12 July - Saturday

Today we are doing point counts all day at one of the moorings. There is a total of four moorings - three are arranged in a line at the edge of the Jones Bank (one on top, one on the slope and one on the flat area just off the bank) and a fourth in a flat control site a bit away from the bank. The expectation is that there will be lots of interesting turbulence and other physical and biological activity around the edge of the bank, and very little at the flat control site. So today we are at the flat control site, anticipating that there will be little pattern to the seabird activity here.

The weather is still on the edge of turning really nice, but not quite there. After doing the early watch, I try to get my head down in my cabin for some sleep. I have dozed off for 30 seconds when there is a bang on the door - the lads have just seen a Wilson's storm-petrel, a rare wanderer from the southern oceans. I try to orientate, and find my way through the labyrinth of corridors and stairways to the fo'csle deck. They think they might still see it, but they're not sure. I can only see the common European storm-petrels, but talking to them, they undoubtedly saw the confusingly similar "Wilson's". I'm pleased for them, they're on a high now, but it would have been nice to catch up with it myself. Hopefully, with the weather easing, there should be more opportunities.

I have taken my small Nikon telescope to the observation box in case that "opportunity" comes sooner rather than later. It's perfect for this situation, because its small and light enough to be portable, it adds a bit more magnification to see distant birds more clearly, and has a wide field of view so it is possible to find and follow birds. I use it to watch a small ocean sunfish that is basking at the surface. I forget to use it when a Pomarine skua flies past! I have the attachments for connecting my digital camera to the telescope, so fire off some gratuitous shots of a dodgy lesser black-backed gull with a gammy leg. It's hard enough trying to digiscope stationary birds on dry land, where the ground doesn't move. Considering all this, and that the bird is flying far away, the results aren't bad. I could, of course, have taken a much better photo without the telescope attached when the bird was gliding 10 feets off the side of the ship, but where's the challenge in that! I wonder if this is the same bird that shat on me the other day?

I give a short presentation on the work we're doing to the rest of the ship in conjunction with explaining all the other sampling that's being done on board. I kept my presentation simple because there's a very wide range of people in the audience, and none are ornithologists. Hopefully, my message got home, but the only question we get is from one of the engineers "when will I be able to do some fishing from the side of the boat?". This is a no-no on all NERC ships, but particularly for us while we are trying to tease out subtle patterns in seabird behaviour from all the other potential distractions, such as a potential easy meal off the back of the ship.