We live in Oxfordshire, just about as far from the sea as you can be in the UK. We face over a two hour drive in order to get to the nearest seaside towns and even longer journeys to get to coastal birding hotspots. The closest we get to doing some actual seawatching is by staring out into the middle of Farmoor reservoir on a wet and rough day. Actual 'proper' seawatching from coastal headlands is extremely alien to us, it's not an activity that we are comfortable with and something we have done on very few occasions. Watching birds flying past a mile out to sea is difficult, views are usually poor, and lots of practise at identifying distant birds is required before the necessary experience is gained. Of course a lot of seabirds breed on cliffs and islands and can be seen easily when in residence but the true maritime species, those that don't breed in accessible places in the UK, will mostly only ever be seen by scoping from land in periods of bad weather when strong winds blow the birds close enough to shore.
However there is another option and for some time now I had been harbouring a desire to, 'go on a pelagic', that is to board a boat that sails out into the open sea where those sea-going birds, that at the least attainable from land, spend their lives. My own life list of birds seen has a gaping great hole in it because I'd hardly ever seen any Shearwaters, birds that breed on remote and hard to get to islands, and when not breeding, spend their entire lives out at sea. I only have two species of Shearwater on my list, Manx Shearwater which are very common around the UK and can be seen readily around the coasts at certain times of the year, I've even seen two at Farmoor reservoir before, strays dumped there by autumn storms, and Sooty Shearwater, my only record of which came last year from the Ullapool to Stornaway ferry and I had to rely on a much better birder than myself for identifying the distant blob sailing past about a mile away for that. I wanted to see Shearwaters up close and personal and the only way to do that would be from a boat.
The pelagics operated by 'Scilly Pelagics' in the waters surrounding the Isles of Scilly are famous amongst birders. Those boats are manned by very experienced and brilliant sea-birders and sail far out into the southern approaches of the English Channel and consistently achieve sightings of many seabirds of both common and very rare species. I've been wanting to go on a few of those boats for sometime but unfortunately the best time to see the birds is in August which is also the most popular time to take a holiday in Britain, and to visit Scilly becomes extremely expensive. So when I learned of similar pelagic trips operating out of Falmouth I jumped at the chance to get on one. However, mainland Cornwall is also a very pricy place to stay in during August so we waited until the last sailing in September. Of course we could have feasibly done the whole gig in a day but what a jaunt that would be, ten hours of driving plus seven on a boat would be a killer, and besides we love Cornwall so a week away would be far better. Holiday cottages are reduced in price by a fair bet once the school holidays end and by booking as late as the Tuesday before the weekend meant that I could negotiate a much fairer rate than those previously offered.
We drove down to the cottage, only a few miles from Lands End at the 'business end' of Cornwall in birding terms, on Friday the day before the pelagic. On the way down we twitched a juvenile Black Tern at Chard Reservoir and paid homage to the Labrador Bay Cirl Buntings, both much needed year ticks. Neither of those birds performed particularly well for us so we had to be satisfied with distant views but both were duly added to the list. The photos below were taken last year.
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| juvenile Black Tern, Farmoor 23/08/2021 |
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| male Cirl Bunting, Labrador Bay 01/04/2021 |
Year List additions;
267) Black Tern, 268) Cirl Bunting
To Saturday morning, the boat was due to sail at eleven o'clock and we met with our fellow passengers just before then at Falmouth Premier Marina. We had luckily found free parking on a street nearby and had also managed to find a breakfast too. All was peachy, the sun was shining and there was negligible wind so it should be a good trip. Whereas strong winds coming from the right direction is an important factor for seawatching from land, at sea a calmer day would help enormously since the waves would be smaller and the boat steadier. The birds are out there all the time so good conditions should make them easier to find too.
The pelagic was one of Falmouth based AK Wildlife Cruises 'birder specials', sailings made specifically to see seabirds. The company operates many similar day trips but they mainly concentrate on finding cetaceans and other marine life. The purpose of this trip was twofold, one to hopefully find the birds and the second so that the 'tour leader', Liam aided by his friend Matthew, could count the number of birds out in the bay of research reasons.
