Saturday 9th August 2014

   Right then, here we go day 2 of our pelagic weekend. It was 11am, and everyone was thinking, could this be as good as last night?

Great Shearwater

   An early Cory's shout, was sadly to not be as regular as last night. But still decent views were had by all. One even sat on the water beside the boat....There were also Great Shearwaters too, again in lower numbers than yesterday evening, but still showing quite well..............

Cory's Shearwater

Wilson's Storm-petrel

   Things were still going quite well, when the first shout of "Wilson's" went up, amongst a few Storm-petrels. I knew at least 2 of the birders on the boat, needed this for a lifer, and so i stood back a bit, to let them get a look. Luckily we all got decent views of it, in its too brief a stay. Jim & Rob, both got it as a lifer, so were over the moon. I as it happens got some distant, but not too bad, shots............

Wilson's Storm-petrel

   The top one is not as good as the other two, but shows the legs/feet protruding beyond the tail. Which is one of some good features of Wilson's Storm-petrel.

Wilson's Storm-petrel

   Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Bonxie, 3 Common Scoter, and a Kittiwake were added to our list.

Blue Shark

   We also had 2 more Blue Sharks. The Blue Sharks that are caught are tagged, and you can make out the tag, in this picture. This Shark is being held by the boats Captain Joe Pender.....you can find out more about Joe and the Pelagic trips at www.scillypelagics.com. We also had an Ocean Sunfish today, sadly it didn't hang about to have its photo taken!

Balearic Shearwater

   The light was fading, and we were starting the return journey, when a Balearic Shearwater was picked out. It flew quite close into the boat, and showed well, shame about the light though.

   Another was picked up a bit later, and followed the boat in for quite a way.

Balearic Shearwater

   So another cracking day was had by all. The numbers may have been down on last night, but were some good additions, including one special Wilson's Storm-petrel too.

   Estimated numbers today were:

Wilson's Storm-petrel (1)

Cory's Shearwater (13)

Great Shearwater (5)

Balearic Shearwater (2)

Storm-petrel (15)

Arctic Skua (1)

Great Skua (2)
Manx Shearwater (few)
Kittiwake (1)
Common Scoter (3)

Blue Shark (2)
Ocean Sunfish (1)

   Now came the wait for Hurricane Bertha. This hurricane had been predicted for a while. It had hit the East Coast of the USA, and had been tracked across the Atlantic, towards Britain. It was due to hit us overnight tonight, and the Scillonian III ferry had already been cancelled for tomorrow. We were supposed to be on that, to go home, but now we had an extra day. But, what would it be like on a small fishing boat out there tomorrow........more importantly, what would be out there with us????