I went to Hokkaido again at the weekend.
Finally saw some Storm Petrels!-(besides Fork-tailed Storm Petrel)
I was beginning to doubt that they breed anywhere in Tohoku or Hokkaido!

Thick mist from 4.30-5.30,but basically fine with small patches of mist.

Laysan Albatross 3
Black-footed Albatross 9
Fulmar 100 (1white morph)
Streaked Shearwater 50
Short-tailed Shearwater 150+
Sooty Shearwater 30
Fork-tailed Storm Petrel 10
Black-tailed Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Red-necked Phalarope 11
Rhinoceros Auklet 3
Guillemot 2
Auk sp.1

I was really looking forward to this trip after the excitement of last month , but it turned out to be a little disappointing.
There were shearwaters and albatrosses either side of the mist from 4:30-5:30 , but from 6.30 there were very few birds apart from the ever-present 1 or 2 fulmars.
Anyway,got good views of the shearwaters and was able to separate the Sooty and Short-tailed reasonably confidently.

2/7/01 Tomakomai-Sendai 4:15-8:30
Kitakami

Fine,some cloud

Black-footed Albatross 2
Fulmar 6
Short-tailed/Sooty Shearwater 200+
Streaked Shearwater 3,500 +
Leach's/Band-rumped Storm Petrel 4
Black-tailed Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Rhinoceros Auklet 2
Auk sp.2

Within 10 minutes , I spotted 3 Storm Petrels flying in the same direction as the ferry at several hundred yards distance.
Managed to get them in the scope , but the light was still bad and I couldn't make out any patterns.
Then 1 appeared closer and I was just able to see a white rump , but couldn't make any judgement about its shape or extent.
The rest of the time was pretty quiet until the big flocks of Streaked Shearwaters in Matsushima bay.
The Sooty/Short-tailed were not as easy to count on the way back.
Saw individuals of both species, but there were so many that I couldn't identify that I ended up lumping them together.