Pelagic out of Brixham yesterday was very quiet! Highlights distant Pom skua, 3 Med Gulls, 2 Common Gulls, Sandwich Tern although lots of Kittiwakes. On the Breakwater jetty a returning Purple Sandpiper

Dart Estuary near Bow Creek. 2 juv Ospreys one caught fish

Had to pass Bide yesterday, so dropped onto Maer Lake, amazed to see 3 Great White Egrets! Also 5 Med Gulls, Curlew, 6+ Lapwings, many Teal and far too many Canada Geese

Driving home from Widecombe (Dartmoor) last night a Nightjar/Nighthawk flew in front of cars headlights for a while. Quite a dark looking bird with quite pointed wings and only small white flashes in wings, thin tail . Looked more Nighthawk!

Berry Head pretty quiet but standout bird was a leucistic Balearic Shearwater. Also c20 Balearic, Manx, 8 Arctic Skua, Bonxie, 9 Sandwich Terns. Also some ABF Tuna boils and jumping individuals. With @jacob-wood.bsky.social

A continental feel or a changing Britains?! Both Glossy Ibis and Cattle Egrets at West Charleton Marsh 18/09/25

Slapton: 5 Cattle Egrets, 16+ Med Gulls

West Charleston marsh ( like spain!) , Glossy Ibis (same bird as Frogmore Creek 06/08) and 8 Cattle Egrets.

Start Pt: Balearic 31 Manx 72 Common t 3 Sooty 4 Sandwich 5 0730-1000 Also Hobby and Convolvulus Hawmoth(grounded)

Start Pt 0730-1430: 24 Great Shearwaters, 11 Sooty, 43 Balearic, 730 Manx, 12 Fulmar, 6 Med Gulls, 3 Common Tern, Arctic Tern, 6 Sandwich Terns, Whimbrel, Puffin, 9 Common Scoter, ABF Tuna

The sunrise at Berry Head yesterday, it promised much and delivered many Balearics. Once upon a time 654 would be a Devon record but not so these days, with our changing climate and seas!

Big movement of Balearics a long S coast

tot: Berry Hd 0700-1700: 652 Balearic, 64 Manx, 15 Fulmar, 13 Arctic Skua, Pomarine, 2 Bonxie, 2 juv Little Gull, 2juv/1w Common Gull, 1w Yl Gull, 1000+ Kitts, 8 Med Gulls, 23 Sandwich Tens, 12 Cn Terns, 2 Cn Scoter, Yellow Wagtail, 5 WB Dolphins, 20+ Cn Dolphins, 2 H Porpoise, 9+ ABF Tuna #seabirds

About time to www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/B...

Interesting air flow, might up SP Skua from the other side?! Interesting to see what Estaca de Bares gets!!

A massive count of 53,000 Great Shearwaters off the The Lizard today. Well done to the Lizard faithful. Can’t beat a big SSW storm!🤛

Berry Hd 1100-1400 ahead of the front: 3 Rosy Terns (2ads & juv together), juv Arctic Tern, 3 Sandwich Terns, Bonxie, 9 Arctic Skuas, Sooty Shearwater, 55 Balearic, 59 Manx, 2 Cn Scoter, Whimbrel, c10 Cn Dolphins, H Porpoise

Berry Hd 0930-1510: 6 Black Terns, 6 Arctic, 279 Common, 50+ ‘commic’, 163 Sandwich, 1w Caspian Gull, juv Little Gull, 13 Med Gulls, c7000 Kittiwakes, 28 Arctic Skuas, ad Pom (dark phase), 4 Bonxie, Grey Phal, 3 Great Shearwaters, 54 Balearic, 65 Manx, 2 Swifts, c20 Cn Dolphin, 2 H Porpoise .

Glossy Ibis end of Frogmore Creek 1330

Just been called by fishermen who says he saw a lot of Great Shearwaters off S Devon today fits with what we saw mid-week

Great day out kayaking on the Dart estuary with at least 4 Ospreys seen. 2 seen catch fish.

Start Pt 0750-1250. 4 Cory’s , 92 Great, c80 distant large shear sp., 2 Sooty , c200 Balearic, c200 Manx, c1000 distant Balearic/ Manx, 12 Euro Storm-petrel, Arctic Skua, 10 Fulmar, 4 Med Gulls, 5 Whimbrel

Berry Head 0620-1300: 10 Arctic Skuas, 2 Bonxies, 377 Balearic, 127 Manx, 4 Arctic Terns, 10 common Terns, 15 ‘commic’ Terns, 22 Fulmar, 9 Med Gulls, 5 Common Scoter, Little Egret (had left before hearing potential Fea’s on the way😫)

Final totals Berry Head 06:45-19:00 14 Great Shearwater, 10 Cory's Shearwater, 2 Sooty, c250 Balearic, c450 Manx, 29 Arctic Skua, 3 Bonxie,75 Sandwich Tern, 35+ Common Tern, juv Arctic Tern. Many obs through the day largest coverage by @jacob-wood.bsky.social

Berry Head 06:45-18:00 14 Great Shearwater, 3 Cory's Shearwater, 1 Sooty, c200 Balearic, c340 Manx, 28 Arctic Skua, 3 Bonxie,72 Sandwich Tern, 27 Common Tern (+8 'commic'). Also 5 Yellow Wagtail over first thing. #devonbirds #ukbirding

Berry Hd after 1530 waiting for a clearance, when it did Great Shearwater and 7 Cory’s (3 close and beautifully lit).

