Well, March hasn't quite marched out like a lion, but there has at least been rain and wind enough to get me down to the Nose for a bit of seawatching..
Yesterday had commitments getting in the way [[and the promise of a Far Too Early one to come now, joy..]] but this morning I dragged myself down there and spent 4 and a half hours mainly watching Herring Gulls and Guillemots... There was some passage - an amazingly dead-on 24 Gannets an hour and totals of 37 Fulmar and 11 Kittiwake. This is not to say it was totally dead; despite regularly threatening to get very sunny, the clouds always came back, the wind resolutely stayed SW [even reaching SSW at points] and I even got some rain. Well, drizzle, but it cut visibility very nicely. :) Anyway, there were a few gems among the hours of gravel.
First up was a light morph Arctic Skua, which headed into Tor Bay from the east and thus nearly avoided me - if I hadn't been following a Kitt I'd have missed it. Hot after that was a shearwater sp., which stayed in the gunk and flew with an annoyingly indeterminate action, the little git. It was probably a Balearic, but I can't be sure. [Drat]. A while later, the only reasonably close goodie arrived in the form of a Bonxie. It came came trolling south, went behind the Ore Stone and didn't come out the far side. It could still be there [so watch out! ;) ]. Continuing the pattern of skua - miss was a scoter sp. half an hour later. It looked good for Velvet, but resolutely stayed in front of sunny bits of water, so I couldn't be certain that what I was seeing was white secondaries and not burn-through from the back-lighting. It flew into the Bay and within two minutes the sun was hidden by cloud again. [Double drat] The final gem was a very distant and very fast Puffin- oh but it was moving!
Additional notes are of a 1w RT Diver on the sea, the 4 Razorbill which flew in from the north and sat on the sea until I left, the count of 310 Guilles on the Ore Stone and the amusing sight of Shags and Cormorants trying to carry some quite big bits of nesting material into a strong headwind.. :) Finally, an interesting Herring Gull was knocking about the Lead Stone for a while - a very dark 1w with a pale head, dark tail and strongly barred tail coverts. I've seen these discussed somewhere online this winter, but I can't remember where [probably somewhere in a Famous Online Forum About Birds]. It was an interesting bird to look at [[and no, definitely not a yank, don't even think about it! ;) ]], as were the others in a very varied assortment of immature Herrings and Geebs. Yeah, I had quite a bit of time..
After I called it a day, I took a rather scenic route home via Preston, just in case that scoter had decided to drop in. It hadn't. Oh well.
So, lots of effort for a few mostly distant [ok, very distant] bits of quality with much waiting in between - pretty typical for the Nose! The Patch Yearlist cranks on, which is good, and I got neither soaked nor frizzled, which is also good. Ooh! Last word and something funny - group of Guilles flying towards the Ore Stone, one has a clear white gape line! WTF!?!* I follow it in to land on a ledge, and it is indeed seemingly neither smaller nor darker than the others, [in flight it had no other Brunnich's characters notable, though as it was in a group the view wasn't great]. It resolutely keeps its breast pointed away from me, but still shows a white line along its gape. After a minute or so of sitting around, it finally reveals the fish it had been holding in its bill - head forward! No chicks to feed yet, so evidently this was a spare it carried home for later after it had filled up and couldn't quite close its bill over. Greedy Guillemots, whatever next...
[[*This being the point where I thought 'It must be a fish in there, but they can't be feeding chicks yet, can they?']]
PYL: 102
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