The walk from the marina gate to the boat, 'The Free Spirit' was surprisingly long, along floating boardwalks. There are a lot of boats moored in Falmouth even in this small marina. When we reached the boat, a small but sturdy looking enough craft, Keith the skipper greeted us from his lofty wheelhouse above the main deck and an image of Robert Shaw, 'Quint' the captain of the 'Orca' in the Jaws film, flashed through my mind (no offence Keith). Keith directed us each to specific seats aboard the craft. Ours were towards the front which wasn't ideal, I know from experience that for photography it's best to have the seats at the rear where there is a better all-round view. Our outward vista at least would be slightly hampered by the awning and apron that was in place to make the Free Spirit more comfortable should the weather change for the worse. To be fair though it was a small boat so being a few metres further back wouldn't have made a lot of difference apart from having a clear view to the rear. At the back of the boat though were two enormous bags of 'chum', a concoction of smelly fish oil and waste, which would be thrown overboard later in the day in the hope of enticing rarer birds to feed in the 'slick' so maybe we were better off nearer the front!
The boat chugged gently out of the marina and into Falmouth Harbour and as we slid between the anchored boats that surrounded the main channel Keith gave us some advice about how to spot things out on the open sea. He said that we should look far away and not to expect stuff right next to the boat and to look for 'black' water that would indicate a whale or a pod of dolphins. We were also informed to look out for splashes created by leaping fish or mammals. Something else to look out for were large groups of birds concentrated into one place. Such a cluster of birds would indicate large shoals of small fish that were probably being hunted by bigger fish. At this point I was wondering if I'd gotten aboard one of the whale searching trips by mistake but of course I realised that the 'work-ups' as they are called, would likely hold some of the birds that I most wanted to see. The first birds that we saw however, as we gently trundled along were Shags which seemed to adorn every possible resting spot in the harbour.
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| Shag |
We couldn't hear the safety advice, no doubt delivered expertly by Jess, Keith's assistant, because her voice was drowned out by the engines which must have been directly beneath where we were sitting so if the boat did come to grief then we'd probably sink with it through sheer ignorance (not really because I could see the life jackets and I'm sure we'd have been well looked after in the event). I did wonder though, just how large Sharks can grow to in Falmouth Bay. I was also thinking that at the rate we were travelling we'd never get to be ten miles offshore and in the realm of the Shearwaters in the time available, it was very slow progress through the harbour and the harbour was pretty big. I guess I was eager! I needn't have worried though because just as I was taking a photo of a lighthouse, I like to test my mate Trev who works for Trinity to keep him on his toes, captain Keith announced that we'd be shortly leaving the confines of the harbour and the speed limit imposed within it and we should be 'on our way soon'.
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| Lighthouse (Trev?) |
And boy did that boat shift! Not exactly thrown back in our seats stuff but the surge in acceleration was enough to lift the prow of the boat high in the air and to give me a nice face full of salty water when I peered a little too far over the side. The Free Spirit raced ahead and soon the land behind us became less and less distinct despite the clear conditions. Liam was on his feet shouting, 'big work-up ahead' and 'at two-fifteen'. Now it was only around eleven-thirty in the morning and if we had to steam ahead for another two and three-quarter hours we'd probably reach France before stopping and I seriously doubted anybody, even if armed with top grade binoculars could see that far. The time actually referred to using the clock face as a reference point for sightings, twelve being directly in front of the boat and six o'clock behind, three is to the right and nine to the left. It's a great system for indicating which direction to look towards on an open sea, provided that you are familiar with telling the time. The shouting out aloud so that Keith could hear above the general boat noise was necessary but would prove to be a bit awkward for a quiet person like myself. Stop laughing.
