The forecasts were clear - at last a frontal system, and one through in the middle of the day. The appearance of the Gull-billed Terns at Slapton was a handy co-incidence, as I could dip them on the way to a proper weather seawatch at Prawle [as opposed to the 'its a sunny {not even always windy} day and I want to go out birding but can't think of anything better to do at this time of year' seawatch.
So, first up was dipping Gull-billed Tern - easy. While looking about at Slapton I met a visiting birder and, as I was telling him what was about, mentioned the Yellow-fronted Houdini Bird - I remember my words "I may be going that way, but I won't stop to look at it. I mean, it's plastic - the moult's out of sequence! I wouldn't even tick it if it flew over my car. The only list it'd go on would be an Escapology List..."
So, when driving through Prawle village I'd stopped to let a couple of grockles who didn't know their width go by and guess what happened? Yup, the streaky yellow bu-ird flew by... Not even a yeartick. I mean, you yeartick that, you're yearticking Bar-head and Black Swan, too.
Ok, enough of that nonsense...
Got myself down to the Point and after fighting my way past the Killer Rasta Sheep, [[They've got dreads, they're not afraid, and they Want Your Blood.... Ok, maybe not the third one.. ;) ]] I found my spot amidst the pretty green rocks - now to wait for that front.
And wait.
And- yeah you get the idea. I watched for 6 hours of mixed sunshine, high cloud, fading winds and two brief spit-spots of rain... I feel like it's every post that I'm moaning about the inaccuracy of our supercomputer-powered weather forecasts, saying things along the lines of 'you'd do better asking a chimp to push a button to generate random forecasts' and 'why won't they show us the synoptic charts, are they scared we'll see how their expensive computers [that we paid for] are utterly wrong all the time?'. It has now started to rain, a bit, but it's not a proper front, and certainly not severe weather warning-worthy heavy rain!
I tell you what, Mr. Osbourne, cut the frickin' Met Office! We can just look out the window - damn sight more accurate.....
Ahem.
It wasn't dead out there - 517 Manxies west, and 6 singles east; 4 Balearics in with them; a Puffin west, with a few Razorbill and Guillemot both ways; a group of 10 Common Scoter east; and an interesting bunch of westerly singles - Whimbrel, Little Egret, and Shelduck! Kittiwake just made two figures, Fulmar just failed to, and a few score of Gannets milled about with no real movement until late on, when maybe 30 adults went west.
Much more rewarding watching came from under, rather than over the waves. The sea state wasn't ideal for this by any means, though it did calm as the day went on, but when a pod of at least 9 Risso's Dolphin moved past west, taking more than 20 minutes to do so, with spy-hopping, tail-slapping, and breaching - plus a detour to investigate a passing Dutch yacht - you can't really miss them!
Wow!!!!
Two were markedly smaller and kept close to adults - presumably calves - and one of the adults had a very clear harpoon-shaped white scar halfway up the leading edge of its dorsal fin. A lot of the tail-slapping followed a partial breach - leaping out as far as the pectoral flippers, then falling forward, the tail coming up on landing and then being slapped down for a double splash effect. All in all it was a wonderful sight - though keeping track of them once they turned full west was not at all easy [they'd come in from the south east and so counting them more or less head on was fairly simple] as they were far enough out for the scope to be very helpful and were not sitting still!
Time was almost up when I got another surprise - while scanning for Manxies a wave trough revealed the big dark brown triangular fin of a Basking Shark! I got precisely one look and completely failed to see it again.. One day I'll get prolonged views of one of these wonderful animals.
Heading back, I stopped off at Slapton again in case the Terns tried pulling a fast one, but no joy. I wasn't surprised. This evening one popped up back at Bowling Green - too late to get to it before dark - I wasn't surprised by that either....
::Shrugs philosophically::
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