Also a grim sight of presumed dead Grey Seal, you can see the rope around the tail so probably entangled and drown

Berry Head 0730-11:30 stong E wind: Great Skua,43 Balearic, 178 Manx, 40+ Med Gulls (most juvs, some ads), 13 Sandwich Terns. Expected a lot more Balearics but must have already cleared out!!

The gospel according to RBA! so last week we had 1300 Balearics off Westray ! This week barely 100! So what about the 700++ we saw in west Lyme Bay from a Brixham pelagic on 13/08?

Pelagic 13 Aug west Lyme Bay: 19 Cn Terns, 4 Arctic Skuas, 3 Euro Storm-petrels, 2 Juv Yl Gulls, 10+ Med Gul, juv common Gull (very early to be down here !), 2 Teal, 1000++ mixed Balearic / Manx flock probably 3:1 ratio - I expect a lot more as birds to the horizon!

On RBA Round-up 1-7 Aug, just read this on Balearic Shearwaters "....Orkney, where 1,300 were seen from Westray on 5th". Surely a mistake?! Devon has just only exceeded that number and regular here - I thought Balearic was quite rare up north?! #seabirds @stevedudley.bsky.social

Black Kite as a boat tick was nice approaching Santander on 04/08 - of course spotted by eagle-eyed Del. Surprised camera even managed to focus on it and quite a good result considering. Light #birdingGear Nikon Z50ii, lens Z400/f4.5. Weighs less than Om1 ii and 300/f4 pro. Both 600mm equiv.

Ayer en Estaca de Bares esta gaviota de Audouin. Solo hay 20 citas homologadas de esta especie en Galicia. El día 28 vi los dos primeros págalos raberos de la temporada; y el día 23 una pardela chica.

07/08 Start P 1100-1600: Wilson's Storm-petrel (also another more distant or same bird), 23 European Storm-petrels, 691 Manx, only 7 Balearics!! (record no's further N), 22 Sandwich terns, 2 Common Terns, 14 Fulmar, juv Yl Gull, 5 Med Gulls, Turnstone, Redshank, 20+ ABF Tuna, 15 C Dolphins

1978 is a New National record Jake, old one didn’t last long, and a shore based count is probably more accurate. At Start only 5 Balearic Shearwaters showing they are not moving through. I estimate there are 2500-3000 in Lyme bay at present based on some of the at sea and land-based counts.

May be a clue to what's driving the local feeding bonanza, Sandwich Tern with Sprat!?

Adult and Juv Common and Sanwich Terns Tor Bay

Typical mixed Balearic and Manx flock today, though Balearics outnumbered Manx 5:1, west Lyme Bay

Pelagic offshore between Berry -Start Pt: Sooty, c1500 Balearic, c310 Manx, 8 Euro Storm-petrel, 2 Common Terns, 30+ Med Gulls. Sunfish. Tor Bay: Arctic Skua, 50+ Med Gulls, 76 Sandwich Terns, 2 Common Terns

N Biscay approaching Ushant 43+ Cory’s, 21+ Great, Sooty, 100s Manx, 2 Wilson’s, 2 Common Tern. Channel appeared devoid of large shearwaters but Sooty and many Manx approaching Plymouth.

One of the most dire Biscay crossings yesterday. 5 Cory’s, single Fin Whale and Sperm Whale, Blue Shark. Black Kite high over Santander. Will be heading back into the NW blow🤞for Ushant!

Talking to a reliable fisherman Rob D whose boat I used to work on describes seeing huge numbers of Balearics in west Lyme Bay on 30/07. This fits nicely with @clennonvalley.bsky.social sighting of 1000+ off Berry Hd. Yet apparently the rafts Rob saw continued towards Start Pt….

Berry Hd spectacular feeding frenzy mostly distant and South of the involving hundreds of gulls and Gannets and Balearics. Also several rafts of the latter numbering hundreds. Looks like the record numbers are staying with the abundant food supply.

0.1% of Dartmoor in good ecological condition. And each Dartmoor ewe loses its owner £16.90 – the ecological and economic craziness of the current sheep grazing regime well explained by @chrisgpackham.bsky.social. Time to change how this amazing place is managed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Its that time of year! When I've been lucky and seen 22 Fea's type Petrels. 4 Devon, 4 Ireland, 1 Cornwall, 13 Galicia (Spain). And missed at least another 2! Seen many more from Madeira pelagics - like these Desertas and Zino's comparison pics where you can a better chance to get down to species!

Berry Hd 0650-1400: 282 Balearic, 608 Manx, Arctic Skua, Euro Storm-petrel, 11 Med Gulls, 4 Sandwich Tern, 10 Common Scoter, 5 Teal, 14 Fulmar. 20+ Common Dolphin, 3+ Harbour Porpoise, 9 Swifts

Start Pt 1330-1700: 45 Balearic, 120 Manx, prob Wilson’s SP, 20+ Euro SP, Puffin, 2 Razorbill, 16 Guillemot, 3 Sandwich Tern, 2 Med Gulls, 2 Whimbrel

Start Pt 1015-1515: Cory’s Shearwater, 219 Balearic , 1191 Manx, 4 EStorm-petrel, 1petrel sp., 3 Fulmar, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Turnstone, 6 Razorbill, 39 Guillemot, 6 Med Gulls, Risso’s Dolphins

As predicted a good WSW wind got the Balearic (Med) Shearwaters channel hoping with my first decent count from West Lyme Bay. Still call em Balearic.

Soft-plumaged Petrel (light morph) off Porthgwarra this eve. 8:24pm. 13th July. Following a prompt txt from Joe Jones at 6:34 from the Lizard, this bird took 1hr 50 to reach Pg. Just five of us connected. The 2nd uk record and 1st for Cornwall. Pics courtesy Mike McKee. Still stunned tbh!