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SCILLY PELAGIC 2008 - Birders Only!! (1 Viewer)

Glad i didnt go! I got to PG at 0900hrs to be told that the Scillonian had to go into St Mary's as someone had fainted and hit their head and needed medical attention!! Only four Cory's seen up to that point.
 
Scillonian III Pelagic had Corys and Great Shears, Grey Phal and a possible Wilson's that was only seen by a handful of birders. REALLY glad i didnt go now!!B :)
 
Wednesday! Its here now! Its like November not August. Theres a definate change in wind direction mid-week so could be good at Pendeen or possibly St Ives Island dependin on how northerly they are.
 
lewis20126 said:
Yup - sounds like a shambles.

a
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Indeed. From what I’ve heard, some guy messed his face up and they had to drop in to Hugh Town on the way out for him to be offloaded to hospital! Added to this, the seasick casualty rate was fairly high but I’ll let those who were on the boat give us the visual details.

It’ll be interesting to see just how many birders are claiming to have seen Wilson’s from this trip… by all accounts one was seen well but briefly by Viv Stratton et al but avoided the masses. There’ll be some desperados though who I guess will be counting shadows as that’s what they were out there for.

I bottled it on weather – I’m a bit of an Emetophobic (seeing others as I’d have been ok myself) so it was probably a good call.

Cheers and good birding
Rich
 
Rich Bonser said:
Indeed. From what I’ve heard, some guy messed his face up and they had to drop in to Hugh Town on the way out for him to be offloaded to hospital! Added to this, the seasick casualty rate was fairly high but I’ll let those who were on the boat give us the visual details.

It’ll be interesting to see just how many birders are claiming to have seen Wilson’s from this trip… by all accounts one was seen well but briefly by Viv Stratton et al but avoided the masses. There’ll be some desperados though who I guess will be counting shadows as that’s what they were out there for.

I bottled it on weather – I’m a bit of an Emetophobic (seeing others as I’d have been ok myself) so it was probably a good call.

Cheers and good birding
Rich
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First Scillonian i'd been out on; so nothing to compare to, but I enjoyed the trip! Things were looking ominous when the first guy spewed before the Scillonian was even half way out of Penzance! The sea was extremely choppy, and at times huge swells caused the boat to tilt and move violently. The boat did have to go in to St Marys; I was stood right next to the guy who walked out of the downstair section on to the deck looking very pale, and promptly fainted falling flat on his face, not a pretty sight! Was funny watching about 6 other people get off at St Marys jeering at not having to put up with the boat any longer!! It is also true that quite a large proportion of the boat were ill, though most of these were just sat downstairs filling sick bags -i'll never understand why when being on deck you'll see more birds and are less likely to be ill!

Birdwise, the trip wasn't the best. But stunning views of Great Shear saved the day, with two birds in the wake of the boat for a good hour. The Wilson's was an extremely brief sighting and with the masses assembled at the back of the boat and me off the port side I missed it - BF's own Joe Ray connected however ;) For once it seems the final counts on the pager were correct, and perhaps show the general lack of birds, but all in all the trip was a good laugh (especially at the people throwin' up!), and seeing such sheer numbers of Stormies at such close range was superb.

Cheers

D
 
dan pointon said:
BF's own Joe Ray connected however ;)
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Mate - I got onto the bird that had been called as Wilson's, as did several people next to me. General opinion was that it wasn't one, but I only had it in view for a few seconds. Just for the record, I don't have it down in the notebook as Wilson's. More likely a particularly long-winged Stormy.

Echoing what Dan has said, it wasn't a bad trip, cracking views of a couple of Great Shears, Grey Phal flew past, a distant Sooty and one or two Cory's. 2 Arctic Skuas and a handful of Bonxies were also attracted to the slick.

Surprisingly, even after we had turned round, stopped chumming and were starting the long journey back to Penzance, there were still a number of Storm Petrels following the boat. Speaking to a few people who had been on the trip in previous years, this is pretty unusual. The birds followed us most of the way back, with the last few tailing off around Lands End area.

All in all it was a good trip, although aside from Storm Petrels, no great numbers of birds were seen.
 
Joe Ray said:
Mate - I got onto the bird that had been called as Wilson's, as did several people next to me. General opinion was that it wasn't one, but I only had it in view for a few seconds. Just for the record, I don't have it down in the notebook as Wilson's. More likely a particularly long-winged Stormy.

Echoing what Dan has said, it wasn't a bad trip, cracking views of a couple of Great Shears, Grey Phal flew past, a distant Sooty and one or two Cory's. 2 Arctic Skuas and a handful of Bonxies were also attracted to the slick.

Surprisingly, even after we had turned round, stopped chumming and were starting the long journey back to Penzance, there were still a number of Storm Petrels following the boat. Speaking to a few people who had been on the trip in previous years, this is pretty unusual. The birds followed us most of the way back, with the last few tailing off around Lands End area.

All in all it was a good trip, although aside from Storm Petrels, no great numbers of birds were seen.
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Fair play to you with the Wilsons. I think if you'd of got on it you would of known, they are fairly obvious. Btw - do you know who had '46 Corys' off Porthgwarra on Saturday??
 
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dan pointon said:
For once it seems the final counts on the pager were correct
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Well, there’s a couple of reasons for that I’d guess. The bloke that normally phones the totals in to RBA wasn’t on the boat this year and the lack of decent birding as you say made it that little bit easier to count the single birds and then do 1+1+1 equals...
 
In between spewing, enjoyed it although lack of Wilsons was big disappointment. Can't really comment as didn't see the bird in question, but the Wilson's sighting seemed odd to say the least....

Excellent views of Great Shear - what a special bird, and good numbers of Stormies were great to see.

Some pics attached.
 

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