Red-footed Booby.

The sole British record of Red-footed Booby was of one found on a Sussex beach and taken into care on the 4th September 2016. It was flown back to Grand Cayman but died in mid December whilst in Quarantine . Fast forward a few years and this species was firmly on the radar of seawatchers in the UK following a spate of Brown Booby records. See my blog post here about my trip for one of those birds.

Earlier this year an immature Red-footed Booby was seen on one of the pelagic trips organised by Scillie's Pelagics aboard Penders Sapphire sailing out of Hugh Town, St Mary's. Red-footed Boobies are found in sub-tropical regions of the Pacific, Atlantic & Indian Oceans. They occur in several different 'morphs' and the Scilly's bird is a pale phase juvenile.

A great record but unless you were on that trip the chances of catching up with it again in British waters were remote. Or so we thought. A pelagic trip found the bird roosting up on the Bishops Rock Lighthouse about 8 miles south west of St Marys. Cue a flurry of activity from UK birders. For several days news was coming out that the bird was getting seen regularly roosting on the lighthouse. Several issues meant I couldn't go and in the aftermath of the severe storms that hit the south west it was thought the bird would have disappeared. The severe swell in the aftermath of the storm meant the inter island boats couldn't get out ot check the lighthouse.

There have been good numbers of large shearwaters being seen both off the Cornish coast and the Scillies recently and I'd been mulling over a trip to the south west to see this spectacle. I messaged Fred to see if he was interested in a speculative trip for the booby and he came back and said he was going and I was welcome to jump in his car with Malc, Paul & Phil with the intention of driving overnight to Cornwall and day tripping the Scilly's on the Scillonian III and taking a speculative trip out to Bishops Rock on one of the inter-island boats which, we'd been assured, would now be able to get out to the lighthouse.

A lot of procrastinating later - 'shall we, shan't we, its bound to have gone' -  and we were committed to go! Partly because the spectacle of so many large shearwaters is not something that happens every year and we'd no chance of seeing such a spectacle here in Cheshire! 

I left my house at 10 pm to meet up with Fred, Malc & Paul. A detour to Stoke saw us fully loaded when Phil L joined us and an uneventful journey saw us arrive in Cornwall around 4.30 am! The time passed fairly quickly as it always does when mates get together on a long car journey. Sports, birds and past twitches are always up for discussion. No chance of any sleep and, after waiting until the nearby Tesco's Express to open at 6.00 to buy some essentials,  we stood chatting to other birders who'd made the same decision to go even though there'd been no news on the Booby for three days! 

Dawn, with the Scillonian moored in Penzance harbour and St Michaels Mount in the distance

Safely on board we chose a spot near the rails at the stern of the boat as we had every intention (along with every other birder on board) of seawatching the whole crossing.  We knew one of the Scilly's Pelagics birders specials was leaving St Mary's at 08.00 and would check out the Bishops Rock Lighthouse first for the Booby and Higgo had promised to ring Jason Oliver to let him know. With the Scillonian due to depart at 09.15 Jase suddenly got the phonecall we were all hoping for - Higgo had rung him to say the Booby, despite the pronouncements in some quarters that had moved on, was back on the lighthouse. At the same time I received a message off Paul Wren saying the same thing. He & Vicky missed out on Friday and had to wait until the swell subsided before they could get out on the Sapphire. Jasons announcement that it was still there elicited a cheer from those assembled on board. We still had at least 5 hours befire we could get to the 'Bishop' though but knowing the bird was still there got everyone buzzing. Its believed that Red-footed Booby's may feed at night so we were hopeful it would stay put. Certainly part of their diet is squid and these come to the surface at night. Reports from the Scilly's were that they'd seen quite a few squid on shark tagging trips.

There was still quite a swell running as the Scillonian ploughed past Lands End and headed for the Scilly's. As was hoped there were plenty of birds to see and we logged both Great and Cory's Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater, loads of Manx Shearwaters, Storm Petrels and best of all (from my point of view) a flock of six adult Sabines Gulls! All birds I haven't seen for a few years.

Arriving at Hugh town we disembarked and were met by the inter-island boats Kingfisher and Seahorse. We were on the first boat - Seahorse, which had a small upper deck and Fred & I managed to get on that reasoning the higher up we were the the better view we'd have of any birds milling around the boat. The downside is the higher up you are then the more movement you experience. I'm not usually seasick so part of my reasoning was the limited number of people on the small upper deck were obviously seasoned sailers and I was also less likely to get puked on. Indeed there was quite a substantial outbreak of seas sickness below us with some unfortunate people being recipients of others churning stomach contents. We were blissfully unaware of much of this as we watched in anticipation as the lighthouse got closer. The swell was still pretty sizeable but our boat resolutely ploughed on.

As we got closer we started taking photos and blowing them up on the back of the camera to see if we could spot the Booby and to everyones intense relief we were able to confirm it was still there! 

Our boat skipper did a good job of getting us as close as he could to the lighthouse and moving position to enable us t get the best possible views. Photography was extremely hard due to the swells and most of the time it wa da case of point the camera and hope! 

Freds photo of my happy face

With our time on the islands fast diminishing we had to start heading back to Hugh Town to get the Scillonian back to Penzance. Our skipper took the scenic route - whenever we saw a group of shearwaters we diverted. Every Cory's was photographed and scrutinised in case it showed the subtle differences in wing tip pattern that would make it the rarer Scopoli's Shearwater of which there has been an unprecedented influx into UK waters around the Scilly's. No luck but seeing these fantastic birds up close was a great experience. Rafts of  Cory's Shearwaters were sat on the sea or milling around the boat with the occasional great Shearwater with them. 

Great Shearwater

The Lizard peninsular from the Scillonian

The trip back on the Scillonian provided more opportunity for sea watching and we took the opportunity whilst we could. 

Sharing the driving and stopping for the occasional break I eventually got home at 02.15 exactly 26 hrs and 15 minutes after I'd left the previous evening. Completely bonkers but a fantastic trip with lots of fantastic seabirds seen and the special booby prize to cap it all.