Wednesday, September 16, 2026
An early distant minke whale was spotted in Annat Bay from the ferry on this unpromising drizzly morning - and the first good bird was a dark-phase Arctic skua, flying low over the water. There were several groups on board and I could only get rail room facing south; I turned now and then to scan the sea to the north and at last saw loads of shearwaters! I managed to squeeze in on the end of the group - but what with the restricted room, the strongish wind, and the swift flight of the birds, my pics weren't much cop (well, nothing unusual there).
On the return journey the north-facing rail really was full, and I stood facing south once again, feeling slightly grumpy about it. Yes, I know they have as much right to be there as me - but there's only one of me! Suddenly, quite close to the ferry, but in the small area of sea visible between various fixtures of the ship, a shearwater came into view. It looked too big for a sooty, yet with the naked eye it looked all-dark. I went for my camera rather than bins and clicked off some pics, thinking it had to be a large shearwater species but not sure at first which one.
Looking at the pictures after it had gone I was astounded to realise that this was my first-ever great shearwater! According to the timing on my camera, I was snapping the shearwater for 13 seconds; so I probably had it in view for no more than 20 seconds before it disappeared towards the bows of the ferry. I was incredibly lucky to see it. Last view, uncropped......
Looking back through my pics of the morning's shearwater flock, I reckon that I caught it in one towards the bottom left of the frame - but I didn't notice it at the time.
My pics of both the sooty feeding flock and the great shearwater on its own were timed at around an hour from Stornoway.
I also had the chance of seeing my first ever Leach's petrel on this trip; a group leader ran over to the south rail to call it down to the birders below - but I resisted the temptation to "twitch". After all, I wasn't one of his group, but I'm content in any case for Leach's petrel to remain unseen - a potential self-found lifer, to provide as much surprise and joy as today's great shearwater and last year's pomarine skua.
// posted by Christine @ 12:07 PM 
