Scopoli’s in Scotland!

With the only two British records of Scopoli’s Shearwater coming from Scilly pelagics, British birders were stunned when a bird was not only seen off the Lothian coast, but also chose to linger.

ON 10 August, murmurings within the birding community suggested that a strange Calonectris shearwater lingering around the bridges in the Firth of Forth was in fact Scotland’s first Scopoli’s Shearwater. It had been present since the morning of 9th, when it had been keeping close company with a lone Cory’s Shearwater. Twitchable seabirds of all kinds are a rare commodity in Britain, so the news that it was present for a second day was a promising sign for would-be admirers.

Cory’s Shearwater’s close Mediterranean relative, the bird provided several enterprising twitchers with a worthy reward on 11th, when it was present for just under three hours in the middle of the day. Despite being nowhere to be found for the throngs of birders who arrived the following day, the trail didn’t end there, as a bird with the same distinctive wing markings headed south past Mundesley, Norfolk, on 15 August. The markings on its right wing, a result of extensive feather loss, allowed it to be belatedly identified as the same individual which was tracked along the north-east coast on 9 July, passing a number of sites in East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Cleveland.

The shearwater is safely identifiable as a Scopoli’s thanks to the extent of white on under primary p10 (which is some 30%), a single dark mark on greater primary covert (gpc) 10 (but not on gpc9) and an underwing lesser secondary covert score of around two to three. Additionally, the structure is indicative of Scopoli’s, with a slim bill, small head, slender body and more rakish appearance than Cory’s.

There are only two previously accepted records, both concerning individuals photographed off Scilly pelagics: on 2 August 2004 and 13 July 2019. Another likely, but unproven, record came on 4 July 2009. A tricky species with a lot of overlap with its close relative Cory’s Shearwater, it is likely that Scopoli’s is more regular in British waters than records suggest and detailed photographs are required to support an identification. This is just the latest in a string of outlandish seabird records from across Britain and Ireland this year, hot on the heels of Britain’s first twitchable Yelkouan Shearwaters. ■

The Scopoli’s Shearwater, which lingered off the east Scottish coast, between sightings in North-East England and Norfolk, had an obvious white flash in the upperwing.