Guillemots and Razorbills off Pendeen

Below are some images of mixed auks moving west off Pendeen late last year.  They mostly include Guillemot, but there are also a few Razorbills.  Pendeen is an incredible place to bird from but in the big gales, the kit needs to be completely sealed from the excessive spray.  I wouldn't encourage getting too close to the rocks either.  Last night (16th Jan), the storm reached 41 kph with 8.2 m wave height!

Northern Gannet climbs a massive sea wall at Pendeen.

Seabirds on Hornoy Island, Vardo, Norway

Hornoy Island is ten minutes by boat from Vardo. The visit here has left a lasting impression - it is the home of 150 thousand seabirds, with up to 10,000 pairs of Puffin, 3500 pairs of Guillemot, 500 Razorbill and 3-400 pairs of Brunnich's Guillemot. The noise and smell can only be imagined! We also saw a single drake King Eider here as well as Sea Eagle. The latter is particularly fond of Kittiwakes and they have developed a unique way of catching them, as described below in an earlier post.

Brunnich's Guillemot

Sea Eagles, the commonest raptor in Varanger

Shag close up

Razorbill

Common Guillemot and Bridled Guillemt

Oiled Guillemot off Jubillee Pool, Penzance

January storms hit Cornwall

Today is the day-after when the first of the year's big storms hit the county. Land's End recorded the strongest gust of a massive 79 mph. yesterday at 18.00 hrs. That must be hurrican force? Anyway, the birding story must surely be the influx of Grey Phalaropes not only in Cornwall but across the UK. Whilst I tried, I just could not get close enough to photo one! I saw just one today at St. Ives Island at half a mile range. The five together at Red River yesterday had evidently disappeared. The shots below typify birds of the coast but sadly no Grey Phals. The light was stunning - consequently, the shutter speed reached a high of 2500th second at f/5.6, perfect for moving birds. I dropped the exposure down to -0.7. Some of the images appear quite small but they were taken at distances of up to several hundred yards. I used the TC on the 600mm lens and also used the in-camera high speed crop function, effectively doubling the focal length to nearly 1700mm !

The two images below of this adult Gannet moving past St Ives today catches some nice guano sequences, a benefit of the high shutter speed.




The majority of auks in the image below are Razorbill, with one Guillemot near the rear. The smaller auk is actually a lone bird swimming in the sea at a different distance to the flying birds.