Cory's close in...

I had just arrived home from a checkup at the dentist this afternoon when I checked my phone and saw that a Cory's Shearwater had been seen passing Whitburn. However the report was from ten minutes ago, so we wavered slightly before deciding to try Newbiggin anyway.

Within five minutes we were in the car and fifteen minutes later we arrived in the car park. Having been stopped by four of the five sets of traffic lights on the way, we were worried that we'd be too late...

After legging it from the car park to the point, we just had time to set our scopes up before the other birder already there called that he had the bird. At around just a couple of hundred metres range the Cory's Shearwater was close enough to be picked up with the naked eye and getting the scopes on it was easy!

We were treated to some really good views of the bird and were able to pick up all the key features such as the yellowish bill, upper and under part patterns, and the small pale patch on the uppertail as well as the overall grey colouration.

I tried taking a short video of the Shearwater which can be found below. While it is possible to see what it is from the video, it doesn't do the views justice, and it looked a lot better through the scope. At least taking it was a bit of practice for when the albatross decides to return to our part of the North Sea...

Also, in the seconds before the Cory's was called, I picked up an adult Pomarine Skua sat on the sea which had disappeared by the time the Shearwater had passed. It was a somewhat overshadowed by the Cory's and I even forgot to mention it in the original version of my post!

Video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

And a few badly edited videograbs...

Cory's Shearwater