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Monday 16 August 2010

Storm Petrel and Sooty Shearwaters

With the strong onshore winds blowing all night, hopes were high for a decent seawatch, but with only a minimal amount of Gannets and a few Common Scoter moving it quickly appeared that maybe that wouldn't be the case.

The first Sooty Shearwater of the year and a couple of distant Arctic Skuas which then passed by raised hopes a little, but mainly it remained very quiet with just the odd Gannet, Common Scoter, Teal and a few waders passing by to maintain the interest.

Suddenly the shout went out that a Storm Petrel was passing and after a bit of scanning my Dad picked it up and following his directions I was straight onto it too making what appeared to be a bit of a non-event very worthwhile.

Over the next couple of hours highlights were a second Sooty and a single Manx Shearwater, plus a couple of Bonxies, a Kittiwake and a few Arctic Skuas but it never really got going in terms of numbers but I was more than happy with the Storm Petrel which is always a very good bird to record passing by the patch.