Riding the waves with Wilson's Petrels

This morning I joined Mar llimitado again for a seabird watching pelagic out of Sagres into the Atlantic ocean. The difference today, there was a moderate northerly blowing so instead of heading west past Cape St Vincent we went south east to calmer waters.

We came across a pod of about 15 common dolphins, which are always great to see, but it was the petrels that were the stars today.

A big difference in seabird numbers today, whereas on Sunday we saw a thousand Cory's and even a couple of great shearwaters, today we were reduced to just five Cory's and a single Balearic, with no greats.

However, for some reason there were a lot more storm petrels, I counted at least 40 European and 15 Wilson's. We'd seen a couple of the latter on Sunday but I didn't get a good look at them, and since they were a new species for me in the Western Palearctic, they were my main target species today. 

Storm petrels are always a joy to see and Wilson's must go down as perhaps the most charming. Tiny little birds, only marginally larger than our own European storm petrel, they patter across the water searching for food on the surface seemingly oblivious to the huge swell and windy weather. I believe that they engage in this "walking on water" far more than European storm petrels. 

Wilson's also have longer legs than European, probably because they do walk on water, and though not evident in my photos, a key identification feature is that in flight the legs extend beyond the tail.

I've seen Wilson's before, but only in Australia and never as well as this.

The white rump extends to the underparts far more than in European.

Note the bronze underwing. European storm petrel usually has a white band on the underwing.

Not the best photo but the only one I have where you can see the yellow webs between the birds toes which is another key identification feature, if you're lucky enough to see it!

It was a real honour to be out on the waves today with this evocative little bird. 

It was an exhilarating boat trip for us humans too. We were in a rib crashing over the waves at high speed in a decent swell. As we sped along the boat would hit a wave and then completely leave the water by what seemed like several feet before coming crashing down with a shuddering bang. The best way to cope was to stand up and take the jolts in your legs rather than your spine. Meanwhile spray came up over the boat and soaked you every few minutes and the wind howled. Every sense was assaulted and it went on like this for an hour with no let up. This was the bumpiest ride that I have ever been on at sea.

Today's route.