Sea-watching in the South-west

Just got back from Cornwall after a rather cool sea-watch. As always I'd been watching the forecast closely, and decided on Friday that it would definitely be worth it. The standard overnight drive down to Porthgwarra seemed to be quicker than usual, and so Steve, William, Nick and I were up on the cliffs for dawn, as were loads of other people, some of whom had also travelled a long way. Rather worryingly we could see Scilly with bins, but it soon clouded over, and indeed gave us a good soaking. Several soakings, to the point where I was actually soaked through, waterproofs having been completely overwhelmed. Double figures of Great Shearwater, I estimate I personally saw somewhere between 12 and 15, five or so Cory's, and a good supporting cast of Stormies, Sooties and various other birds I rarely get to see. Maybe my sea-watching expectations are high these days, but I felt a bit like we had been slightly robbed, that there hadn't been a big one. Nevermind, there was always the next day, and with the winds shifting, Pendeen was the spot.

We arrived at Pendeen slightly late, having slept longer than intended. No sleep on Friday night and a few pints at the Tinner's Arms in Zennor probably had something to do with it. The sea-watching was pretty slow, so I went down to the rocks to photograph Gannets for a bit. Quite a few came between me and the rocks which was pretty good, and so after a bit of fun with the camera I returned up to the watchpoint to discover most people had left! Very odd, but there you go, I guess when there are no monster seabirds going past, people do get a bit jaded. We stuck around for a bit and then tried our luck at Cape Cornwall. Nothing doing there really, so a long drive back to London beckoned. A knackering weekend, but always good value. One of these days we'll really score I expect, but although we saw some great birds this trip, we felt that there was something slightly lacking as despite the weather charts looking very tasty, we didn't really come close to the biggie.