Stormy visit to Berry Head

At the end of the Taunton cricket festival week we stayed on for an extra couple of days on the coast. After a great day at Lyme Regis in the sunshine, a large storm was forecast for the Sunday morning so I headed down to Berry Head in Devon.

A good number of birders were present to see a great set of sea birds pass the coast at various distances. Sea birds are an area I've striving to improve with my identification skills so was glad a number of local birders were on hand to help the sea bird novices. The storm was not as bad as first forecast however sightings included a Great Shearwater, a steady flow Manx Shearwater and Gannets, 4 Balearic Shearwater, 1 Arctic Skua and many Fulmars.

All aboard with AK Wildlife

 The Lizard

 Manx Shearwaters

 Common Dolphin

 Common Dolphin

 Gannet

 Gannets

Manx Shearwaters

Shearwater flock

It was another early start from my Devon stopover down to Falmouth in Cornwall. Falmouth has the third deepest natural harbour in the world and is famed as the start and end point for the round the world cruises for stars such as Dame Ellen MacArthur. I met up for my day on the boat with the three crew who were all keen wildlife enthusiasts and were very eager to show us some of local wildlife in the harbour.

Once out of the harbour the Captain picked up a pod of Common Dolphins which we followed closely. You were able to stand right up on the bow of the boat and see the Dolphins diving all around us. 

The second pod was larger in size but contained many calves only days old which made amazing viewing. 

It had been fairly quiet birding wise up to this time other than a constant flow of Gannets in various plumage. This was until we started to find the Manx Shearwaters who were great to observe so closely. Suddenly the first of five Sooty Shearwater, another lifer for me. This was one of my target birds of the year so I was very pleased. 

The journey covered a beautiful part of the Cornwall coast down to the Lizard but there wasn't much variation in the birds in all honesty. I was really hoping for a Storm Petrel but sadly no luck on this occasion. Overall it was a good experience and I wasn't sea sick !