Cory's Shearwaters & Gannets

Cory's Shearwater Calonectris diomedea

Two dots over the sea - Gannets Morus bassanus

Local patch: mega seawatch on Sunday evening from Miramare. The sea was quite rough due to a nice southerly. At about 18.00 pm a friend of mine called me to say he was watching several Cory's Shearwaters on the sea in front of Miramare. So I hurried out and 10 minutes later I joined him down the coast. At least 14 CORY'S SHEARWATERS put in a good show in front of us while they kept flying back and forth low above the waves. Some were relatively close to the coast and thus we had great views. Actually my best Cory's ever. And by the way the second record for the patch. I also managed a few shots for documentation (above).
Soon a flock of 7 fly-by YELKOUAN SHEARWATERS joined the show, but later we didn't relocate them. At a certain point we had both species in the same scope's view!
Of the larids 4 immature Little Gulls and 1 Med Gull were of note.
Around 19.00 pm, just before leaving the area I decided to do a last scan (to have a last look at the Cory's) and immediately saw two large birds flying high above the sea: GANNETS! An adult and an immature (juv). They remained on view for some time as they flew towards Trieste, only to disappear in the waves minutes later. This is also a second for the patch and of course, like the Cory's a local mega. All in all a good hour's seawatching.