July 27, 2004
The same but different
Am back! For reasons we'd best not go into, I felt compelled to axe the last blog. So here's the MkII version, bigger, better and a little bit more vague to avoid the wrong people stumbling across it and drawing the wrong conclusions. So here we go...
Complete result today on the drive into work, and the first decent bird found since the female Sardinian Warbler in June. Clearly though not in the same league rarity-wise as her, but a damn sight more impressive - a hunting Osprey quartering a roadside loch, being mobbed by a furious Arctic Tern. JL had told me at the weekend that one had been reported in the area last week, so not entirely unexpected, but pure luck that I should bump into it today.
The weather was atrocious first thing, with thick mist and heavy drizzle, so views were a little restricted as my bins kept getting covered in fine droplets. Still, it showed pretty well, and flew low past the car at close quarters at one point. Eventually drifted off into the mist and out of sight behind a hill. Only five minutes, but a bloody good start to the day.
Am off on a pelagic on Friday, heading west from the islands to the coastal shelf. I guess that's the best bet for Wilson's Petrel, but that's really not the one I'm after (having seen plenty over the years on the Cornish pelagics). The big one is Fea's, after the ghastly fiasco with the Scillonian bird - I had a ticket to go, but decided not to use it at the last minute, and gave it to a friend to use instead. Needless to say he was thrilled when he came back from his free trip one Fea's Petrel the richer. I was less so. Have been on subsequent pelagics but to no avail, and Fea's is assuming epic proportions in my mind - am not going to rest easy until I've seen one. I know it's entirely pot luck whether you happen across any sort of good seabird on a pelagic, let alone the mythical Fea's, but I've got a hunch that going east not west would be better for Fea's, on the basis that they clearly track up the east coast of the British Isles.
That said, experience of seawatching off North Ronaldsay makes me wonder whether seabirds doing that route clear Orkney and turn west into the Atlantic between North Ron and Fair Isle. North Ron is an unsung seawatching vantage point - in a week in 1993 we had half a dozen Cory's go past, and shortly after I'd left the residents had Little Shearwater past there. Since then there have been plenty of other goodies, including (if memory serves) at least one Soft-plumaged petrel sp.
Anyway, all that theorising isn't going to change the fact that our charter heads west. After an agonising day trying to organise it, we have apparently got some DMS to add to the chum - I was ready to not go without it, as if we're going to the trouble of heading out on a pelagic, the least we could do was maximise our chances of success. Apparently we will have the magic chemical, which if anyone's tried to get hold of some, you'll appreciate just how great an achievement this is. Finding a supplier on the internet is well-nigh impossible.
But am pleased to announce who, where, and what to ask for...
The company in question is based somewhere near Seaton Carew, and sell dimethyl sulphide in three grades, two for food additives and one as an unpleasant odour additive for welding materials etcetera. The odour one is the cheapest (and would be the best for birding I guess), and is called "Technical Grade". Ten kilos (enough to attract Southern Giant Petrels from the Antarctic to the south-west approaches!) costs £220, and is the smallest quantity of this grade you can buy.
A smaller pack of the more refined and less pungent "A+ Grade" is available in 1 kilo size, but costs £125. I'd be inclined to go for the value for money smelly option. The phone number to buy it is 01429 863555. It helps if you don't mention that this stuff is going to be added to chum as a bird attractant, as the company in question quite rightly have to fill out a suppliers declaration, and don't like selling a marine pollutant to someone who tells them it's going to be chucked onto the sea. They don't normally get enquiries for this stuff from individuals, so it may be best to get it sent care of a work address... Finally, remember a little DMS goes a long way, and it's not a good idea to treat it without respect!
Will keep you posted as to the success of the pelagic. Would love to be proved wrong about where to go looking for Fea's, but am not holding my breath. Except to avoid smelling the DMS...