Sat on a rock

Yo! I’m back down in Cornwall for a week taking part in the final year of the Seawatch SouthWest project, something I’ve done each year since it began in 2007. I got married in August 2007 and have spent three of our following four wedding anniversaries at Porthgwarra seawatching. I believe the expression is “seriously taking the piss.” It’s worth it though – today has been fantastic with reasonably big numbers of Cory’s Shearwaters, and the weather looks good for the rest of the week.

Anyway, with constant observer coverage in full daylight hours, the aim of Seawatch SW has been to get a ton of records of Balearic Shearwaters passing the coastal headland of Porthgwarra between mid July to mid October, records which can then be used to build up a more accurate picture of their movements and range outside their breeding range in the western Mediterranean. This is also being back up by birds fitted with geo-locators, the results of which will hopefully be published at the end of the season. Like every other bird in the world, Balearic Shearwaters are in a precarious state, mainly because they choose to breed in dense colonies next to lots of nice beaches in the Balearic islands. So if Donald Trump ever decides to build one of his golf resorts in the area, it’s goodnight Balearic Shearwater.

A typical view of Balearics. Thanks to Muchaxo for the photo.

My schedule is seven days of seawatching from 06:00-12:00 and 14:00-20:00. If, like me, you love seawatching then it’s about as good as life gets. If, like a lot of people, you consider seawatching akin to having your head repeatedly slammed with a car door, then volunteering would be an act of insane masochism, like sticking a biro up your bellend (whatever you do, don’t try it. Not that I have ever tried it… *cough cough*).

Decent conditions for seawatching in southwest Cornwall are a tricky thing to predict, especially when you’re trying to score yourself a few of the big jobbies like Cory’s and Great Shearwaters. The general rule is that if the wind is coming from the southwest you should sit yourself at Porthgwarra, and if the wind is coming from the northwest you should settle in for a day at Pendeen. Nobody has ever quite decided what you should do if the wind is just coming from the boring old west, maybe that’s where you toss a coin. And if the wind is coming from anywhere other than west-ish then you should sack off the whole idea and spend the day freebasing with various degenerate surfdude dropouts further up the coast in Newquay. I’m hardly a long time visitor to Cornwall, but I did first visit in August 1994 and have been almost every year since, so I can tell you now that it’s wise to pay pretty much no attention whatsoever to the weather forecast and just get your arses down there in August anyway.

One of a few Magnificent Frigatebirds we saw in Texas in April. But one WILL be seen well on a British seawatch one day, or maybe another moribund shambles in a field in Shropshire?

At this time of year Balearic Shearwaters come past Porthgwarra every day (Seawatch SW has recorded at least one bird on 99% of survey days), and the big one now is to scrape out a Yelkouan Shearwater. Just like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and Selina Scott, those who claim to have seen Yelkouan Shearwater in Britain are ridiculed by those who haven’t. But hear me, o unbelievers, these mythical shearing birds of the eastern Mediterranean ARE entering British waters, and Porthgwarra is the very best place to string one. Though what to with these pain-in-the-arse Menorcan monstrosities is another thing altogether.

The standard field guide to advanced seabird identification

If you’re in Cornwall over the next week come along and say hello and keep me company. And you never know what you might see. In 2008 the Seawatch SW team recorded a cow being airlifted by helicopter from the bottom of a cliff – now that’s what I call proper birding.

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Tagged as: balearic shearwater, Cornwall, porthgwarra, seawatch sw, seawatching, tom mckinney, yelkouan shearwater