Berry Head

Seawatch 14:00-17:30. Wind WSW5-6. Quite amazing - one of the largest feeding congregations of birds I've seen off Berry hd. This included several thousand Manx Shearwaters (the tally counter bust at around 3000!, it was easily double if not triple that!) mostly feeding 2 miles+. In a sample count of c.1000 closer Manxies we counted at least 60 Balearic Shearwaters (so around 6%, so could be a lot out there - 300+!) and 4 Sooties, but likely to be more as shearwaters were out to the horizon. This number of Manx is unprecedented for this time of year. Earlier last week Portland recorded c10,000 Manx and these may well be the same birds feeding down our end of Lyme Bay. Lots of Gannets and Kitts in the frenzy with thousands of gulls, 10+Arctic Skuas and at least 1 Pom seen.