Celtic Deep Pelagic : Getting lucky with Wilson's Storm Petrel

On Friday 19th August 2022 myself and a dozen like minded souls took part in a pelagic trip out of Neyland Marina in search of seabirds and cetaceans organised by Dave Astins of West Coast Birdwatching.

I only knew the names of two other birders on the trip who were Dave Pritchard from Rhoose who I have known for several years and Owen Erasmus from Penarth who I had only known previously by name.

On speaking to Dave he advised that he would already be on holiday in Pembrokeshire with his wife so would meet at the marina, myself and Owen agreed to meet at Sarn Services on the M4 and with Owen at the wheel we arrived at Neyland at 07.15 for a 08.00 departure.

It was borderline that the trip went ahead due to a brisk breeze and a swell in excess of 1m which made the outward journey a little 'lumpy' to say the least, certainly the roughest pelagic that I have ever been on.

We made a couple of stops on the way out for rafts of Manx Shearwaters and the odd 'good' bird being an Arctic Skua and an Arctic Tern, also present were the usual gulls, Gannets, Fulmars and Kittiwakes and a rare sighting of a flock of migrating Whimbrel.

At about 30 miles off the coast directly west of St Ann's Head the engines were cut and we drifted on the swell, chumming then commenced and it wasn't long before birds started to come in to the slick.

European Storm Petrels were plentiful and we must have seen 40+, after about an hour or so the first Wilson's Storm Petrel arrived, a great spot and call from Dave Astins.

As time wore on two further Wilson's were seen and I ended up taking around 1,350 photographs !!

Once you got your 'eye in' it was relatively easy to differentiate between the 'Stormies' and the Wilson's.

I invested about two weeks ago in the new Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 IS zoom lens as a 'walkabout' lens and it certainly paid dividends on this trip with it's versatility, I'm selling my old Canon EOS 7D MK II camera body and a number of lenses to fund it, although I am keeping my Canon 500mm f4 MK II prime lens which is my pride and joy and a lens that I could not justify buying at today's price.

The enormous swell made photography extremely difficult and one chap ended up falling a couple of times, luckily he wasn't injured.

Of all the photos I took I ended up culling a huge percentage and only retained about 85 in total, I was however happy with some of them considering how difficult the conditions were.

We decided to call it a day mid-afternoon and the journey back was much smoother arriving at Neyland at about 16.40.

Huge thanks to Dave Astins for a wonderful trip and also to the Wilson's Storm Petrels for showing up, they are still one of the 'Holy Grails" of sea watching and a long awaited UK 'tick' for me having only seen them previously in the Bay of Biscay.

Here are a few of my 'keepers' from the day and to top it all I've got another trip to look forward to next Wednesday 24th August with close friend Dave Gilbert and also local birder/togger friends Steve Rosser and Mike Pugh..............

European Storm Petrel

Wilson's Storm Petrel (yellow webbing between toes evident)

Wilson's Storm Petrel

European Storm Petrel

European Storm Petrels

European Storm Petrels + Wilson's Storm Petrel (3rd bird from right)

European Storm Petrels + Wilson's Storm Petrel (furthest bird right)

European Storm Petrel

European Storm Petrel

European Storm Petrel above / Wilson's Storm Petrel below (yellow webbing between toes evident)

Wilson's Storm Petrel

Black Kite or the lack of

 On 2nd August myself and Teresa made a speculative visit to the kite feeding station at Bwlch Nant Yr Arian east of Aberystwyth in the hope of catching up with the Black Kite that had been found there by Marc Hughes the previous afternoon. A Black Kite had also been seen near Machynlleth a day or two earlier and presumably this was the same bird.

When we left Poppit Sands the weather was fine if overcast but as we approached Aberystwyth we ran into drizzle and by the time we arrived at Bwlch Nant Yr Arian low cloud had decended and the drizzle persisted.

I left Teresa at the cafe and upon arrival at the viewpoint opposite the feeding area the low cloud miraculously lifted and the drizzle ceased.

There were several serious birders present along with families visiting one of which was Arfon Williams who I hadn't seen since the Green Heron 'twitch' in Pembrokeshire in 2018, also present was the finder Marc Hughes along with Martin Creasser and Paul Bennett.

Unfortunately much to the disappointment of the birders present the Black Kite didn't put in and appearance despite much scanning of the sky.

Accordingly, I had to be content with taking photos of some of the 150-200 Red Kites present and came away with some images that I was really pleased with.

The trees at the back of the feeding area provide a lovely backdrop and I favour this place much more than Gigrin Farm or Llanduesant...........