Scilly Pelagic - Storm Petrels galore!

Today was just as much a day for survival in some pretty wild seas driven by a 40mph south westerly gale. With a 4m swell in the equation, standing up was one achievement, poiting and operating a camera another! But the the European Storm Petrels were in 'their' element, simply business as usual as they effortlessly flew into the gale picking bits of chum up in the slick by the boat...

And they were very close, some flying just 3 or 4 metres off the stern - leading to the ridiculous complaint of 'too close'!! There were plenty to choose from, an estimated 300 + flew past the boat!

Not sure what's going on here?

But it was one of those amazing days where you forget the wind and waves and just marvel at them - simply WOW!

Highlight of today - no contest...

Porthloo - juv Med Gull

With a severe gale blowing from the South West I checked out the sheltered beaches on the opposite side of the island. Porthloo held a decent flock of gulls with a juv Med Gull in amongst them. Med Gulls are one of my favourite birds so I tried to do it justice ...

Feeding somewhat like a Sanderling and the occasional 'bigger' wave gave  a flight opportunity!

Lovely pristine combination of black and white with shades of grey in between...

Scillonian and Evening Pelagic

Difficult to find some photographic highlights from this gloomy start to the Scilly Pelagics trip! From the moored Scillonian, a Grey Mullet and the last time I photographed one of these was in the bill of a Caspian Tern!! Think he would have bitten off more than he could chew with this one...

Plenty of distant Manxies and a close Kittiwake from the crossing...

At least the Common Dolphins turned up not far from Penzance!

Then off to the evening Pelagic, coupled with fishing trip which drew a blank on the shark front! A 'first' here with Joe in waterproofs!!! Never seen that before... And it did rain... Not all of the evening but enough to keep the camera in the bag most of the time!

No large Shearwaters bur plenty of Manx Shearwaters in sizeable rafts up to 100+

No Wilson's but the chum drew a good number of Storm Petrels through...

And a straight in, straight out Sooty Shearwater!

When all else fails there's always the dependable Fulmar to turn too?

That's my first trip since 2016 without completing a 'Big 3' tally - not even one of the key species this evening! Hopefully the weekend storm will turn things around?

Venus Pool - Yellow-legged Gull

Unless my memory is failing me, it's probably 10 years or more since I saw one of these at VP! An adult with moulting primaries...

All good things come to an end as it eventually flew off

Med Gull next!

Venus Pool - Mediterranean Gull

If it wasn't for the Yellow-legged, this ghostly adult Med Gull would have been the star of the show! Never coming close, it hung around the middle island and (eventually) I got the departure moment...

Nice comparison with a BH Gull...

How angelic can a gull get?

Off and away....

Whixall Floods - Garganey x 2

I was hoping for better... Reevsey had seen this pair of eclipse Garganey by the roadside earlier on but they had flown to the more distant left hand side floods! Behind the wire and vegetation, this is the best I could do...

Looks like a male following the female?

Venus Pool - Dunlin

A juvenile Dunlin has been hanging around for the past few days. Normally shy and sticking to the middle island, I caught up with it today a bit closer but in pretty awful light!

Constantly on the move feeding...

Apart from this one brief static moment!

Maybe he'll call down some of his mates?