Finders in the Field: Brown Booby, Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly
Mark Thomas
With a long planned but then aborted family trip to France last week, the summer holidays were on the verge of collapse, so we decided at the last minute to have a short break.
With the bonanza of seabirds in the South West, it was a relatively easy choice to head to Cornwall. We had done so a few weeks before and enjoyed a record count of 6500 Cory's Shearwaters off Porthgwarra, not to forget a Fea's type Petrel.
This time a family day trip to the Scillies was on the cards, the children having never been before. The Scillonian was the only option as our three dogs were coming! I strategically slipped in the small issue of there being a lifer waiting on the other side and through the kids sniggers explained it had red feet and yes it was an actual bird. So, we set off in eager anticipation on the morning of August 28th. The crossing was rough at times, but good numbers of both Cory's and Great Shearwaters kept the 30 onboard birders happy. Certainly, lots of images to go through in the Scopoli Monopoly!
We docked on St Mary's, the family went off with my credit card and I scrambled on to Joe Penders boat of dreams, bound for the Bishop's Rock lighthouse. The Red-footed Booby had failed to show during the afternoon the day before, not that surprising as the weather had been atrocious with heavy rain and big seas.
Thirty-two birders were on the boat and anticipation was high, the weather was good and distant images suggested there was indeed a bird sat in the booby's favourite place on the top of the netting surrounding the lighthouse helipad. It materialised into the target bird much to everyone's pleasure. Most birders were precariously balancing with their cameras pointing almost vertically skyward towards the top of the lighthouse but the swell on the sea was making matters tricky, despite Joe's super piloting of the boat. After some 25 minutes we moved around the lighthouse slightly to offer a slightly different angle. At this point I gave up looking upwards and my attention was drawn to the small assemblage of shags/cormorants sat on the very close lower tier of the lighthouse. I took a few pics of a group of 5-6 birds and then looked at them on the back of my camera, principally to see if any of them had any anomalies - Double Crested Cormorant must fall again this way. I was immediately struck by a bird hidden in the mix, all I could make out was a startling white chest but nothing else. I raised my binoculars had a split-second view of a small gannet type bird but suddenly the boat started reversing away from the position. I looked around, everyone was still fixated upwards on the Red-footed Booby. I got up, rapidly staggered through the boat to the front, receiving some very odd looks from other birders. I said to a rather questioning Joe that he had to take the boat back to the position we had just been in as although it's a bold call I think there could be a Brown Booby on the lower tier! Joe logically offered that you do get pale Cormorants. Nevertheless, he did kindly start to immediately manoeuvre back to where we had come from, this without anyone else on the boat knowing what was going on. Within seconds of going around the lighthouse an adult Brown Booby was staring back at us at no more than 30ft at eye level! I abandoned the cabin and screamed to the other birders 'Brown Booby!' - pointing at the base of the lighthouse.
This was met with disbelieving looks, incredulity and then total amazement and joy. The boat of dreams had done it again! The magnitude of two species of Booby, together on the same lighthouse at the same time was simply impossible to believe - but it was true, a moment of birding folklore had just happened.
I then started taking proper images of the bird before having to have a sit down! Joe put the news out locally and messages began to appear on twitter. The lucky 32 birders were overjoyed, and we shared in a celebratory selfie - in what has become a boat of dreams tradition this season.
After 20 more minutes we left the scene, so Joe could pick the residents birders up and head straight back out. I am writing this from a tent in a field near St Just, its nearly 11pm - what a day!
We could have so easily missed the bird, right under our noses, but we didn't! Phew.
Huge credit for the pioneering team at Scilly Pelagics and Joe, without whom these experiences simply would not exist in the first place.
Mark Thomas
28 August 2023
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