Between them, Liam and Keith had found us our first real seabirds of the day when we zeroed in on a flock of Gannets and Gulls. The boat was gently ushered in closer, favouring the other side to that at which we were sat, and that it seemed would unfortunately turn out to be a recurring theme. I had to strain to look over the heads of the folk sat on the starboard side. Because my mate Lighthouse Trev (he's tall) is a sailor, he once drove an oil tanker through the Suez Canal in the fog before he retired to take up climbing lighthouse steps in the fog, I know the difference between port and starboard and why. For reasons of brevity I won't bore you with the origins but basically if you are facing to the front of a watercraft (or aircraft) then port is the left hand side and starboard the right. I also know that boats have red lights on the port side and green on the starboard thanks to Trev (who is responsible for the audit of sea marks, whatever that really is). Clever bloke my mate when it come to boats. Unless the argument turns to, 'is it a boat or ship?' Then he's no more the wiser than the rest of us. It turned out that Keith knew what he was doing and when the starboard siders had had their fill of the birds he steered the boat so that we on the port side could get a good view as well. He did that throughout the day so that everybody got their views of almost everything.
Keith shouted over the tannoy, 'big splashes, eleven forty-five, four hundred metres'. Halfway there he added, 'Tuna!' Now I might have thought he was announcing the sandwich menu for lunch but I'm not quite that ignorant and knew that we do actually get Tuna fish in British waters. I'd never seen any before though so was interested enough to forget the fact that I was on the boat to see rare seabirds for a few moments. The boat motored towards the commotion and soon I was amazed at the huge shoal of Bluefin Tuna that were turning the water into a frothing cauldron. A few of the Tuna with their shark like fins and notched backs 'flew' right out of the water but I wasn't able to capture that with my camera. I did manage to grab a few reasonable shots of the big fish chasing smaller fry. In a couple of the images if you look hard you can see the sprats leaping clear of the water in their own desperate attempt to escape the mouths of their pursuers. Thankfully commercial fishing of Tuna is currently banned in UK waters, we definitely don't want to see those massive factory ships hoovering up these fabulous creatures as happens in the South Pacific.
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| Bluefin Tuna |
At the edge of the furore, calmly swimming and observing the excitement, were our first Manx Shearwaters of the trip. Around ten of them just calmly loitered around the madness of the Tuna shoal presumably waiting for a chance to pick off a sprat or two. Having only seen 'Manxies' from afar before I was surprised at how large they appeared, and yet the guidebooks reckon they are a size smaller than other birds of the sea like Guillemots and Razorbills.
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| Manx Shearwater |
With the Tuna now behind us we plugged on towards the horizon and pulled up alongside another raft of birds which appeared to be exclusively made up of Gannets. While I was looking through the birds my eye was drawn to a bird that although looking like a young and therefore dark-backed Gannet, was clearly smaller. In response to another shout of 'work-up, one o'clock', Keith set the motors into full drive again, and just as I took a few shots of the different bird the whole flock took to the wing so that the photos I took only caught the back and tail of the interesting bird. I knew though that I'd just seen my latest 'lifer' with the Great Shearwater that had flown away being the 398th bird on my British list. Somehow the others on the boat had all missed it. Not getting a great view felt a little anticlimactic because seeing a Great Shearwater was top of my list for the day.
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| Great Shearwater |
Matt had said as we sailed out from the harbour that today was going to be a good day and with every few hundred metres of adventure that prophecy was becoming more and more accurate. Any doubt that I'd seen my first ever Great Shearwater a moment before was dispelled when Keith drew alongside a raft of around twenty birds of which five were the larger species. Next to the Manxies the Greats were clearly a size bigger with lengthier features such as a more attenuated body, much rangier wings and bigger heads and bills. A white collar on the neck gave the head a 'capped' appearance. The amount of birds on the sea now we had left the coast well behind was amazing. I always thought that Great Shearwaters were rare birds. Not if you go the right place they're not!
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| Great Shearwater |
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| l-r; Herring Gull, Manx Shearwater, Great Shearwater (3) & Manx Shearwater |
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| l-r; Manx, Great, Manx & Great Shearwater |
The Great Shears appeared to be more wary than the Manxies though and for now the closest views were of the latter. The benign conditions, at times there was barely a ripple on the surface of the sea, meant that no birds were flying unless startled by the boat. A few of the Manx Shearwaters just floated serenely by, seemingly not bothered by anything.
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| Manx Shearwater |
When the birds were unsettled by the boat, and by us people gawking at them, and took to flight then naturally they would tend to fly away from us. Being rather large birds, taking flight meant that a run-up was required in order to get airborne so there were lots of opportunities to capture the birds splashing across the water. My photos were restricted to just Manx Shearwaters at this stage.
