An 8.00 am start and a bit of an excited buzz on the boat!
It was one of those calm days (10mph westerly) when some might say "not worth bothering"!
Light winds aren't good for Shearwaters!
But if they are there, it makes the day even better! We didn't just have one's and twos shearing past the boat it was double figures 'close' on occasions, here's a typical fly past...
And singling Cory's Shearwater out for starters, they were still effortlessly managing to glide and shear!
A bit further out, this individual was hugging the water, literally inches away, shearing for Garfish. Both Richard Stonier and I got similar images. Maybe this 'Cory' could be the next bad guy for Pixar animations?
A small group featuring four species, the missing Balearic was seen later in the day but this was astonishing stuff. I thought I'd died and gone to (seabird) heaven??
With so many opportunities, the Cory's just kept coming to steal the show early on!
Photo bombing this Sooty and Great on the water!
Backdrop after backdrop (hardly a Manxie in sight sometimes)
You literally didn't know which way to turn? Given the conditions, why were they all here? The simple answer was 'Tuna'! Groups of large Atlantic Bluefin Tuna were engaged in feeding frenzy.
These guys can get up to a colossal siz (c 1,000lb) so relatively small specimens in view but as they were tearing throughtthe shoals of fish they were providing spoils for the Shearwaters... Joe got an amazing image with the head out of the water, I had to settle for fins!
Great Shearwater calling, hypnotic sounds from the ocean!
I don't think I'd ever seen a Cory's on the water before? They were lining up!!
And it wasn't just about the birds. This Minke Whale rolled just 50m out from the boat!
Of course, one bird missing so far was Wilson's Petrel and the BIG Three run continued with four seen today. Here's one of them...
More to come and to kick off part two - large Shearwaters getting airborne...
