Friday saw the first NEWT/NTBC birdwatching pelagic trip of the year, and 12 eager participants gathered on the marina at Royal Quays ready for the off. The weather looked fine, and the cloud cover suggested that visibility would be good. Most of the chum ingredients had been prepared and measured in advance so, before we were out of the Tyne, the unrefined cod-liver oil and vegetable oil had been added to a dustbin full of finely ground popcorn. Hmmm, lovely. Crew menber and chum-meister Jimmy quickly produced a good quantity of diced Mackerel to add to the mix and we headed out into the unknown.
Soon, we were finding a steady stream of Manx Shearwaters. Nearly all heading south, which was unusual in itself; perhaps they knew something that we didn’t…it wasn’t long before we noticed that in every direction around us there seemed to be heavy storms, and soon the rain hit us as well. Mobile ‘phones began ringing, to check that we were all ok, as mainland Northumberland was under a deluge and a frightening electrical storm. Watched from the boat out at sea it was spectacular, as was the intense double rainbow away to the east. All the while, we had lots of birds in attendance; Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Gannets and gulls. Manxies continued to pass by and I latched on to a probable Sooty Shearwater, but in the gloom couldn’t be certain. A Harbour Porpoise broke the surface in the wake of the boat and, as the rain stopped, the sunset over North Northumberland was breathtaking.
After 10 years of operating Northumberland Pelagics, right back to when NEWT was just a glimmer of a thought, my enthusiasm for them keeps on growing. With 4 more from Royal Quays this year, there’s still lots of opportunities to find ‘the big one’; birdwatching roulette par excellence.