Friday's trip was cancelled because of the inclement weather and instead we went out on Sunday morning for three hours. We set sail at 0900 and by 0920 it was obvious that we were going to see hundreds and hundreds of Manx Shearwater with a dozen or so of the critically endangered Balearic Shearwater amongst them. The conditions were calm and most of the birds were sitting rafted up in groups of hundreds of birds, far too many to count. Whilst chumming the Balearics showed a little bit of interest but mostly stayed with the Manx who rarely if ever feed from the back of trawlers and fishing boats whereas the much rarer Balearics are known for this behaviour. We tried hard not to disturb the rafts of birds and it was, as always, very hard to get a good photograph.  On the way back in, after a great morning we encountered at least three small groups of Harbour Porpoise. All in all a great way to spend an August Sunday morning.

Did I improve on my images of Manx I wonder, I hope I got close, just very occasionally the Manx "sheared" close to the boat giving those on board a wonderful spectacle. Its easy to separate the two species, the Manx having much more white on the belly and a clear distinction between light and dark on the face. One of the other passengers got very excited because she saw a Sooty Shearwater amongst large rafts but it was never actually confirmed.