Shearwaters home and away
A decent South Westerly blow in summer always has the potential to produce a few manx shearwaters off Clevedon and my favourite watching point is Ladye Bay.
The only problem is the extreme distance that they usually pass at.
This shot shows the problem: Look closely and you can just make out the green and yellow bouys that mark the deep channel which is typically what birds follow.
Here is a close up of the closer buoy, the green one,
Looking closely you can just make out a couple of manxies passing behind this bouy
Once you get used to this range it is actually quite difficult to adjust to the much closer birds of the South Western coasts as they seem to go through the scope too quickly at first
News of a probable Yelkouan shearwater off Portland was too good an oportunity to miss though and offered the first chance of the year to see numbers of Balearics.
The superzoom came in handy and I tried to photograph every shearwater flying in the scrum just off the bill in the second day of the reported Yelkouan's stay.
First up a shot of part of the mixed flock on the sea showing that they were so much closer than here
I thoroughly enjoyed my time searching through the flock and scoping and photographing to my heart's content
It was interesting that the Balearics were generally in moult while the few manx present were generally not though at least one was.
After a morning's staring through the flock I was confident that I had seen at least one bird that was a potential Yelkouan, and had certainly seen all the birds being called as such.
In my opinion the problem of the birds from Menorca that seem to be a mixed population will prevent me from ever being convinced that I could personally claim any candidate I see off the Lizard or Pendeen. There seem to have been two candidates off the Bill with better and worse defined axillary bars. The bird in the bottom right of the next two pictures is, I believe, the candidate with the poorer bar. I will await any, eventual decision with interest.
I have only seen definite Yelkouans off Bulgaria on one holiday and though I've seen many 1000s of Balearics I am all too aware of my ID limitations. I have just booked a pelagic in the hope of adding to my experience further but its unlikely I will ever be really confident with this group.
So is this Britain's 2nd Yelkouan ? (or indeed its 3rd ? )
The only problem is the extreme distance that they usually pass at.
This shot shows the problem: Look closely and you can just make out the green and yellow bouys that mark the deep channel which is typically what birds follow.
Here is a close up of the closer buoy, the green one,
Looking closely you can just make out a couple of manxies passing behind this bouy
Once you get used to this range it is actually quite difficult to adjust to the much closer birds of the South Western coasts as they seem to go through the scope too quickly at first
News of a probable Yelkouan shearwater off Portland was too good an oportunity to miss though and offered the first chance of the year to see numbers of Balearics.
The superzoom came in handy and I tried to photograph every shearwater flying in the scrum just off the bill in the second day of the reported Yelkouan's stay.
First up a shot of part of the mixed flock on the sea showing that they were so much closer than here
I thoroughly enjoyed my time searching through the flock and scoping and photographing to my heart's content
It was interesting that the Balearics were generally in moult while the few manx present were generally not though at least one was.
After a morning's staring through the flock I was confident that I had seen at least one bird that was a potential Yelkouan, and had certainly seen all the birds being called as such.
In my opinion the problem of the birds from Menorca that seem to be a mixed population will prevent me from ever being convinced that I could personally claim any candidate I see off the Lizard or Pendeen. There seem to have been two candidates off the Bill with better and worse defined axillary bars. The bird in the bottom right of the next two pictures is, I believe, the candidate with the poorer bar. I will await any, eventual decision with interest.
I have only seen definite Yelkouans off Bulgaria on one holiday and though I've seen many 1000s of Balearics I am all too aware of my ID limitations. I have just booked a pelagic in the hope of adding to my experience further but its unlikely I will ever be really confident with this group.
So is this Britain's 2nd Yelkouan ? (or indeed its 3rd ? )
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