Thanks for the comments Freddy; maybe odd replies will explain why I have not posted further on this on the Lincs site! but for anyone interested I have copied the text from the blog below and added a few lines. As for the vast sums received from publication in B World well lets say little more than <a years subscription.
Having been to Finnish Lapland and Varanger Northern Norway on two previous occasions with Mark Bannister with ever improving digital photo gear I was keen to make a return trip in 2009, 3 years after our most recent visit, and Mark was also keen so we planned at 9 day trip in early June 2009. I like early June because for the most part the mossies have not hatched but all the birds are in and on territory with a few wintering wildfowl still present on the fjord or the edge of the Barent's Sea. This year was cold, it was 3C on our first day with frequent snow showers falling for three days and full winter kit was needed. After two days in northern Finland we headed up to our base at Vastre Jocobselv on the shore of Varanger. On the evening of June 6th 2009 we arrived at Varanger and decided to stop off at Nesseby to look for waders on the high tide. There were few waders in evidence but several Arctic an Long-tailed Skuas offshore and a few flocks of auks. I was tracking a passing Arctic Skua with my camera and taking a few shots when it attacked a seabird in front of us which quickly proved to be a
pterodroma petrel; the bird was only in view for a few minutes before flying off down the fjord towards Vadso but I managed to get a set of small images of the bird with a 500mm lens and these proved on inspection to show what most people agree is a Soft-plumaged Petrel only the second for the Western Palearctic and the first for the North Atlantic; in fact there has been only one other record in the Western Pal and that was at Eilat. The full significance of this record will take a while to register but in effect it means that claims of pterodromas in the North Sea will now need to exclude this southern species rather than just being assumed to be Fea's or Zino's.
To get decent photos of any rare seabird is a real challenge but getting shots of a pterodroma from the shore is staggering and I am still in shock after 5 weeks!
the photos are here
http://pewit.blogspot.com/2009/07/soft- ... nd-of.html
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