In the last Blog Post, I wrote about the twitch to Bryher for the first twitchable Blackburnian Warbler. It had been a great day, with sunny, but windy, weather & I had had good close views of the Blackburnian Warbler. The crossing over had been bouncy, but I had survived. The highlights of the crossing to St Mary's had included a Sooty Shearwater and a pod of at least six Short-beaked Common Dolphins. I was looking forward to the crossing back.
Just like the crossing over, the back deck was full with Birders. Some were looking, but most were sitting down & waiting for somebody else to find them something to stand up & look at. I was in a more central position on the desk, as the rocking would be a bit less extreme & as usual, I spent most of my time scanning for Seabirds & Cetaceans.
While we were still off the South East corner of St Mary's, I picked up a large dark lump in the water that wasn't close. I couldn't figure it, but it looked interesting. I quietly alerted Matt Eade and a few other Birders standing next to me. I got some more views and some photos and then it was gone. It was pointless to call it out to the whole of the deck when I first picked it up. Firstly, I wasn't sure what it was & more importantly, the Birders closer to the railings would have stood up & blocking our view. Looking at the photos, it wasn't the very top of a whale back as I had initially thought in the choppy water, but a Sea Turtle. At the time, I assumed it was a Leatherback Turtle from the back of the camera photos.
Looking at the photos properly when I got home, confirmed it was a Loggerhead Turtle. It didn't have the large parallel bands on the shell that a Leatherback Turtle would have and it had barnacles on its shell. Barnacles cannot attach to the leathery shell of a Leatherback Turtle. It had been a large Sea Turtle and its size and colouration ruled out the other Sea Turtle species. I forwarded the photos to Tom Brereton as I knew he would have more experience of Sea Turtles than me: he confirmed the identification. There are only around 200 to 250 UK records of Loggerhead Turtles, so it was a great record and we were still in sight of St Mary's. We still had the bulk of the crossing ahead of us.
Clearing the Island, we encountered Whale blows on both sides of the ship. Unfortunately, I failed to get good views of them, but I did manage to photograph the back of one before it dived. It clearly is a large back. Soon after I saw much a better photograph of this individual which confirmed it was my first UK Fin Whale. I've had really good views of Fin Whales abroad and they are the commonest Whales that I've seen. But it would have been nice getting better views in UK waters.
There were also at least thirty Great Shearwaters, including a raft of about twenty individuals took off from the sea on the port side. This total would have an undercount for the crossing as I was only looking on this side. I grabbed a few photos as we passed the main group, but I was focusing on looking, rather than the photography.
At one point, a guy next to me started muttering something that sounded like he was watching a Chough: which was too bizarre to try looking for. Then finally he shouted Fea's Petrel, but not until it was at 7 o'clock on the ship and rapidly headed into the sun at the stern. I couldn't see through the crowd who were next to the side of the ship. I raced to get a view off the stern, but couldn't get onto it as it headed rapidly away. A few photos appeared online the next day, confirming it was a Fea's Petrel or Desertas Petrel. I've not seen a UK Pterodroma Petrel, so it would have been a UK Tick: albeit I would only have been able to call it a Pterodroma sp. Hopefully, I will see one in the UK at some point.
It had been a brilliant day. I had survived the bouncy crossings, found a Loggerhead Turtle, seen the Blackburnian Warbler & a Fin Whale: all of which were UK Ticks. I wasn't fussed that I might have been able to get brief views of the Wilson's Snipe or the Pterodroma Petrel: both of which would have been UK Ticks. The thought of two or three UK Ticks on the same day, when the Blackburnian Warbler took me to 553 for the UK & Irish List is crazy. I think I have a good chance of seeing a Wilson's Snipe at some point in the future: the biggest obstacle will be deciding to make the effort to twitch one on Scillies. Best of all for the day, I had stayed outside and kept my C19 risks low which meant I was healthy to travel to Heathrow on 24 Oct for the trip to Indonesia.