There's not much to add to the finders account on the RBA website of the Fea's Petrel off the Scillies on Sunday... other than to say I was there and I saw it; an incredible encounter. I had actually just scanned onto the bird a moment before Bob Flood told us to 'get on this petrel' he had been watching - it was cruising straight towards us, low over the water, and all I could see were its large dark eye patches - it sure looked interesting! A moment before it turned, Bob called it as a Fea's; it turned, and it bloody was a Fea's - I couldn't believe it...
It stayed with us for several minutes before departing, at times showing down to just 10 metres or so. Quite incredible. The atmosphere on the boat was amazing, as I don't think most of us could believe our eyes - except perhaps Paul French, for whom this was his third Fea's in British waters in as many years (which I think is just greedy).
Unfortunately my DSLR had suffered from getting soaked in seawater on my previous pelagic and wasn't working properly, so I only had my bridge camera with me, which isn't exactly ideal for this sort of thing, but I still managed a few record shots which I'm quite happy with - although of course they're not a patch on those images obtained by the more seasoned pappers.
What a bird - and not one I realistically thought I'd ever get on my British list. And the views were better than I managed in Madeira last year!
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| A poor picture - but this is representative of initial views as it approached the boat |
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| Maybe only c.25m or so off the bow in this shot |
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| Cruising one way... |
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| ... and the other |
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| What a beaut. |
What a lovely, subtly coloured bird
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