As a once-more weekend birder, I was unable to get to the sea yesterday [and thus dip Great Shear, no doubt]. So, it will doubtless surprise nobody that I dragged my arse out of bed at an unfeasible hour this morning and dared the trip to Prawle.
I could go on about sustained south westerlies hopefully encouraging birds to move into and linger in Lyme bay, increased likelihood of reduced visibility, far fewer chavs throwing stones at you, and so on, but really it just seemed like a good idea at the time.
I watched for a bit over 8 hours, and while there certainly wasn't a big passage [most numerous bird being Gannets, at about a bird a minute] it was still a worthwhile exercise.
A Devon birder who shall remain nameless [though I do remember it! ;) ] was already there and assured me I hadn't missed any big shears. As you can guess, this state of affairs didn't change. There was a steady trickle of ordinary sized shears, though, with a high proportion of Balearics - my final totals were 14 Balearics and an amazing 19 Manxies. Yes, you read right, 19 in more than 8 hours...... I saw more yachts. :/
Prawle, however, is often wont to throw up some interesting birds, especially if you're prepared to wait [and-no, I'm not doing that joke again]. 6 Bonxies were nice, especially the one that made a sharp 180 to scare the pants off an adult Geeb, and the 2 chasing 11 Gannets [one of which flew straight into the water to escape]. Much better, though, was the adult light morph Pomarine Skua with the big spoons that had me cackling with joy as it cruised past in near sunshine..... :D Spooned Poms are rare [at least for me], autumn ones are priceless.
A juvenile tern sp. [probably Arctic, but the little bugger kept shifting course and speed when behind waves so I couldn't pin him down!] was frustrating, but the biggest surprise [spoony Poms you at least hope for, even at a site where skuas are scarcer] was a frickin' Garganey flying past west.... Did not see that coming [Ahem]. Also of note; not a single auk and only 3 Kittiwakes.
The nameless birder had seen Common Dolphins and a probable Pilot Whale [I was very jealous, I've never seen a Pilot Whale!] before I arrived and so despite the swell I kept checking the area they'd been in, just in case. Eventually I did see some cetaceans, but the 3+ animals came up once, moving towards me - dark backed, medium-sized dorsal fins, definitely not Harbour Porps - didn't give me enough to be sure what they were. Before that, a very naughty Shag twice made me look like a muppet by doing excellent contortions to impersonate surfacing sealife [sometimes I really don't like those birds...]
There were the usual Prawle residents, with lots of cute juveniles in evidence, but [again unsurprisingly] no interesting vagrants that I could find. [Not that I've ever found any interesting vagrants at Prawle, especially during an autumn sou'westerly....].
To finish, I'd like to appeal to all those holidaymakers using our wonderful, twisting, and above all narrow lanes...
If you don't know your width and can't reverse, please stay the hell out of them!
Thankyou. :)
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