My photo of the Red-footed Booby (circled) and Bishop Rock lighthouse
Back on 4th September 2016 a bird was reported that was struggling on the beach at St.Leonard’s-on-sea,E.Sussex. When animal rescue turned up they found it to be Britain’s first ever Red-footed Booby. It was taken into care and nursed back to health but rather than raise a lot of money by releasing it where it was found and letting birders watch it fly off it was flown to the Caribbean to recuperate but sadly died before it was released.
With warming seas and climate it was on birders radars as a future addition the the British list but would there be another bite at the cherry? Fast forward to this August and the question was answered when one flew past the lucky boat load on a Scilly Pelagic! It was only on view briefly before vanishing and with that it seemed we’d missed out again. It was on another pelagic that the Bishop Rock lighthouse was checked as it seemed like a good roosting spot if it was still in the area. To the amazement of those on board it was there sat at the top on the netting!
It then showed again for the next couple of days allowing the keenest twitchers the chance to see it. Storm Betty then hit the SW meaning no boats could go out on the Friday and Saturday and as it was the Scillonian boat was fully booked and so with a day return on Sunday 20th only costing £35 almost 200 birders descended on Penzance to head over to try their luck despite not knowing if the storm had forced it away. At 1am I joined Brendon Glynn, Tony Stride and Tony Hukin on the journey down.
It was good to see some familiar faces on board and just before 10am a phone call was received from Higgo on the Scilly pelagic that the bird was still there and with it a huge roar erupted from the birders akin to a goal at football! We were soon treated to some great views of some super seabirds. On the way over 3 Whimbrel, 3 Storm Petrel, 5 Great Shearwater, 50+ Balearic Shearwater, numerous Manx Shearwater and my best ever views of Cory’s Shearwater were seen with the latter numbering over 100. Another loud shout went up and across the front of the boat 6 adult Sabine’s Gulls flew past and more than doubled my UK total in one flock.
Around noon we arrived on St.Mary’s and disembarked the Scillonian and straight onto one of the inter island boats and headed out to the most SW point of the UK. Eventually the imposing lighthouse loomed into view and sat on the top was my first ever RED-FOOTED BOOBY a nice 1st summer white morph. The boat circled around a few times and eventually it stood up and showed off its red legs and feet. After 20-30 minutes or so we headed back to the quay and back on the Scillonian and headed for home.
Thanks to Mark Rayment for his photo
I guess thanks to Cliff Smith for his photo 🤷🏼♂️😂
Thanks to Phil Locker for his photo
And thanks to Kevin Hale for his photo
The journey back to Penzance saw another 50+ Cory’s Shearwater, Arctic Tern, 2 Grey Phalarope and 20+ Great Shearwater. It was when 3 birds flew past that a brief bit of excitement kicked off. 2 were Great Shearwater but the right hand bird despite never having seen a Pterodroma species before other than in photos caused me to mouth the words Fea’s Petrel. The birder next to me and another half a dozen shouted the same thing but frustratingly my total viewing lasted about 3 seconds and only of the grey upper parts and dark carpal bar before it was lost in the glare but it certainly looked promising.
The drive home was jam free and I climbed into bed at 1.30am just over 24 hours since I left home and managed a whopping 4 hours sleep before getting up for work. Totally worth it though!
