Seawatching in Cornwall

It's certainly not that I haven't wanted to go for a seawatch in Cornwall, but on at least one day in each of the last eight plus years, James Mc has invited me to join him for a Pendeen or Porthgwarra jolly and I just haven't been able to go.  Yesterday I realised why - it was because I was waiting for yesterday - the absolute perfect day!

There has been exceptional numbers of big shearwaters off Cornwall and Isles of Scilly for the last week and a bit, and last weekend the weather for yesterday was looking promising enough to clear the diary for a day of seawatching!  So at 2:30am yesterday (Weds 2nd) James picked me up from home, we collected Dan from Sidmouth and got down to Porthgwarra for shortly after 5am!

Looking east from the main Porthgwarra seawatching point

 

We spent the next four hours at PG, before relocating to Pendeen (the north coast) as the wind was due to switch from WSW to W and then NW.  We watched from the bottom of the slope at Pendeen 11 - 2 with seawatching royalty, Mark and Del, before making our way back home. I was even home for Harry's bed time!

The view from the lower slopes of Pendeen

What my eyes witnessed during these eight hours of sea watching was simply mesmerising.  Literally overwhelming numbers of passing and feeding shearwaters, some skuas for good measure and even two rarities!  I will list the totals first before going into more detail...

Porthgwarra 05:20 - 09:50

5,000+ Cory's Shearwater (split between passing and feeding birds), c100 Great Shearwater, 40+ Sooty Shearwater, 2 Balearic Shearwater, 10,000+ Manx Shearwater, 1 Fea's Petrel (07:20), 6 Storm Petrel, 1 Wilson Storm Petrel (09:30), 1 Great Skua, 3 Pomarine Skua (all immatures), 3 Yellow-legged Gull (ad and 2 juv) and 1 Ringed Plover.

 

Pendeen 11:00 - 14:00

100+ Cory's Shearwater, 12+ Sooty Shearwater, c100,000 Manx Shearwater (passing at 800 a minute at times!), 35 Storm Petrel, 3 Arctic Skua (1 pale, 1 dark, 1 imm), 22 Whimbrel and 1 Ringed Plover.

A Cory's Shearwater with Manxies

Sooty and Manx Shearwater

Cory's Shearwater is a bird that is a real highlight on any seawatch, you'd watch all day in the hope of seeing one or two, and if you are really lucky you might just get to double-figures. So what we saw was really something else.  The big feeding flocks at Porthgwarra remained distant, but passing birds came in really close at both sites, and the opportunity to see them so well and to study so many was incredible.  Being on the north coast the light was much better at Pendeen, so although there were fewer birds here (not that 100+ is anything to be sniffed at!) the views were even more pleasing to the eye!   

Although I was expecting to see Great Shearwaters, I was not expecting to see as many as we did!  Some of these showed really well too, passing in close at PG.  The Sooty Shearwaters were good value as always, with good views of at both sites and then there was the Pendeen Manx passage - exceptionally close and constant!  Counting in the field was impossible, so I took a thirty second video which when counted revealed 400 birds!  Although it wasn't always that heavy, it was always happening so 100,000 in three hours is probably actually an undercount - even though it sounds absurd!

Storm Petrels are always good to see, and the views at Pendeen were really nice.  Views more distant at PG however the Wilson's Storm Petrel really did put on a show. Once called, it didn't take long to get on and it spent about five minutes feeding close in and in near-constant view. A bird I have always wanted to see in the field from land just to know what it looks like - big and 'paddle-shaped wings' come straight to mind!  It really did behave like a butterfly over the sea, not in full panic mode like Euro Stormies always seem to be in!  

When the shout of 'Fea's' went up I cannot even describe the panic.  Not just myself, it was palpable within the entire crowd of watchers!  I am pleased to say I managed to get on it, although not until it was in line with the Runnel Stone so I probably only got 40 seconds of views.  Lovely grey upper parts (like nothing else really) with darker wings and a paler rump, and then those tell tale black underwings contrasting with a clear while belly.  Wing shape I found not at all dissimilar to Cory's with an obvious kink in the wing, but it wasn't doing the high-arcs often associated with this species (or group of species I should say!).  The holy grail when it comes of seabirds so I do feel somewhat jammy!

Finally I must give the skuas a paragraph.  They've been so few and far between this year, so to get three species was a real treat.  As we all know Great Skuas (Bonxies) are in real trouble with Bird Flu having decimated the breeding population, so it actually felt like a bit of an honour to see one off PG.  The Pom's were great, although not sporting the spoons of an adult they had all the feel of big bruisers.  The closest skuas were the Arctic's at Pendeen, which included two adults.

Thankyou to James and Dan for the company, and it was good to see a few down there that I knew, including our very own Kevin plus Mark and Del as mentioned above.  Shout out to the Cornish seawatchers too, really friendly and helpful to all present with no elitism or snobbery at all.

Three was not a crowd. Great company all around.

The scene when we left Porthgwarra

This is where most seawatch from at Pendeen, the lighthouse.

And to give you a true feel of the day have a watch of the video below.  It doesn't include any of the rarities or skuas, when they came by I just wanted to watch them with my own eyes. However I wanted to capture a 'flavour' of the day and am quite pleased with some of the Cory's and the Sooty footage...

 

Now all I need is a Cory's off my part of the coast...