Great Shearwater, Sea Palling, July 29 2020

 It was another lovely calm morning. I had already walked the beach to the tern colony and back, and was thinking of coffee and crumpets when Ryan texted at 06:49 with “Great Shearwater north now”. Heart attack time. The coffee would have to wait. I set up and scanned south. Birdless coming north. “Well, if it does make it, it should be pretty obvious”, I thought. A few terns south from the colony, mainly Littles just messing about, and a few Sandwich in there also.

 

The sea was very calm. The sun was bright to the south, viewing improving markedly coming north. At 07:05 I picked up a bird heading north just over 1km out. It was making shallow shears and flapping occasionally. The tension rose to an unbearable level until it was out of the sun and coming up to straight out and into better light. It was an obvious large shear, and certainly not a Cory's. Its flight action, along with its plumage colour and pattern/markings identified it as a Great Shearwater – my first in the square and one I'd long hoped for. When it finally came, it was actually pretty straightforward, and stress free. I called Andy but he had just left for work. I then called Mick who unfortunately didn't see it. Chris Mills called Ryan not long after asking if he'd had anything on the sea, and when Ryan replied with the Great Shearwater, Chris stated he had seen what he thought was a large shear off Cley, flying like a Great rather than a Cory's, but it was just a speck and nothing more could be done with it. Presumably the same bird was seen off Flamborough Head, around 7 hours later.

 

 

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Detailed description:

A large shearwater, with noticeably long and thin-looking wings, with a narrow, pointed hand. It lacked the front-end bulk and big neck / head of a Cory's. The upperparts were a dark brown in tone, rather darker than a Cory's Shearwater, with the mantle looking no paler than the rest. The uppertail looked dark at viewing distance, as did the top of the head, visible best as the bird sheared in gentle arcs. The underparts were bright white on the belly and throat, but the whole of the undertail/vent area looked dark, again quite unlike the white undertail of a Cory's. This formed a clear and marked contrast with the belly / flanks. It was not possible to see the dark belly patch as the bird never really “tipped up” enough. This was also the case in the photograph of the presumed same Flamborough bird, which was at closer range. The underwings were essentially white when seen well, with darker areas near the body, as in a Manx and unlike the gleaming white of a Cory's, but the exact pattern was impossible to make out. The head didn't look paler at all, and was in fact hard to discern from the dark brown upperparts.

 

The flight pattern was distinctive, and not something I've seen off Norfolk previously. The bird flew through with shallow arcs/shears and occasional, fairly quick flaps. Again, much more like a Manx than a Cory's. The bird did not glide horizontally, or fly low over the water in a straight line at any point. The wings were held quite stiffly, much more so than on a Cory's and never appeared bowed, with the flaps being slightly elastic and not as stiff as a Manx. The wings held more straight-out from the body than a Cory's.

 

The bird was on view the whole time it flew through, a period of roughly 4-5 minutes, allowing a relaxed look and a thorough assessment of structure, flight pattern and plumage details visible at the viewing range. This was the first accepted record of Great Shearwater in TG42.