Wilson’s Petrel – an elusive
and enigmatic seabird that evades the vast majority of British birders during
their lifetime, unless of course they’re prepared to make a lengthy pilgrimage
to Cornwall each summer and spend time exploring the vast seas surrounding the
beautiful Scilly Isles in search of seabird gold.
With Bob Flood, Joe Pender and
the rest of the crew on board the now famous ‘Sapphire’ having well and truly
mastered the art of tracking down these mysterious petrels, their Scilly Pelagic
boat trips have a high success rate during summer weekends, often attracting up
to 4 or 5 birds to the boat at once.
Having experienced 3 pelagics
last August, but with no luck on the Wilson’s Petrel front (it was a very late
year for them last year), this August again saw us make our way down to
Penzance ready for the Scillonian crossing the next morning. Stopping off en-route
to admire the long staying Dalmatian Pelican
that’s been spending its time loafing at Restronguet Creek and the surrounding
Cornish coastline for the past 3 months, we eventually had relatively distant
views as it lifted up its head to show the magnificent yellow bill and confirm
our suspicions as to the ID (it was asleep at first and looked like a giant
washed up buoy!).
The 'rancid' Pelican! |
Restronguet Creek |
With the moss and lichen coated trees and hidden marshy groves, it wasn’t hard to imagine the plethora of American vagrants the area has undoubtedly held in autumns gone by.
A Knot Grass Moth caterpillar that we found on the boardwalk at Lower Moors |
The beautiful Scilly scenery |
It was immediately obvious that the high westerly winds had brought in
huge numbers of Shearwaters, and it didn’t take long before we had our first
Cory’s – a lifer for me and Alex – soaring towards the boat, a second bird in
quick succession.
Having missed Cory’s Shearwater on our pelagics last year, this was a huge relief, and despite the howling gales we enjoyed incredibly close views as these remarkable seabirds expertly cut through the air with incredible power and grace.
With approximately 42 Cory’s seen during our 5 hours out at sea, along
with a handful of Great Shears, at times flying right over the boat, the
evening was a huge success – even more so considering I’d managed to avoid the
seasickness I’d suffered on Monday’s much calmer pelagic! Relief! With just one
more pelagic left on our 2016 trip, it was well and truly last chance saloon on
the Saturday to get our desired Wilson’s, and with the winds perfect and less
rain forecast, we were definitely in with a shout!
The huge waves we experienced during the pelagic! |
Saturday dawned as wet and windy as Friday evening had left us – giving
us barely any time to recover after the absolute battering (my knees and shins
were bright purple with bruises!) we’d received being tossed around the boat
the night before. Speaking to seabird expert and Wilson’s guru Bob Flood before
the boat arrived, he was confident we’d be able to get a Wilson’s to the boat –
fingers crossed he was right!
St Mary's Harbour - if only the weather had been like this for our pelagics! |
Numerous European Storm-petrels soon began to appear, attracted to the
mixture of cod liver oil and mashed up fish pouring in to the water, the scent
clearly having travelled in the wind. With the numbers of Stormies building,
complete with several returning Bonxies, Cory’s and Great Shearwaters, the cry
soon went up that everyone on board had been waiting for – WILSON’S!!
Scrambling over to the side and struggling to stay upright as the boat
was buffeted about on the water, it transpired Alex was already on the bird,
but with the huge winds creating large channels in between waves, it was all
too easy for the tiny petrels to vanish behind a tower of water, and my target
bird disappeared behind a huge blue wall of ocean.
The crashing waves we experienced on the boat trips - easy for small petrels to get lost behind! |
Luckily, after an excruciating 20 minutes when the first bird didn’t
reappear, the cry went up again – WILSON’S – it’s back!
Spinning around to face the back of the boat and squinting through the
spray, the bird I had been waiting to see for over 30 hours of Scilly pelagics
was finally in front of me, skipping over the waves almost in slow motion and
hanging delicately in the air, a calm contrast to the raging torrent of water
over which it hopped with ease – my first Wilson’s Petrel.
The magical moment lasted only a few seconds, the light pale panels on
the wings standing out against the velvety black, while the long spindly legs
trailed behind, dangling helplessly towards the water. For a brief moment, it
seemed like the wind stopped howling and the waves stopped raging as we all
locked on to this sought after scarcity in British waters, savouring the
seconds and enjoying the moment by simply watching on as the petrel danced over
the waves instead of scrambling around for a camera.
Then, in an instant it was gone, carried off by the wind and lost in the
waves, aware once again of the crescendo of noise returning as the water
crashed against the side of the boat, my mac flapping fiercely out of control
in the gales. None of this mattered - finally we had our prize!
With the conditions still ideal for seabirds, we continued to chum,
managing to attract a further two Wilson’s Petrels towards the boat, making
approximately 4 in total. Managing a few shots with my camera as one passed the
end of the boat (the majority of frames were out of focus black shapes or
crashing walls of water) due to the intense rocking of the boat, I found it
exceptionally difficult to even stand up straight, let alone hold a camera
steady to take in-focus photos of a fast moving petrel!
The characteristic yellow feet that Wilson's Petrels show |
With three days to spare between pelagics, having booked on to dates at either side of the week, we used the spare time to explore more of the islands, taking a day trip out to the wonderful Tresco on the Tuesday – our first Scilly island apart from St Marys. Exploring the famous Tresco Abbey Gardens revealed none of the resident Golden Pheasants that are said to live there, but the beautiful garden features and the photogenic Red Squirrels were more than enough to keep us happy.
The beautiful setting of Tresco Abbey Gardens |
Present with at least two Willow Warblers, the Icterine was noticeably larger, with a huge orange bill compared to the Willow’s shorter and daintier beaks. Having only ever seen Melodious before, even abroad, this was a great new bird for me and one I had been hoping to bump in to for a while over several east coast visits.
A handful of Pied Flycatchers were the only other migrants of note |
The Scilly Isles carts! One of the highlights of my week! |
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