I had been looking forward to a photographic boat trip organised by Nigel Smallbones since I booked several months ago. I boarded the boat "Optimist" just before 6pm on a bright sunny early evening, once the other 8 passengers had alighted we pulled out of Brigham Harbour strongly and at a a good rate of knots.  As soon as speed restrictions allowed we were on our way to look for Harbour Porpoise off Berry Head.  My main focus was going to be Shearwater which I have not photographed well in Devon before having taken just a few quite poor and distant shots from the Lundy Passenger ferry previously.  At first things were a little quiet with just the usual gull species seen and a brief glimpse of a breaching porpoise the only sightings.  The trip continued and wasn't too long before a fellow passenger caught sight of a Manx Shearwater and then several more.  It looked as though I was going to have some success after all.  More Manx flew by but all at a disappointing distance and although I took a few shots of these distant birds I didn't get the photos of the species that I wanted,  (I did however manage to improve on pictures taken of this species before). 

Amongst the now regular sightings of Shearwater were 2 or 3 Balearic Shearwater which is a "lifer" for me and I took a few, again distant poor record shots to add to my gallery of Devon Birds which now stands at 215 different species – all photographed in Devon of course.

When we were about 3 miles out, Nigel started to heave some foul smelling fish scraps overboard and this brought in dozens of Herring gulls, a Greater Black backed gull and a single Fulmar.  However the highlight of the trip for me was the close views of the odd Gannet that joined us and I took my best ever photographs of this beautiful species. As you can see above, at times these Gannets were very close to us.

This one is quite interesting as it is a sub-adult with still some juvenile feathers retained.  The lighting conditions were absolutely perfect for seabird photography. During the daytime it's hard to get good shots, particularly if there is a bright but cloudy sky.  The camera tends to concentrate on the bright background and then under expose the subject but with the sun lowish in the sky and shining on the bird, photography is much easier.

 I took so many pictures of the gannets it has been hard to decide which ones to post and it took me several hours of sorting through which started to get a bit tedious by the end.   Obviously it is a matter of personal choice to decide which is the best but this one is quite a stunner!

It was fascinating to watch the birds sighting the fish offerings before turning in the air to dive down, arrow-like to take fish from beneath the surface. The have some specially adapted bone structures that protects them from damage when diving.

I mentioned the blue eye which in fact is not the actual eye but bare skin around it.

You can see the  blue eye lid clearly here.

This one sees a fish……

….turns in the air and  dives.