Great Shearwater (LBRC)

Great Shearwater Ardenna gravis

Not quite as rare as Cory's Shearwater Calonectris borealis, but there have only been ten records involving 11 birds. As ever, a significant proportion of the records involved birds which were wrecked (1882), shot (1893 and 1902) or found dead (1970). The records of birds seen alive and well were in mid-September 1968 when two were seen off Anderby Creek, followed by singles in 1974, 1975 and 1977 all in mid-September. Somewhat out of the blue and 44 years after the previous record, one flew south along the tide edge at Huttoft Car Terrace Dec 2nd and then south past Mablethorpe and Gibraltar Point NNR before seeming to disappear into The Wash. This was one of the highlights of the year, especially for the observers concerned. Whether this was the bird later picked up moribund at Wisbech (Cambs.) in April 2022, and which later died, is a moot point.

Great Shearwaters are trans-equatorial migrants which breed on Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island and Kidney Island (Falklands) in the South Atlantic. Around 6,000,000 pairs breed on the first two islands. They move clockwise around the North Atlantic and reaching British waters from July to October, and as with Cory’s Shearwaters the bulk of British records have been in the South-western Approaches. After a gap of forty-four years since the last record, one was seen flying south past Huttoft car terrace, Mablethorpe and Gibraltar Point NNR on December 2nd 2021, much to the surprise of the four observers involved. It was last seen disappearing south into The Wash. By comparison, Spurn Point has had records in five years between 1992 and 2013 with 2007 delivering six different birds between September 3rd-15th. Seeing this large shearwater in Lincolnshire gets no easier!

Reference

Wallace D.I.M. and Bourne, W.R.P. (1981) Seabird movements along the east coast of England. British Birds 74: 417-426.

(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022; records updated to 2021)