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| Manx Shearwater |
Liam had been invited to 'ride the bow' by the skipper and he soon announced that a larger raft of Shearwaters were settled on the water ahead. When the boat pulled up alongside the birds, almost all of my pre-trip wish list was fulfilled. The raft contained four species of Shearwater with Manx, Great, Sooty and Balearic all there! The Balearic, there was at least three in the flock, was my second lifer of the day, the life list was now up to 399, and we'd only been out of port for just over an hour. Balearic Shearwater is a rare species and there are thought to be only around two thousand pairs in the entire world, all of which breed colonially in the Balearic Islands. They are however, regular autumnal visitors to the southern reaches of Britain although for some reason we had never connected with any before. Balearic Shearwater is superficially similar to Manx Shearwater but are greyish brown coloured birds and have dusky brown underparts unlike the clear brown to white divide of Manx. Balearic is also a trifle bigger and thus more robust looking than the Manx.
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| Mixed Shearwater flock |
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| Manx (l) & Balearic (r) Shearwaters |
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| Great Shearwater |
I was most delighted however, to see a Sooty Shearwater even though it wasn't the rarest bird on offer. The only previous sighting I had of one was from the Ullapool to Stornaway ferry last September. A very poor view of a dark shape flying rapidly through the murk on a drizzle marred sailing at about half a mile away. If it hadn't been ratified by an expert birder who was leading a tour group at the time then I'd have never known it was a Sooty Shear. So to now see one floating on the calm sea at twenty metres away was like adding another lifer to the list. Sooty Shearwater is a big bird, almost the length of the Great Shearwaters but much more bullish looking. It is dusky grey all over but had a nice, almost kind look to it. More comparison shots were available between the four species. All I needed now was a Cory's Shearwater to complete the set for the day and to bring up my 400th species seen in Britain.
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| Great (l) & Sooty (r) Shearwater |
We moved on but not before I'd grabbed the chance to get some flight shots of a Balearic Shearwater. The other species also obliged me although for some reason the camera couldn't get to grips with the Sooty Shear.
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| Balearic Shearwater |
Quint, sorry Keith, shouted, 'Shark!'. Just off of our side of the boat, for a change, was the pointed dorsal fin and tail of a huge Blue Shark slowly cruising across the dead calm surface. It was a real thrill to see such a beautiful creature, well bits of it anyway, in its element. The snout of the fish with all its accompanying teeth was right there almost within touching distance. Not that I would be dipping my hands in there anytime soon.
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| Blue Shark |
Liam had spotted another raft of Shearwaters and that one turned out to bigger even than the previous one. There were over sixty Great Shearwaters in amongst smaller numbers of Manx, a few Balearics and another lone Sooty Shearwater. A few Herring Gulls also loitered there. After taking a few panoramic shots of the whole flock, I was invited to walk up to the bow of the boat myself. That gave me a much better view of the birds albeit from a loftier position. I was enthralled by there being so many Shearwaters in one place. Don't forget up until a couple of hours ago I hardly ever seen any, now I was looking at a hundred in one flock!
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| part of the Shearwater raft |
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| Great Shearwaters |
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| Sooty Shearwater (l) |
Despite the number of Great Shearwaters readily available it was a couple of the other species that grabbed my attention. For some reason I'd fallen for the Sooty Shearwater, definitely my favourite of the four types seen. I really liked the Balearic Shearwaters too, I guess they're superficially similar in looks to the Sooty Shear albeit as a smaller version.
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| Balearic Shearwater |
I returned to my seat just in time to see the flock fly away. I couldn't find the Sooty Shearwater flying but took the opportunity to fire some shots off at some of the others.
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| Great Shearwater |
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| Manx Shearwaters |
It really was all go and Liam called another Sooty off the port side bow. He was keen to check it out because apparently there is a similar looking bird called a Sharp-tailed Shearwater although that would be highly unlikely to be loitering here off the coast of Cornwall. Still I was pleased that Keith manoeuvred the boat close enough to see the bird that had a couple of Gannets for company. Although I still needed a Cory's Shearwater for a clean sweep (ha!), another Sooty was definitely good enough for me. This one was bathing and performed a fantastic wing stretch for us, showing off its almost pure white underwings.
