I absolutely love a pelagic and although I was booked on one of West Coast Birdwatching's trips on 17th August a drop-out by someone gave me the opportunity of taking a spare place on the first of the season on 26th July.
The weather and sea state were perfect and we quickly steamed out about 35 miles SSW of St Ann's Head to a position where we recorded 3 Wilson's Petrels in 2022.
On the way out we encountered 100's of Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars, Gannets and the usual Auks.
Upon reaching our destination Dave Astins our trip leader started chumming which quickly brought birds into the boat and it wasn't too long before the first of several European Storm Petrels arrived.
When we were thinking that we were going to be out of luck after 90 minutes of chumming the first Wilson's Petrel arrived and in the next 40 minutes four separate Wilson's were identified which has become a new record for Welsh waters.
I managed to get some reasonable images but not as good as I'd achieved in 2022, not complaining though !!
Lots of Common Dolphins were also seen but no whales on this occasion.
Whilst conditions were similarly excellent on my second trip on 17th August no Wilson's were seen amongst several European Storm Petrels, no large Shearwaters either.
Never mind, there's always next year to look forward to........
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