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020 has been an unprecedented year for vagrant seabirds – but is it the start of something new or a one-off? White-chinned Petrel over Orkney, Zino’s Petrel off Scilly, Brown Booby in Cornwall, Short-tailed Shearwaters in Ireland and France and, further afield, Flesh-footed Shearwater, Great-winged Petrel and Atlantic Yellownosed Albatross in the North-East Atlantic so far this year. Any one of these is the stuff of dreams for seabirders.

The British Isles has a windy, salty and wet history of tenacious seawatchers who have clung precipitously to headlands and cliff edges in the hope of scoping a truly mega seabird.

There is just one accepted British record of Tufted Puffin (above) and none of Parakeet Auklet (below). Both species, however, have been reported from the wider Western Palearctic and could show up here.