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| Sooty Shearwater |
The Sooty Shearwater also provided me with my favourite image of the whole trip when it swam directly towards the boat. I peered between the guard rail to shoot just a couple of frames while I could. They really are such lovely looking birds and have definitely become one of my favourites of all seabirds.
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| Sooty Shearwater |
Storm Petrel! Mrs Caley had spotted it first, the dainty little sparrow sized bird, often likened to a House Martin, was flying slowly about thirty metres away on our side of the boat. I was a bit slow on the uptake but finally got my act together enough to grab a shot as it flew past the bow. I enlightened the rest of the boat and they caught sight of it as it passed on the opposite side. The European Storm Petrel (to be absolutely correct) was the fifth year tick of the trip after the four Shearwaters. We've had decent views of Storm Petrel before, we saw lots on the ferry to Stornaway last year but none as close as this one.
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| European Storm Petrel |
The next big surprise came in the form of another fish, spotted by eagle-eyed Keith again. An Ocean-going Sunfish was just off the starboard side, its huge floppy fin standing up well out of the water. This proved to be one of the few times when the layout of the boat did conspire against us getting a good view and the only photo I managed was between the shoulders and heads of most of the other passengers, the majority of whom seemed more interested in fishy goings-on than the superb seabirds on offer. Mind you, it's not every day that you get a chance to see such a fantastic creature like a Sunfish!
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| Sunfish |
We were now seeing European Storm Petrels frequently so Liam and Keith decided that it would be a good time to "chuck the chum" overboard in the hope of attracting something rarer. The mix of salmon oil and bits of fish leaves an oily slick on the surface of the sea and stays visible so that Keith could keep the boat close to it. Several Stormies were patrolling over the slick but they were extremely difficult to keep up with and to photograph as they whizzed along turning erratically with the merest twist of the tail. So far the becalmed conditions had aided us by sedating the Shearwaters. The Storm Petrels however, with no wind to slow them down, were shooting around at great speed. I tried my best for a while from the bow of the boat but in the end gave up and just watched them.
With the chum out and expectations high, Keith piloted the Free Spirit around in circles keeping the slick in view. We all became very proficient at spotting Storm Petrels as they flew in from one direction or another. Under Liam and Matts expert scanning all were designated as the European variety and none were the much sought after Wilson's Storm Petrel which hail from much further afield, the Southern Hemisphere in fact. On a previous sailing a month ago four of the yellow webbed feet Wilson's had been seen here and one now would have made a fantastic 400th bird seen in Britain for me. Liam spotted a raft of birds ahead and Keith motored towards them. Incredibly there were forty-five Euro Stormies all floating together in a fairly tight flock. They flew well before the boat could get there but I captured the whole flock in a few shots.
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| raft of European Storm Petrels |
For the next twenty minutes or so we saw lots of Storm Petrels, all European, and I was like a spinning top trying to capture them via the camera. It was pretty much non-stop action and although none of them came really close or slowed down at all I definitely improved my Storm Petrel portfolio. Of course with fast moving subjects, the closer they get then the quicker they seem to be moving and you have far less time to track them and fire off shots. Although it was therefore easier to lock onto the Storm Petrels when they were further out from the boat, they are tiny birds so the camera struggled to focus on them. Photographing these birds from an ever moving boat takes a lot of practise and this was my first real attempt. I have a dream to get to the Isles of Scilly in the future to take my chances on the pelagics run from there. Just need to save up a lot of dosh first. It's probably cheaper to fly to South Africa and run out on some pelagics from there!
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| European Storm Petrels |
The action since we'd reached the outer limits of the bay had been coming thick and fast. Keith announced that we were about eleven miles from the harbour. Lizard Point lay to the West and Dodman Point to the East. We were roughly equidistant between the two. Next up it was the turn of Dolphins. A flock of energetic Gannets gave away their position. There were probably around thirty of the Common Dolphins surging through the surface water, occasionally one would fully breach and leap clear of the water. I'm always staggered by the size of Dolphins, some of these animals were at least three metres long, and equally amazed by the speed at which they move. Any fish in the path of a hungry Dolphin doesn't stand a chance and these were ravenous! At times some would pass directly under the boat or surface right next to the sides.
