Found by: John Martin.
On 25th November 2009, I decided
to sea watch at my local patch, Severn Beach, S. Gloucestershire before work. A
south-westerly gale had been blowing during the night and I had seen a few
Leach’s Petrels there the two previous mornings. Disappointingly, when I arrived
at 07.50, the wind had dropped to a stiff breeze and the sun was shining. I was
soon joined by Allan Gaunt and Angus Dickie from Wolverhampton, and then by
Richard and Rod Greer from Birmingham, all hoping to see Leach’s Petrel.
At about 08.25, both Rod and Angus
independently spotted a mystery bird flying away from us, heading up-channel
towards the Severn bridge but, after a short search, Allan located it heading
back down channel. He immediately shouted 'Oh my goodness, what on earth have we
got here?' – or words to that effect! As I locked onto the bird, I realised that
it was a stunning-looking storm-petrel with a white belly, and I began shouting
rather incoherently, to ensure that everyone was watching it! The bird was
flying low over the water at about 600 yards range, and we were all using
telescopes on tripods. As we watched it, we called out the bird’s features to
one another.
Initial thoughts of it perhaps
being a partial albino Leach’s or Storm Petrel were soon dismissed, as this was
like no storm-petrel I had ever seen. It had a remarkable flight jizz, gliding
and tilting, with low, banking mini-shears just above the waves for hundreds of
yards without a wing beat. It was also a distinctive shape, with rather broad
wings, with a curved leading edge, straight trailing edge and pointed tip. Its
striking white belly joined with an obvious white rump patch and with a large
white patch on the black-bordered under wing. The upper wing was rather uniform
dark brown, with no obvious pale carpal bar. The feet projected beyond the tip
of the square-ended tail. Allan, who had seen 'fregetta' storm-petrels
previously in the South Atlantic, mooted the possibility of it being a
Black-bellied or White-bellied Storm Petrel, difficult as this was to believe.
After a few minutes, the bird
began to head obliquely away, across the wind, and we eventually lost it on the
far side of the channel, over a mile-and-a-half away, at about 8.35am. We made
some frantic mobile telephone calls about this 'mad petrel with amazing flight'
(as I apparently described it) and, discussing the bird with Mashuq Ahmed, Chris
Batty and Brian Small, we realised that it had to be a 'fregetta' species –
either a Black-bellied Storm Petrel or a White-bellied Storm Petrel – and the
news was quickly broadcast to this effect.
The bird seemed quite likely to
reappear, as this almost land-locked site often holds seabirds in such
conditions. Sure enough, the bird showed again from our viewpoint for a few
minutes about an hour later, albeit much more distantly than our initial
sighting, and about fifteen other local birders were able to see it. Sadly,
despite the wind strengthening, the bird did not show again for the gathering
crowd.
I would like to thank the other
observers for commenting on an earlier draft of this note. Now that we are all
compiling our detailed notes and submissions, it is clear that the bird was
indeed either a Black-bellied Storm Petrel or a White-bellied Storm Petrel, but
separation of these two species can be very tricky and we wonder whether we are
ever going to be able resolve the identification to species level with absolute
certainty. Either way, we all expect this to be our ‘bird of a lifetime’, and
that is probably enough – as my friend Mike Prince remarked 'you never forget a
'fregetta'.
John Martin, S. Gloucestershire -
November 2009.