Isle of Man Crossing

Lovely conditions for the crossing:

Sightings started oiff with patches of Guillemot and not much else.  Plenty of Manx Shearwater mid-crossing with 23 seen at one time.  4 Gannet diving was nice.  4 Sandwich Tern flew past and a Red-throated Diver.

Isle of Man - April 2014 - Day 1

The day started out wet with cloud, drizzle and wind at Heysham port.  A quick scout around the bay area initially yielded little until I heart the nasal wheeze of Twite.  The weather conditions made pin pointing the call difficult but 10 minutes hunting brought a count of 3.  Amongst the Herring Gulls were a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and a scattering of Redshank and Oystercatcher.  Whilst looking for the Twite I saw a dusky grey / brown warbler with dark markings along the primaries and strongly defined emarginations.  I looked through the Collins and couldn't find anything that stood out but my guess is that is was a Chiffchaff or Blackcap I had caught in a funny light.

After boarding I headed up to the deck and found a sheltered spot to set up the scope.   My sea watching experience is pretty much zero so I couldn't believe my luck when a chap with a pair of bins round his neck approached me and asked if I was a birder.  I told him I was, albeit relatively new.  We chatted for about half an hour and when it seemed clear we were going to spend the crossing looking at birds together he thought it only fair to tell me he was the RSPB's Regional Mgr for the East of England!  This really broadened the topic of conversation and I can genuinely say I felt privileged to chat with such an experienced and passionate conservationist.  And to top it all he was a great bloke!  The crossing brought sighting of:  27 Kittiwake, 1 Sandwich Tern, 7 Guillemot, 2 Red-throated Divers, 23 Manx Shearwaters, 9 Gannet, 3 Fulmar, and 3 Razorbills.

On arrival we drove to Peel Castle (pictured below) just in time to catch the sunset and great views of 3 Shag.

Not a bad day for a non-birding trip!