While in Dumfries and Galloway for work, I received a call from Dan Pointon: the Brown Booby reported in St Ives, Cornwall, had been seen again. Photographs circulated on social media showed the bird feeding just a couple of hundred yards offshore, close to where it had been observed the previous day.
After finishing work, I headed south to Lymm services in Warrington, where Dan was due to meet me en route from Carnoustie, Angus. A quick stop for food and coffee fuelled the journey south—time for a twitch.
With food in are bellies, it was twitch on!
A week earlier, a photograph had surfaced from Kent showing a bird resembling a Brown Booby along the coastline, but identification was uncertain; the species is tropical, and the bird could not definitively be separated from a Gannet. The following Monday, a potential Brown Booby was reported off a Cornish beach by a reputable birder, although binoculars were not at hand. Additional unconfirmed sightings suggested the bird had been present earlier that day. Despite this, certainty was lacking, and no attempt was made to travel until further confirmation.
I usually end up as a co-pilot, but I end up like this!
We arrived on site in St Ives around 18.30, but the bird had not been seen all afternoon. We waited until dusk without success and then retired to a youth hostel near Helston. The following morning, after an early start, we returned to the coastguard station in St Ives to await sunrise. Manx Shearwaters were streaming past, accompanied by a single Sooty Shearwater.
Evening sunset in St Ives
At 05:00, we returned to St Ives and positioned ourselves at the coastguard station to await sunrise. Manx Shearwaters were streaming past, accompanied by a single Sooty Shearwater. Just after 08:00, Dan located the Brown Booby feeding off Godrevy Sands. Although distant, the views were excellent for studying plumage, flight, and fishing behaviour; at one point, the Booby flew alongside a juvenile Gannet, providing a useful size and structure comparison.
Me at the Coast Guard station
Godrevy sands
We attempted to drive closer, but deteriorating weather pushed the bird east. Despite 13 hours of searching, it could not be relocated. I returned home the following morning for work, leaving Dan to continue searching.
The Brown Booby remained in the area over the next few days. By Saturday, 31 August, it was again observed in St Ives Bay, showing well and even spending almost an hour on rocks just offshore, where it was photographed. Later, it moved past Pendeen, eluding arriving twitchers. On Monday, 2 September, another Brown Booby was discovered resting on rocks at Kynance Cove on the Lizard Peninsula. This was a different individual, younger with extremely worn flight feathers.
Gripping photos by (c)Sam Viles
For the next few days, the Kynance Booby remained approachable, and on Wednesday, I returned for excellent views of it flying past the headland. Its behaviour and location made it particularly easy to observe, providing a rare opportunity to study this tropical species in Britain.
Waiting for the Brown Booby
Kynance Cove
Two Wednesday Booby's on the list
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) is normally restricted to tropical oceans worldwide, breeding on offshore islands and atolls in the Caribbean, tropical Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Indo-Pacific. Occurrences in the UK are exceptionally rare, usually linked to displacement by storms or other unusual weather events. Climate change is likely to increase the frequency of such vagrancies: rising sea-surface temperatures, stronger tropical storms, and shifts in prey distribution may carry tropical seabirds further north than previously recorded, making events like the St Ives and Kynance sightings slightly more probable in the future, though still extraordinary.
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