Sunday, 21 August 2016

20th August 2016 (Cornwall)

The weather for this morning was forecast as stong westerlies, so some Cornish seawatching was in order! The winds had a little northerly until midday when it turned to solid westerly, so first headed to Porthwarra for 7am.

Porthgwarra

On arrival, I was somewhat dismayed on the lack of shearwaters, so I was quite happy when I got on my first Manx Shearwater of the day (I had surprisingly few manx from PG). Not too long after, I got on my first Cory's Shearwater which was quickly followed by several more; It turned out to be a great day for Cory's and I tallied up a total of 43 by midday. There was a real lack of anything else so was pretty relieved when another birder helped me get onto 2 distant Great Shearwaters together. Also had a breif view of an apparent 3rd Great Shear at great distance, flight action was certainly more energentic than Cory's but that's the only feature I got on it before losing it. Also of note here were 2 Choughs and an Ocean Sunfish.

Cory's Shearwater - Porthgwarra
I gave up trying to photograph anything out to sea after this.

Relocating to Pendeen at midday turned out to be a good decision, as shortly after arrival I got onto some Storm-Petrels followed by smashing views of a Great Shearwater close in. Continued watching here until 17:30 by which time I'd also tallied 1 Cory's Shearwater, 2 Sooty Shearwaters, 11 Balearic Shearwaters, 19 Storm-Petrels, 2 Great Skuas, 1 pale-morph Pomarine Skua, and another 2 Choughs.

Pendeen

Chough - Pendeen

Stopped off at Point Quay on the way home to catch up with the DALMATIAN PELICAN. Big enough bird that I managed to pick it out before I even got out of the car.

DALMATIAN PELICAN - Point Quay

I'm not convinced this bird stands much chance of being accepted by the commitee after such a long stay, but still a very impressive bird.

Overall a great day considering the wind conditions weren't quite perfect, and allowed me to tick off some overdue seabird species for my list. I look forward to the next storm that blows into Cornwall!

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