An odd bird was seen offshore at the Bill on Saturday the 6th; it appeared at first glance(s) to be a petrel sp, with its small size and clean white underbelly but eventually the consensus was a 1st summer Black Tern-very rare in Britain, from what I understand of the literature, as these stay on their breeding grounds and do not migrate-well this one did! It was in the company of a Black Tern with a bright white rump, also an oddity as usually only WWBT would show this...
Next thing to happen: two Kittiwakes past east with a trailing small, dark bird which was almost certainly a Storm-petrel but no one else got on it so it was frustratingly "let go"...certainly an interesting start to the morning!
Later on a visiting birder with an enormous Swaro bino-scope picked up a probable Storm-petrel moving towards the Mile Basket and views soon confirmed it was one, a European Storm-petrel, very nice too. Presumbaly the same bird as I had had earlier.
Two Balearic Shearwaters, one nice and close, and a few Manx Shearwaters were the best of the rest.