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| Common Dolphins |
I took time out to photograph a few of the hundreds of Gannets that were circling above the Dolphins but in truth having seen so many Gannets in my life my interest soon returned to the Dolphins that were still providing a great show, delighting us all and especially the folk on board who were less interested in the birds. I tried to get photos of a Dolphin flying through the air but, although managing some very distant images, nothing was sharp enough to include here. Still, Dolphins live in water, not in mid-air, and I was pleased to see them in their element.
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| the rare double dorsal finned Dolphin |
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| Gannet (2nd year above, adult below) |
There were still a few Storm Petrels around but all of them seemed to be more distant now. I guess that the slick of chum had become less concentrated and the birds were less attracted to it. A momentary lapse in the action gave us a chance to eat our picnic and take five minutes rest. For over three hours I'd been on the go with hardly a lull and combined with the excitement I was feeling pretty tired. At a shout of, 'Big work-up on the horizon' I was awoken from my repose and we were on the move again, full steam ahead towards the throng of birds. Midway there Keith slowed the boat next to a smaller raft of Shearwaters and Gulls so that they could all be checked over. A few of the Great Shearwaters were plunge diving, presumably eating the remains of another crafts slick. There are many fishing boats active off the coast of Cornwall and many prepare their catch while at sea with the waste cast overboard which becomes food for birds and other sea creatures.
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| Great Shearwaters |
There were more photo opportunities and better ones too since the Great Shears were less bothered by the boat drawing near. Some birds were so close that several of my shots had no need for cropping at all! This pelagic really was delivering the goods, far better than I had hoped for, and was fast becoming one of the best birding days that I've ever had.
The remains of the day were now being dominated by Great Shearwaters. The numbers we were seeing were almost unprecedented and the raft of one hundred and twenty-five that we approached at nearly three o'clock in the afternoon would have been unimaginable a few hours before. I wasn't keeping count but I reckoned that I'd seen over three hundred Great Shears since leaving the port. That's over three hundred more than I'd ever seen before! It was impossible to get a photo of the complete flock because it stretched for so far.
We stayed with this flock for over half an hour so I took more photos at leisure. Naturally all of the other species previously seen during the day were also present so I carefully tried to choose deserving subjects. There was another Sooty and as before I wanted to study that one. Unfortunately it didn't hang around long and yet again I didn't manage to get a really good flight shot.
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| Sooty Shearwater |
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| Manx Shearwater |
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| Great Shearwater |
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| Balearic Shearwater |
We were fourteen miles out from land and it was now time to return so the show was pretty much over. The skipper set sail for home and stuck the engine into full throttle. There was still lots to see as we sailed in but all of it whizzed by in a blur. I took the time to look through some of the one thousand photos that I'd taken, quite a few were sub-standard so were deleted immediately but I'd still have nearly eight hundred to edit when back on shore.
We occasionally slowed down to observe any Shearwater rafts that were spotted, mainly in the hope that a Cory's Shearwater was hiding amongst them but that wasn't to be. Thanks to Matt, we added a further year tick to the trip when he spotted a Grey Phalarope speeding past, but too fast for a photo. The Great Shearwaters continued to hog the limelight as we passed more groups of them on the water.
Back in the confines of the harbour the slower speed limit was once again observed and we spied a few Mediterranean Gulls on the water, always a nice bird to see.
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| Mediterranean Gull |
It had been a long day out at sea but totally thrilling and a complete novelty for me, one which I will definitely be repeating next year when hopefully I'll get to see a Cory's Shearwater and a Wilson's Storm Petrel.
Year List additions;
269) Great Shearwater, 270) Balearic Shearwater, 271) Manx Shearwater, 272) Sooty Shearwater, 273) European Storm Petrel, 274) Grey Phalarope
My appreciation and gratitude goes to Keith, for skippering the boat so well, to Jess for looking after us all, and to Liam and Matt for their expertise and skills in spotting the birds.
Terrific! I didn't know you could do a trip from there either (filed away for the future....)
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