Great to be back on the Isles of Scilly - and heading out with Joe Pender and Scilly Pelagics, aboard the MV Sapphire, to see ocean-going seabirds. Recent reports of Scopoli's Shearwaters highlighted this cryptic species as a possible on the menu...
Heading out from Hugh Town harbour, we headed straight for a small-ish feeding frenzy where Gannets, shearwaters and gulls were all having supper on the bait ball trying to escape the Blue-fin Tuna underwater.
Amongst the shearwaters (only the third bird to facilitate close examination of the underwing pattern) was a Cory's-type with clear white on the primaries. A Scopoli's at the first time of asking - but...this is a challenging species-duo and the identification criteria is still being fully ratified. On teh list - for now!
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