The continued intermittent sightings of the now famous, yet still elusive, Lammergeier had many of us trying to second-guess its next appearances. It seemed relatively settled in the South Peaks, but pinning it down was another matter entirely. In the preceding days there had been tantalising photographs and reports from the Stanage Edge, Frogart and Curbar Edge area. Yet the recent poor weather and paucity of confirmed sightings scuppered any serious attempts by birders to connect, despite valiant efforts by a few. It was videod at Curbar again on 7th July and the weather for the following day was passable, if not ideal. Worthy of an attempt and hopefully the poor weather beforehand had kept it local.
Birders agreed to spread out across the area for the day and hopefully between us we could finally nail it down. Except birding never works that way. Just as myself, Malc and Paul Baker were arriving news started to come through that a Yelkouan Shearwater, initially photographed the previous day, was still lingering off Portland Bill in Dorset. We put it to the back of our minds; we were here for the vulture and shearwaters don’t linger anyway. For the next hour or so we watched half-heartedly from Curbar. The hoped-for clearance of weather didn’t materialise. The shearwater was still there. We probably all knew where this was headed. I cracked first and suggested we headed south. The others didn’t need persuading and that was that. A convoy of vehicles set off from the Peaks to Portland.
When I was a kid there was just Manx Shearwater, although to be fair the ‘Mediterranean race’ birds were always markedly different. As taxonomic understanding progressed ‘Meds’ were split from Manx. Then, more recently, Meds from the western part of the range were split again into Balearic Shearwaters, with birds from the eastern Mediterranean now becoming Yelkouan Shearwaters. They are all, by seabird standards, reasonably distinct given the right views, although today’s events would prove those views need to be exemplary. To add a final spanner in the works, there has been a very recent discovery of a new, small population of breeding Balearic x Yelkouans on Menorca. These birds tend to look like Yelkouans and are probably indistinguishable in the field, but are known as Menorcan shearwaters and for now are considered hybrids. Whether the Dorset bird could be confidently identified as a pure Yelk was another matter.
So, five hours after leaving the murky hills, we arrived on the south coast on a sunny but blustery day. It seems that there are increasing numbers of Balearic Shearwaters each summer in Lyme Bay, attracted to shoals of whitebait - this was why the rarer bird was lingering. On arrival there were about 30 Balearic shearwaters immediately on view, mostly sat on the water at remarkably close range. But the light wasn’t great as we were on the western side (the Pulpet), and the swell and wind meant separating Balearics from the Yelkouan type wasn’t initially straightforward. To add to the confusion there appeared to be more than one Yelk, and a few Manx in there too.
Thankfully it wasn’t too difficult to determine the Yelk types once you got your eye in, and it/they were distinctively smaller than the Balearics. But it remained confusing whether there were really two and which of these was the bird photographed yesterday. It was a case of waiting until the birds flew and then trying to get the underwing pattern. Easier said than done when the birds tended to only fly short bursts or in a feeding melee. Still, I was soon reasonably satisfied that I’d seen at least one Yelkouan Shearwater type and managed to get reasonable views of the underwing pattern too.
After about 45 minutes the Shearwater flock shifted a little east, congregating off the Obelisk. This small shift vastly improved viewing conditions. The shearwaters sat and fed close inshore for the next hour or so, every so often dispersing then returning shortly after. One of the Yelk types was on constant view, albeit mostly sat and stubbornly difficult to see well in flight. But over the duration of our stay we managed some excellent flight views too. One of the Yelk types had a far more distinctive underwing bar than the other and so was presumably yesterdays bird. Personally I’m of the opinion both of these birds were Yelkouan types as they certainly weren’t Manx or Balearics. Whether one or both could be Menorcan birds is impossible to know, but the BOU / BBRC position on hybrids is straightforward - unless a bird shows visible hybrid features then hybrids are discounted. In other words this bird (birds!?) has to be accepted or Yelkouan should be re over from the British list.
So from a listing perspective, job done. Despite the challenges I really enjoyed the experience. It’s rare I get to see Shearwaters well from land and it had been instructive. Back home around midnight - the vulture would have to wait.
Photos below are all nabbed from the WhatsApp group and I’m afraid I don’t know whose they are - apologies if that sort of thing offends you (although does anyone really care?).
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