Wilson's Petrel on first attempt on-board Scilly Pelagic

Wilson's Petrel

Amazing views of two birds together showing impression of walking on water

Look at those toes!

Manx Shearwater

Video footage taken on I-phone

Scilly You-Tube footage 

All abroard the Saphire

Heading out to sea

Mrs D's photo of boat in very distance

On board shot

Part of chumming mixture

Awaiting the action to begin (in pain)

On the turn for home (Thank the lord)

A summer holiday in Scilly would finally give me the opportunity to see a Wilson's Petrel. This rare sea bird breeds on the Antarctic coast lines and the Scillies does offer the best chance to see the species on an organised pelagic from the island of St Marys.

Each weekend, Friday to Monday, offers four opportunties to go out where the team chum hoping to attract sea birds to watch at close quarters or even photograph. I've never had the best of sea legs, so I booked the Friday & Monday evening sessions (5-9pm) with the plan to sell my Monday place if I got lucky on the Friday. 

On the Thursday evening of our arrival a storm hit the island, not that we noticed as we just slept through it all. There was debris all over the island and the sheltering boats had taken a real hammering. On the positive front the storm was from the south west which may have brought a few more sea birds in as sightings had been very quiet on the week before my trip.

There were around 30 birders/photographers on board the Saphire captained by Joe Pender giving plenty of room for everyone. I was well dosed with travel sickness tablets and had a strategy of not to move around unless really necessary. We headed five miles south of St Marys before turning the engines off and the wait began. The chumming leaves a smelly oily slick on the water which attracts the birds from many miles away, the question of whether there were any birds in the area was answered fairly quickly.

To start with we saw a small number of Storm Petrel which was quickly followed by a Wilson's shout off the left hand side of the boat. And there was my first Wilson's Petrel about 20 metres away over the slick. We saw a minimum of six Wilson's many flying really close to the boat giving everyone some amazing views. The Wilson have a more direct flight than the euros and also give the impression they are walking on the water. Other ID features include yellow webbing and toes are projected outwards when gliding.

Photographer, Richard Stonier, kindly forwarded this image showing the birds in all their glory. Please drop him a follow on Twitter @birdsonline. 

In addition other sightings included a Sooty Shearwater, 100 European Storm Petrels, many Manx Shearwater, Sandwich & Common Tern, Kittiwakes, Great Black-backed/Lesser Black-backed & Herring Gulls.