Bittersweet

Today we both started at the seawatch. Because of the northwestern winds we spent some time to find a good place in shelter. While looking for a good place we heard a bee-eater. A really good species and for both of us a new species for Denmark! We both saw it in southern Europe. During the rest of the seawatch it was slow. But the gannets offered us close looks and we were able to assign some types to some of them.

I went to the Sabine bunker, Menno didn't want to join, not so excited about shearwaters. It was an Exhausting walk there  but inside it was perfectly sheltered.
there was not much, some gannets close and far.
So when I spotted a long winged bird on the horizon I expected another gannet. I got freaked out a bit because it looked different! First impression was a dark bird with long wings, which is nothing special in itself but I noticed the size and angle of the hand which was slightly bent backwards and was rather short compared to a very long arm. It was flying in curves and disappeared behind the waves a lot. I noticed it had very straight and long wings with black  upperparts, I started to suspect Albatross and my heart rate was raising for sure!
At some point it flew together with an adult gannet and I was able to compare the two well. The gannet was noticeably smaller with a pointed tail where the other one was bigger and without the pointy impression. I remembered from earlier this year when the albatrosses were seen several places near Denmark, where I looked up characteristics of it and knew it should have white upper rump and dark tail. I was not able to see this on the bird and it is still bothering me. I am confident that I have seen something  that was not a Gannet, and strongly believe it must have been an albatross. Hmm.. I will however send it to the rarities-committee (SU)
About 45 minutes later I noticed a bird going in really high curves south. There have been some gulls but they look like they are blown more than they are flying but this one was almost just hanging out. I get the scope on it and see a very dark bird that looks blackish in contrast to the clouds. Common gull in size i think, with pointed wings and short tail, which it was spreading at some point. It flew very controlled and was not in a hurry as it was going south. A sooty Shearwater.  I wonder what makes such a difference in flight ability.
The seawatch was very successful though a bit bittersweet as the albatross hardly will be approved I think.

Today Morten joined us, and David gave us a visit. We had dinner together, we decided to get some pizza. So Bello can celebrate his Albatros, Bello and me can celebrate the bee-eater and Bello, David and me can celebrate the moltoni’s warbler.