couple of instances the boat was completely surrounded by Shearwaters, it was an incredible experience and all the time the sea was calm you could stand up, hands free and use your camera or binoculars wiothout the fear of falling over.
some flight shots
a Sooty and a Great
With superb light conditions the 'toggers' were having a field day and that was the only down-side for me, because sometimes they we standing in the way of our view when the birds were on the other side of the boat. However we did not miss anything.
a mixed bunch
More Dolphins appeared and dashed to the bow of the boat and a couple of Harbour Porpoise were seen. More Great Skuas came over and our only Fulmar appeared alongside of us. At one stage a small passerine came towards the boat and looked like it was going to land but it never did, it was a warbler, probably a Chiffchaff, but we will never know. We had sightings of Puffins too, up to about five were recorded, Razorbills were few and far bewteen and Guillemots kept appearing.
a Razorbill
a closer view of a Sooty Sheartwater
Cory's and Greats
On the way back we visited the Western Isles, which are basically abunch of rocks, there we saw Ruddy Turnstones, Oystercatchers and to our great delight a small bunch of Purple Sandpipers, acouple of |mediterranean Gulls sat on the water not far from the harbour, the Purple Sandpiper was alifer for some of the group, what a great bird to finish off our trip with!
two Purple Sandpipers were a bonus species for the trip list
We landed at around 3:45pm which was too late for marching off up the island for some birding, so we sat and had a coffee and cake and enjoyed the last of the sunshine.
In the meantime, whilst we were out enjoying our pelagic, Denis and Martha had opted for a day on Tresco and they came back with tales of sightings and of the beautiful Tresco Gardens.
As we walked up the hill to the Guest House we bumped into a guy whod also done the Pelagic, he was marching off to look for a Paddyfield Warbler and two of the group opted to join him. After a 30 minute minute route-march to Porth Hellick they dipped on the sighting, they then had to march back.
Here is the official count of the Pelagic Sightings of today:
Seabirds:
• Great Shearwater (~800)
• Cory’s Shearwater (~150)
• Sooty Shearwater (22)
• European Storm Petrel (14)
• Great Skua (6)
• Puffin (5)
Cetaceans & Others:
• Common Dolphins (~100)
• Ocean Sunfish (2)
• Blue Shark (3)