Shipwrecks author spots an albatross (From Western Telegraph)

Shipwrecks author spots an albatross

THE CREW of a charter yacht had an unusual sight last week when they spotted a sooty albatross 6,000 miles north of its usual habitat.

Skipper of the Perky Puffin, Tom Bennett, and two other members of the Westfleet Sailing School yacht, saw the bird sitting on the water three miles south of Ramsey Island.

Mr Bennett said: At first we thought it was a juvenile gannet covered in oil. Then we realised it was an all-grey, sooty colour and a different shape and larger on the water than a gannet. It had a dark beak and when it flew off the water, we could see it had a longer wingspan than a gannet.

The sooty albatross is normally found on Marion Island in the South Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa.

It is ironic that Mr Bennett, an author of books on Welsh shipwrecks, should be visited by this particular bird - long seen as a portent of doom and disaster on the high seas.

Mr Bennett said: The best places to look for this bird are Ramsey Sound, Marloes Deer Park or Strumble Head. But, remember, these birds are used to wandering the oceans and it could be thousands of miles away by now.