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| The closest Storm Petrel during my watch. |
From Bracelet Bay carpark 14:00 to 17:00 (All birds heading west)
30+ Storm Petrel
1 Petrel sp
1 Arctic Tern
3 Sandwich Tern
40+ Manx Shearwater
40+ Gannet
3 Swift
It was difficult to put an accurate figure to the Stormies passing from Bracelet Bay carpark. I watched many make it past the lookout station but a few were clearly being driven back by the wind. There was also a group of 4 birds that spent most of the time just off the rocks below the lighthouse.
One Petrel did catch my eye. It was fairly distant and at first sighting it looked bigger than a Storm, but its flight was the thing that made me follow it. It flew past much quicker than the Storms had been to that point. To emphasise that point while I was watching it, it caught up with and went straight past a Storm Petrel flying the same line. The flight itself was quite effortless and it seemed to be shearing most of the time. The distance involve meant I was not able to make much of the plumage features. It's a shame that no-one else was there to give an opinion on it.
On my way home I had a look into Swansea Bay and a further 6 Storm Petrel were flying around the more sheltered waters out from Mumbles Pier.
2 comments:
You did well to get this shot Mark, nice one.
Looks like Stormies had a pretty bad time of it. Three were on Chew reservoir and 2 at Blagdon on Sat.
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