The next morning we woke up at 7am looking forward to a full day on the sea. The weather was a little inclement, mizzly and overcast, but it did nothing to dampen our spirits from the previous nights success with the Wilson's. A quick shower and a stop off at the Co-op for provisions and then it was time to head off down to the quay. The M.V. Sapphire was there waiting with Joe Pender, Bob Flood, John Higginson (Higgo) and Ashley Flood all to welcome us aboard. When we had the full compliment, Bob again explained the plan for the day..... head out north to Sevenstones reef and drift and chum for shearwaters and petrels with the hope of picking up the 'big' shears, Cory's or Great Shearwaters.
On the way out we were treated to some great views of juvenile Mediterranean Gulls and Sandwich Terns in the waters between the islands and soon we were rolling over the swell drifting and searching for seabirds. An hour and a half later and with nothing coming in to the smell of the chum, the decision was made to steam south and try and catch up with a trawler that had appeared. The 'big' shears have a tendency to follow trawlers to pick up scraps from the nets, so Bob told us this was probably going to be the best bet in catching up with something.
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| Pomarine Skua (Stercorarius pomarinus) |
Steaming south, we could see the trawler in the distance and it was surrounded by birds..... a bit too distant to tell exactly what was there, but it was a good sign..... As we got closer we had a distant view of a Pomarine Skua coming away from the vessel, so we knew that it had been attracting the birds, fingers crossed there would be something good in the mix. A few minutes later and Matt Eade gave the shout..... "Sabs!".... (up until then he wasn't feeling 100% due to sea-sickness but funny how that was all forgotten as the bird came nearer!) Everyone looked in the direction that he was pointing and sure enough flying over the sea next to us was a full adult summer Sabine's Gull. This was another new bird for me (and for several others), I've missed several over the years and it was worth the wait, this bird was cracking, delicate bouncing flight, dropping down to hover over the surface to pick bits off the surface and the striking plumage of the back and as it came past the boat at close proximity, smiles broke out amongst us all.
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| Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini) |
Reaching the trawler there were hundreds of gulls flying around the back of the boat, a few European Storm Petrels in the wake, but nothing out of the ordinary in the first instance. A few minutes went by while we were all scanning through the birds present when Higgo piped up..... "Great behind the trawler".... sure enough the Great Shearwater was drifting over the swell, a bit further back than the rest of the flock. The views we had were superb, it's not often you get the chance to see these pelagic species so close and for a good half an hour it cruised around us before disappearing off. After that it was time to head back to land, up to the campsite to drop off our gear, where I saw Barry and Lewis's tents, glad to see that they had arrived I let them know we were going off for yet more celebratory drinks and an evening meal.... a quick watch of the Arsenal match (better luck next time!), a quick chat to Barry and Lewis, then off to bed in preparation for the last full-day pelagic. Surely we couldn't do better than we had over the last couple of days out at sea?!
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| Great Shearwater (Puffinus gravis) |
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