Fabulous fins!

Bit of a bonus today as we had this awesome Ocean sunfish drift past the vessel. It was lazily basking at the surface (as they do) and then rolled over and dived deeply as we passed within 10 metres of it. A cracking specimen and the first I have seen alive since one off Salcombe in south Devon in 1992!- 20 years ago during a university scuba field trip- yikes!!

Ocean sunfish, Mola mola in typical basking posture

Beauty is in the eye.....

.......of the beholder- or so they say! Late evening saw the arrival of 3 racing/feral pigeons each with leg rings. The white ring on this bird read 'MALTA 2010' - I guess these birds are not enjoying a winning streak! They are not very high up my list of 'good looking' birds but I do admit to being rather taken by the close-up detail of the feathers. However what really gets my attention is the eye which looks so reptilian and reflects the common ancestry of birds and reptiles on the evolutionary highway. On that note I must get my head down as another 05:30 start is on the cards.

Whirly-bird

stonechat

inbound super-puma

Fairly quiet on the bird front with just a few stonechats and a lone black redstart on the ship today. The stonechats have been particularly nervous and flighty and very hard to photograph. A couple of other interesting looking passerines just kept going and frustratingly kept themselves between me and the sun. I didn't have a clue what they were. Helo-ops offered a bit of excitement with an inspection team out to re-validate the heli-deck certification. I guess it was ok in that at least it didn't collapse when the super-puma landed on it! Just as well there were not too many migrants about as a bird strike would not have impressed the team! Seabirds have been scarce with just a few gulls and a dozen or so Cory's shearwaters. For some reason all the seabirds are now turning up on the wrong side of 500 metres or so, which makes photography attempts a waste of space. 

what a lark!

Had a couple of skylarks land on the deck earlier and there was also a mini fly past of several pied wagtails.....voyage list up to fourteen species- woohoo!

Had to slap on the factor 30 earlier as my bald bits were starting to roast- it must be hard going for these small migrants flying in the midday heat! No wonder they stop off for a breather!- This wagtail at least managed to grab a couple of flies off the deck before resuming its' passage north!

One swallow........

........doesn't make a spring for sure but the first swallow of the year always puts a smile on my face wherever I am! :)

This one made a lovely silhouette in the pre-sunrise light. Things have been deathly quiet on the seabird front with a gannet the only bird worth a mention. Yesterday a black redstart and a stonechat were a bonus as were a flock of 9 grey herons flying north over the sea.

Black redstart

There was a bit of drama this morning too as we had several close engagements with the local fishing fleet and even managed to snag some surface long lines on our towed gear. A few unhappy bunnies about for sure! Despite scanning hard for several hours there has been no indication that any marine mammals are in our vicinity, hopefully that will change and I can get some decent photos.

Tripoli

A dire day on the bird front- 1 bonxie, 4 Cory's and 11 distant gull sp. Wonderful sea conditions though, so a chance to get the workboat in the water and also a chance to get reasonable views of Tripoli.

fast workboat 'up on the plane'

Early bird

I was on deck at 06:00 this morning with dawn fast approaching. A smallish dark bird made me jump when it exploded out of its' hiding place between packing crates and flew out of sight to the heli-deck. With a racing pulse I quickly got to a better vantage point in the hope of a 'goody', only to find that I had flushed a starling! Not the most attractive of birds at that hour but 'trip tick' No. 8. To be honest after a week at sea only 8 bird species is rather pathetic even by my own standards. Things must improve- surely?

Anyway the sun came up and so did the Cory's again- I counted at least 18 today. Have been checking them closely when feasible- which has not been often, in the off chance that one or more of them are the fabled 'Scopoli's shearwater', which apparently is thought to be a species in its' own right by some, although often treated as a race of Cory's by most. I just don't think I could separate them in the field if I am totally honest, as the finer points of the I/D criteria would need pretty good views! Anyway, other than that there was little else to blog about other than a handful of LBB & YL gulls. Highlight of the late evening was a distant, juvenile Great skua which appeared to be moulting and looked decidedly manky. Still, it's a decent bird for here it would seem.  Still not seen a single cetacean.

Classic Cory's!

After a spot of lunch I resumed my watch on the aft deck. After 20 minutes or so a few gulls congregated over the towed gear, wheeling and dipping into the wave troughs. Suddenly a much more dashing bird fell into a wave trough in my line of sight, only to disappear before I could get my bins on it. It reappeared  further to my left, this time banking in a high arc over the wave crest showing white underwings with a dark border- shearwater sp.! Although I again lost the bird in the wave troughs for 10 or 15 seconds I eventually got my trusted Opticrons on it and immediately recognised it as a Cory's shearwater- brilliant! I watched the bird for a minute or so, trying to anticipate where it would reappear from behind the swell and wave crests. Amazingly it started shearing towards the ship so I even managed to shoot off a couple of frames- not startling images but considering the moving platform, distance and light I think they are good enough to show the I/D features. During the next two hours I counted a further 10 or 11 of these lovely birds. For me the sight of a large shearwater working its way in a stiff breeze through white-cap conditions epitomises what sea watching is all about! Happy days!