The first...
...and second Great Shearwaters of the morning...
...and one of the two Sooty Shearwaters © Joe Stockwell:
20th September
A day that was one of a peculiar mix of joy and deep frustration. There was elation for the listers, some of whom scored two county ticks from the morning's short, sharp seawatch, but there was also no shortage of pondering on what might have been: the island's waters were clearly right on the cusp of a much more significant seabird event, whilst the torrents of rain that fell from mid-morning until after dark almost entirely scuppered chances for getting out on the hunt for the American passerine that could so easily have been out there. The morning's sea happenings were verging on a 'blink and you missed it' event, with 220 Balearic Shearwaters, 6 Cory's Shearwaters, 3 Arctic Skuas, 2 each of Great Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater and Great Skua, and singles of Storm Petrel and Sabine's Gull through in remarkably quick time from dawn before movement all but stopped dead; another 3 Balearic Shearwaters also passed through at Chesil Cove. Scant coverage of the land revealed little more amongst a few Blackcaps and phylloscs than 4 Goldcrests, a Pied Flycatcher and a Siskin at Pennsylvania Castle and another Goldcrest at Tillycombe.
