Lundy Warden Dean Jones reports a good sea-watch on the morning of 27th July: “No scarce tubenoses or skuas but around 300+ Manx Shearwaters, 23 Gannets and a handful of Shags and Kittiwakes. Watching the Manxies pass through the stormy sea was breathtaking.”
Dean got out again twice on 28th. The morning’s attempt was thwarted by heavy bouts of rain and mist. As Dean says: “There really isn’t much shelter on the SW point in a Force 7 oncoming wind!” However, a combination of a brief morning watch and an afternoon watch produced some 300 Manx Shearwaters, most of which were moving west, 80 Gannets, a single Fulmar and Guillemot and eight Kittiwakes. In addition, Dean had some amazing views of a Storm Petrel very close in off the South End in the afternoon. “I was able to follow the bird for a few minutes as it navigated the towering swell – definitely the highlight of all the birding I’ve done so far on Lundy; a spectacular show it was!”
Dean also had “some smashing views of five Harbour Porpoises feeding in the SW races in the afternoon, and in the morning a pod of 15 Common Dolphins which included two small calves. One of them was way in front of the rest of the pod, launching itself from the swell, seemingly loving life”.
That's Cool, its probably going to be well worth Seawatching later this Wk after the next few days oncoming westerly battering. Thought I'd mention there's a very interesting article about late summer Seawatching in Cornwall on Cornwall Bird Watching. Martin T
ReplyDelete