These days, I am motivated by putting my effort into finding my own scarce and rare birds rather than twitching. However, every now and again certain birds in certain locations do still tempt me. Since my first visit in October 1989, I have always had a very strong affinity to the Isles of Scilly and it is a place I really love to visit, so with the recent news of Britain's 2nd record of a Red-footed Booby (a pantropical species) along with huge numbers of Cory's Shearwaters and other seabirds present in the South West approaches, it just seemed too good an opportunity to miss!
Therefore I took a day trip on the Scillonian and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. To be honest, one of the best highlights for me was seeing so many Shearwaters at close range from a very calm Scillonian crossing! A good couple of hundred Cory's Shearwaters, 6 Sooty Shearwaters and thousands of Manx Shearwaters. Plus great views of numerous Common Dolphin, Harbour Porpoise and Risso's Dolphin.
A great day and fabulous seabird spectacle with a bonus rarity, albeit a reminder of the worrying trend of seabirds heading out of their normal range as sea temperatures rise....
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| Cory's Shearwater |
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| Cory's Shearwater |
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| Manx and Cory's Shearwaters |
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| Sooty Shearwater |
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| Common Tern |
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| Common Tern |
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| Bishop Rock Lighthouse |
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| First views of Red-footed Booby on top of Bishop Rock Lighthouse |
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| Light morph Red-footed Booby |
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| Light morph Red-footed Booby |
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| Light morph Red-footed Booby |
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| Bishop Rock Lighthouse |
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| St Agnes |
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