Corys' on the move?

We have moved North to within 20 nautical miles of the coast of Ghana and inside the 200 metre depth contour. The change in the numbers of seabirds is very noticeable with a steady, albeit light passage of pomarine and arctic skuas, a handful of grey phalaropes, single 'comic' tern and hundreds of Corys' shearwaters. The shearwaters are becoming increasingly restless, forming into rafts of several hundred birds- this possibly being the precursor to their north-western migration back to higher latitudes- I have seen similar behaviour with regard to great shearwaters before they head south from Greenland for their autumnal migration. Both Cory's (C.borealis) and Scopoli's (C. diomedea) are found here and as Paul Stancliff of the BTO pointed out the bird immediately below shows the white primary 'fingers' extending into the black 'hand' - a good feature for Scopoli's. 

part of a 'raft' of several hundred Cory's/Scopoli's shearwaters

pom skua

vis mig flurry

It has been quiet of late with just the terns obviously flying north. Today was better with a kestrel, 2 turtle doves, 2 collared doves, a very nice garden warbler and a pipit sp. I think it is probably a very worn and abraded (from the desert sand) tree pipit? The pink bill looks right and the hind claw is relatively short but in truth I struggled to ID this one. I often struggle to ID birds on a ship- the habitat gives no clues!

I have been at sea for sixty days and am due off in 2 or 3 days time- can't wait for a cold beer and the chance to get back to the British isles for some quality spring birding!

16.04 update- thanks to Kriss Webb (Scilly spider), and Paul Stancliffe (BTO migration blog) for IDing the pipit as a Tawny

garden warbler

Tawny pipit

turtle dove

collared dove

kestrel