I should have kept my sooty shearwater complaint to myself. Two minutes sea watching this evening from my house and a sooty shearwater came past. After thousands of fulmars and hundreds of manx shearwaters this autumn, it looked so dark and distinctive with its powerful wing beats, and then a quick flash of silver as it banked out of site behind the Marine Hotel that demarcates the end of my sea watching view. The last sooty shearwater I saw this year was in the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego in March – it and its friends were hanging out with black-browed albatrosses, giant petrels, magallenic penguins and sei whales. My sooty shearwater today won’t have been one of those birds but then again, it could be.
Do you have any recommendations on spotting scopes, I am currently looking for a scope to use along with my camera… Coastal birdwatching in my local area of Crail, but also Tentsmuir, Dundee and Angus etc…
There are many scopes to choose from; the small Nikons are good and relatively inexpensive (still several hundred pounds though). You need to go to a shop like Viking in Edinburgh and have a try. I think small, light scopes and tripods are the best – better to have your average scope with you – than to have left your heavy, brilliant scope at home. My favourite scope is Zeiss 65mm Diascope, with a zoom on it – good weight, and good for digiscoping. But new models now well over £1K. Good luck.