I was in Dumfries and Galloway today for work when Dan Pointon called me to say that the Brown Booby had been spotted again in St Ives, Cornwall. Apparently, photos of the Brown Booby had been taken and shared on social media, showing it feeding just off the beach, only a couple of hundred yards from where it had been seen the previous day.
After finishing up my work, I headed south to Lymm services in Warrington. Dan was an hour and a half behind me, coming from Carnoustie in Angus! I soon arrived at the services, grabbed both of us a McDonald’s and a coffee, and we were on our way south.
With food in are bellies, it was twitch on!
I'll keep the story brief. A week ago, last Sunday, a photo surfaced taken in Kent that showed what appeared to be a Brown Booby flying along the Kent coastline about six days earlier. This seemed unlikely, as there has never been a confirmed sighting of a Brown Booby in this country, and it is generally a tropical species. The photo, while a bit blurry, looked fairly convincing, but it couldn’t be definitively ruled out that it might have been a gannet instead.
Then, intriguingly, last Monday, a potential Brown Booby was reported fishing off a beach in Cornwall. This sighting came from a well-respected birder, though he had no binoculars with him since he was at the beach for a family outing. Additionally, there were unconfirmed reports of two other sightings at the same beach earlier that day.
Despite this information, it still wasn’t enough to motivate us to make the long trip down to Cornwall without certainty. Ultimately, there was no sign of the bird for the rest of the day.
I usually end up as a co-pilot, but I end up like this!
We arrived on site around 18.30pm, but the bird hadn't been seen all afternoon. We waited until dusk, but there was still no sign of the bird. We'll be back!
Evening sunset in St Ives
We eventually found our youth hostel near Helston and headed out for a curry with John Pegden, little did we know it would be the worst curry we had ever had!
We got up around 5.00am in the morning and headed back to St Ives and stood at the coastguard station waiting for the sun to rise.
Me at the coast guard station
A good number of Manx Shearwaters were streaming past the coastguards, along with a single Sooty Shearwater. Just after 8:00 AM, Dan spotted the Booby fishing off Godrevy Sands. I managed to see the bird, but it was quite distant. I watched the Booby for about five minutes from the coastguards, which gave me a great opportunity to study its plumage, flight, and fishing behaviour. At one point, it made for an interesting comparison as it flew alongside a juvenile Gannet.
After observing the bird, Dan and I quickly ran back to the car and drove over to where we had seen the Booby. However, while we were driving, we heard that the bird had headed east due to the deteriorating weather. We spent the next 13 hours searching for it, but there was no sign of the Booby.
Godrevy sands
I couldn't stay another night because I had work the next morning, so I headed back with Chris Batty and left Dan to try again in the morning. I was happy to have seen the bird, but I would have liked closer views of this first for Britain.
The next morning, the bird showed up again and remained in the same spot where we had seen it the day before, providing good views for about an hour. Bugger!
After a blank day on Friday, the bird reappeared and showed very well again in St. Ives Bay from mid-morning on Saturday, the 31st. It even spent almost an hour on the rocks just offshore at St. Ives around midday, where it was well photographed.
Gripping photos by (c)Sam Viles
The bird flew past Pendeen shortly after, much to the disappointment of the Sunday twitchers, and it wasn’t spotted again that day or early on Monday morning. At that point, it seemed like the trail had gone cold once more. However, at 10:40 AM on Monday, a Brown Booby was found resting on the rocks at Kynance Cove on the Lizard Peninsula. It soon became clear that there were differences in its plumage, and, astonishingly, it was confirmed to be another new bird—this time a younger individual with extremely worn flight feathers.
The bird seemed to have a favourite rock, where it remained for the next two days. So on Wednesday, I returned to Cornwall and had great views of the bird flying past the headland. For anyone wishing to see a Brown Booby in Britain, this was a golden opportunity, as it was incredibly easy to spot.
Waiting for the Brown Booby
Kynance Cove
Two Wednesday Booby's on the list
