On Wed 24th August myself and fellow birders/toggers Dave Gilbert, Mike Pugh and Steve Rosser embarked on another pelagic out of Neyland Marina to the Celtic Deep organised by Dave Astins of West Coast Birdwatching, the 4th in a series of 6 planned for August and September.
Dave rocked up at my place early on the Wednesday morning and with myself at the wheel and after a quick fuel stop at Sainsburys at Junc 36 we were soon heading down the M4 to pick up Mike and Steve at the Porthcawl junct 37.
With the car fully loaded we made good time and were soon parking up at the marina car park.
With all participants arriving on time and after a quick safety briefing we were heading at full throttle down the Milford haven towards St Ann's Head and out to sea.
The plan was to head out about 30 miles to the position where we had encountered the Wilson's Petrels on the previous pelagic and on reaching the location chumming began.
This pelagic was not quite as productive as the previous with no Wilson's seen although good numbers of European Storm Petrels came in to the 'slick'.
Other birds encountered were large numbers of Manx Shearwaters plus the usual Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, a distant Great Shearwater, Arctic Terns and 'Comic' Terns with the added bonus of 2 Minke Whales, 3 Risso's Dolphins and good numbers of Common Dolphins.
Unfortunately we did come across one Gannet on the water that appeared quite sickly and looked as if it was suffering from Avian flu, poor thing.
Again photography was difficult with a 1m swell but it wasn't as bad as the previous pelagic as there was less of a wind.
We headed back to shore mid-afternoon stopping on the way to view some rafts of Manxies and small pods of Common Dolphins.
We arrived back at the marina at about 5.15pm and after saying our goodbyes and using the loo we were soon on our way home.
Unfortunately as I write both the 5th + 6th pelagics have been cancelled, the 5th due to a mechanical issue with the boat and the 6th which was due out today due to inclement weather with a 1.5-2m swell forecast.
Another fabulous day out in great company and one that I am keen to repeat a couple of times next year, here are a few images from the day.......
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