The Birds They Are Moving

Got to work this morning to find a flock of 18 Mistle Thrush sat in a treetop. Must be Autumn, then...


Yesterday.. Ah, yesterday. 9 merry hours at the Nose in rain, sideways gunk, spot-on, and sunshine.


What a fascinating watch that was. A huge variety of species, some very unexpected numbers, and all in odd conditions to boot.


Where to begin?


There's just too much to be even vaguely comprehensive, so I'll try a few interesting points.


The weather started out really really promising in everything but the strength of wind, which was strangely absent, given what the forecasters implied. It did pick up, markedly so, and in direction did what was promised, but early on it was surreal - sat on the Steps in a SSE with my brolly almost upright.. It should have been torn from my hands as the spray drowned me!

I'm not complaining, mind.


Perhaps this was the reason behind the utter lack of early shearwaters.. I saw exactly 2 Manx in hour 1, and those in the last 5 minutes of it! I was shaking my head, thinking back to how optimistic I'd been.. Ah, the moon is away AND the tides are high, the wind's been blowing.. Should be good. Ho Ho Ho. Evidently there's a floating laptop out in Lyme Bay, with assorted seabirds sat around it going "Oh, they think THAT, do they? Right.."

Ahem.

The numbers themselves were interesting.. Remember how I saw zero Kittiwakes at Prawle? Not today. Oh, no. Counting the flock of 76 who plonked down on the edge of the slick, there were more than a thousand. Not bad.

In fact, here are raw numbers for you - for a change - my hourlies of Manxie, Gannet, and Kittiwake [the latter two rounded down to nearest ten, for simplicity].

M:    2,    6,      3,   7,    9,     3,    0,  27,  29
G: 120,  70,    40, 10,  10,   10,  10, 10,   20
K: 180, 100, 220, 30, 100, 120, 20, 20, 140 [+76]

Also notable was the proportion of juvenile Kittiwakes - I reckon about 30% - which was very pleasing to see  :)



I tallied 259 terns - almost all either Common or Commic - and 33 skuas [plus one lingering dark morph Arctic which was doing circuits well out]. There were 5 species of waders, including a nice group of Dunlin, [and a funny Redshank without it's white back wedge - looked very odd, that one] but not the famous 17 Whimbrel. I had 20 in all, but my biggest flock was 13.



My first Balearic came past at 1025, and I had to wait for the other six - they all passed in an amazing 7 minutes just before half two - including a group of 3 at close range. Speaking of close range.. Alas there were no Storm Petrels, but several passing shearwaters did come in to investigate the slick, giving wonderful views. As did the odd tern; one Common pulling such a beautiful snatch in perfect light that I found myself twitching for the camera I do not own. Maybe one day [after I win the lottery...]



There were Scoter, a couple of Teal, a couple of duck spp. [in the gunk early on], Fulmars of course, lots of assorted gulls, 3 Razorbills.. Oh yes, and at 1503 - well out and moving - it looked like a Cory's to me [pressed carpals and very white underside].



Finally, on the way back up, a male Emperor Dragonfly was stuffing its face with small flies in a sheltered spot on the Rock Path; evidently very hungry, it didn't even bother to perch to eat its catches, which was a shame, as it looked a bit funny [dark eyes, most notably]. Oh well, probably just cold or something.


Anyways, it was a very enjoyable day, even though the visibility was a bit of a bugger at times and that blimmin' bulker evidently scuppered any chance of the Prawle Great - though at least it did eventually move!




And yes, that was the very short version!