Sunday 10th August 2014

    Got up this morning for a 9am Pelagic, it had been put back an hour, to let 'Bertha' go through, and because the Scillonian cancellation, which meant there was no rush to get back.

    So we set off, a couple of waves over the sides of the boat didn't put anyone off....what are we gonna get today, it was rather exciting.

Great Shearwater

    We set off to find a sheltered area, in the lee of the islands. Still the birds were out there, Cory's & Great Shearwaters were seen fairly quickly, but still the numbers were nothing like Friday evening. But, i did managed my best Great Shearwater shots. Lovely birds these....

Great Shearwater

   We stopped off about 2 miles off shore, as we had started to see Storm-petrels. According to Bob, this was probably the closest he had seen Storm-petrels to land, and he has been on these trips many times!

   Sadly for me, which i haven't mentioned before, my 300mm lens was playing up, and not focusing properly. So i had been using my 500mm lens. Which at the best of times is NOT easy to hand hold. But, as my previous blog photos show, it is just about possible. But, today was different, there was a lot more swell today, the boat was rocking quite a bit. With that, and trying to photograph Storm-petrels, which are the size of Swallows, oh yeh and my dodgy knee, this was by far the hardest day for me....and i must admit, i did have a time where it started to get to me, and the seasickness tablets were NOT working. You will be happy to know though, i held it in...............although another chap didn't do quite as well, and added to the overboard chumming.

Storm-petrel

    The numbers of Storm-petrels were rising all the time, and they were close in to the boat too. But, it was really difficult to get on them, with their size, the swell of the sea, and the 500mm lens. But, i did keep trying for a while, and managed a few shots. As everyone else found, the birds are always as send on when you photograph them, little buggers.

Storm-petrel

   Then a shout of Wilson's had everyone on guard. The bird flew in, came quite close into the back of the boat, flew along the chum slick, and was never seen again. So quick, but still really nice to see.

   Also in the slick was at least one Manx Shearwater. This was one i really wanted to photograph. They very rarely come near enough to the boat, and even rarer come and stay!

   This one did both, but it did it at the time i was suffering a bit. So, i always missed the best shots. But, again assend shots were proving to be the norm.

Manx Shearwater

  Again i managed one, only one i kept anyway. Still nowhere near what i wanted, but i will try for them another time. Maybe even Skomer sometime.......just another place on my list of places to visit. I could be very busy next year, hopefully with a fully working knee, i can get a few bits done.







   Well, that was about it, and the Pelagic weekend was over, at least for this year. Will defo be doing it again. Lets hope Bertha has dropped some land birds in for tomorrow!!!