Booby Hunting! - 1.9.19

For some reason there was a sudden explosion of Brown Booby sightings in Western Europe with Spain and France having birds on show and then the UK got in on the act. A possible past North Kent was followed by a bird see around St.Ives in Cornwall. It was a bit erratic in its showings but when it did show it really showed well.

Western Bonelli's Warbler (Thanks to Lee Fuller for use of his photo)

So on the Sunday I joined Dave Johnson, Geoff Goater and Brendan Glynn down to Gwithian just east of St.Ives. Almost immediately the shout went up it was flying past but nothing came of it. While we waited we did some seawatching and I added Shag, Arctic Skua, Manx Shearwater and Great Northern Diver to the year list but after about 5 hours we'd had enough and headed SW to Trevescan where after a bit of cat and mouse I had lovely views of my 3rd UK Western Bonelli's Warbler half way up a large Cedar tree. Our decision to leave Gwithian was the correct one as it wasn't seen all day.