Hi Andrew,
Not had chance to reply sooner,been away.Yes it was unpaid apart from getting a free B&B on a farm in Porthgwarra.

Cheers Pete

Well that's the week over. Not the best conditions for Cornish seawatching, in fact possibly the very worst you could ask for! Still, as I kept telling myself, if I had even half this stuff in NW England then it would go down as a fantastic seawatch - it's all relative.

From a holiday point of view, the weather was brilliant, and taking shelter out of the wind meant that it was scorching hot right through the day. Great company was provided by Russell Wynn (the project organiser), local birder John Swann and four plankton specialists from Plymouth, which is far more interesting than it may sound!

Wednesday 22nd

5 Balearic Shearwaters
147 Manx Shearwaters
1 European Storm-petrel
1 Cormorant
3 Common Scoters
1 Great Skua
1 Yellow-legged Gull (first-summer)
1 Black-headed Gull W
300 Herring Gulls (feeding flock)
79 Kittiwakes
1 Sandwich Tern
7 Common Terns
7 Commic Terns
1 Razorbill
2 Whimbrel
2 Curlews
5 Dunlin
3 Ringed Plovers
6 Turnstones
3 Oystercatchers
2 Peregrines (juvenile and ringed adult)
3 alba Wagtails
1 Grey Wagtail
4 Tree Pipits
6 Swallows
4 House Martins
3 Ravens
4 Basking Sharks (including 1 breaching)
1 Whale sp. (probably Minke)
15+ Common Dolphins

Thursday 23rd

1 Sooty Shearwater
1 Balearic Shearwater
175 Manx Shearwaters
307 Gannets
1 Cormorant
2 Common Scoters
3 Great Skuas
1 Arctic Skua
51 Kittiwakes
3 Sandwich Terns
21 Common Terns
22 Commic Terns
3 Ringed Plovers
2 Greenshanks
6 alba Wagtails
1 Wheatear

Friday 24th

2 Sooty Shearwaters
6 Balearic Shearwaters
126 Manx Shearwaters
6 Kittiwakes
2 Common Terns
2 Commic Terns
1 Auk sp.
1 Ringed Plover
1 Redshanks
1 Green Sandpiper
6 alba Wagtails
5 Wheatears
11 Basking Sharks
6 Grey Seals

To quote from, Cocker M. Mabey. R. (2005) Birds Britannica.-re: Bonxie, 'it possibly derives originally from the old Norse word bunki, whence came the Shetland term 'bunksi' for a dumpy, untidy , or heavily dressed person (often a woman)'.

-- Edited by Pete Hines at 01:15, 2007-08-23

geoff i think the name bonxie comes from the hebrides
people that call them that might be wrong but if i am i think somebody
will put me right jimmy

ian an all, thanks for that bonxy = gt skua,just checked the latin and still don,t see the connection but its of no matter
just the learning curve getting steeper.

cheers geoff

Tom / Pete

is this work or a volunteer thing ?

Geoff,

A `Bronxy` is someone who comes from the Bronx ; a Bonxie / Bonxy, on the other hand, is a Great Skua.

Well Pete seems to have had the best week so far! My week looks a lot less promising, but I'm getting quite a nice tan.

Yesterday chucked it down very heavily the morning, but the wet brought in a steady flow of petrels right throughout the day, including some quite close.

Storm Petrel: 100
Sooty Shearwater: 5
Balearic Shearwater: 6
Manx Sheawater: 270
Bonxie: 1

Today was pretty warm when sheltering from the force 6 northerly wind. Petrels very thin on the ground, but a better Baearic day. But the afternoon was spent looking after a BBC film crew shooting a podcast about Basking Sharks.

Balearic Shearwater: 11
Sooty Shearwater: 2
Storm Petrel: 2
Manx Shearwater: 249
Bonxie: 2

pete ,been watching this thread all week,great stuff,hope tom has as much news for us
p.s. whats a bronxy

cheers geoff

I've had a day off today to chill out,so been seawatching at Pendeen instead(must get a life).The totals for the week in case anyone is interested are:-
Manx several thousand
Balearics: 124
Sooty: 201
Poms: 2
Stormies:170
Cory's: 15
Great Shears: 3(inc. one you could see the cap in your bins it was that close)
Bonxy: 12
plus Arctic Skuas,Kittiwakes,Razorbill,Guillemot,Puffin,Whimbrel,Grey Heron and thousands of Gannets.
Back to landlocked Manchester tomorrow Where annual seabird sightings can usually be counted on one finger of one hand,Tom McKinney is taking over from me for a few days,hope he has a good week.

Saturdays Sightings.
I,ve not been doing the count today so these figures are approximate only
5 Cory's Shearwater
100+ Sooties
1 Pom(fully spooned)
100+Storm Petrels
20+Balearics
10 Bonxies
2 Arctic Skua

And now best of all several well earned pints of Guinness

Friday 17th's summary from Pete:

Balearics- 18
Sooties- 17
Bonxie- 1
Stormies- 11
Manxies- 479
Basking Shark- a frankly quite huge 59!

A quiter day today for Pete, but with more south-westerlies forcast over the next few days things might be looking up for him, anyway, here's his tally for today...

Balearic Shearwater- 6
Storm Petrel- 9
Manx Shearwater- 695
Basking Shark- 20, including a superb 19 one after the other going past the Runnel Stone
Sunfish- 1
Common Dolphin- 5

petes count today from pg: 2 corys, 13 balearics, 2 sooties and 258 manx shearwaters, 2 arctic and 1 pom skua, 5 bonxies, 31 storm petrels and 13 basking sharks

Sounds like it's been a cracking day from St Ives! Little Shear and Wilson's in one day. 2 of the holy grails in seawatching!

Nice to get Greats and Cory's even if in small numbers, Pendeen and St Ives are looking good now, wind must be turning North Westerly!

from very early morning till early evening with a well earned 2 hours for dinner. His haul today was : 5 sooty shearwaters, 5 bonxies, 8 storm petrels, 13 balearics, 5 corys, 3 great shearwaters and 3 arctic skuas (apologies for the change of format but i'm posting this from my mobile phone whilst at work!)

Ian, is he there from first light till dark?

Steady start - looks like he might have picked a good week judging by the weather forecasts.

Monday 13th.

County birder Pete Berry is taking part in an organised seawatch off Porthgwarra over the next week, although the seawatches are taking place at many sites across the south coast of England throughout the late summer and autumn. Today was his first day there and this is what he recorded throughout the day:

Cory's Shearwater- 2
Sooty Shearwater- 11
Balearic Shearwater- 38
Storm Petrel- 6
Bonxie- 1
Puffin- 2
Manx Shearwater- 128

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 19:47, 2007-08-13