The previous Blog Post had covered first proper day at sea on the Plancius as we sailed from Ushuaia to the Falklands. It was good to be back at sea in the Southern Oceans. However, there was one final species that we had seen a couple of hundred of and which I've decided to save for its own Blog Post. Wilson's Storm-petrel is a species that was a mythical species to see in the UK when I started Birding.
In early Sep 1983, I had to turn down a weekend of seawatching at St Ives, as I was writing my first year thesis which would decide if I was able to stay on to complete my PhD or be limited to a Masters. My mates came back with news of five ticks for me, including lots of Cory's Shearwaters and Great Shearwaters, a couple of Long-tailed Skuas, a Wilson's Storm-petrel and a potential South Polar Skua: but that was never accepted. It was only the tenth ever Wilson's Storm-petrel for Britain & Ireland. The chances of ever seeing one in the UK seemed unlikely. On a positive, I got approval to carry on and complete my PhD a few weeks later.
Fast forward by a decade or so, and Peter Harrison was running weekend trips off Cornwall on a small boat to see Wilson's Storm-petrels. But I wasn't a good sailor in those days and the idea of bobbing around in a small boat didn't hold a lot of appeal. Neither did the option of trying to see one on a very long day from the Scillonian given I also had suffered with sea-sickness on early trips on the Scillonian to the Scillies. Finally, Bob Flood & Joe Pender teamed up to look for Wilson's Storm-petrel in Scillies waters and I got to see eight in a weekend in 2009, with help from seasickness tablets. These days, they are an expected species to see with Bob & Joe in the Autumn and the photographers come back with stunning photos.
These photos aren't as good as the photos it's possible to get off the Scillies. But I'm quite pleased with the results considering they are taken from the bridge wing.
It had been a good day and we were looking forward to the following day and the first of our landings in the Falklands.