Even More Seawatching...

Is this blog getting boring or what? All I do is go down to the Nose and stare at passing auks....

For a little variety, today I sat in a slightly different spot, as the wind had some more south in it. Wow. I also counted passage for 5 whole hours! Amazing. I even remembered both my clickers. Stunning.

Ok, enough with the comedy...

Auk passage averaged at 469/hour, but this doesn't tell the whole story as 1269 of them passed in the second hour! It was a huge pulse, with groups of 20's to 40's passing well outside the Ore Stone while groups of 10s to 20s were passing inside it - mayhem! There were more than 300 in one 2 and a half minute surge; very hard to count them accurately as the far groups were often partly hidden by waves and the near ones came through in a few seconds. It had started very quietly, with a weather forecast that just seemed to get worse and worse and not much moving after a brief early flurry I was wondering if I should have bothered bringing a flask. As it turned out, it was a very good move.

Kittiwakes averaged 110.2/hour and Gannets 35.6, with Fulmars at 7.6. All of these started slow, but kicked up in the afternoon [thankfully after the auk rush had abated] while after a 40 minute sea, the auks tailed off to a trickle by the time I stopped counting. Again Razorbills far outnumbered Guillemots, though there were more Guilles later on.

This wasn't a day just notable for tallying, though. 7 divers passed south; 4 Red-throated, 2 Black-throated and a Great Northern, with the immature Great Northern [or one just like it] still on the sea also. 6 Common Scoter, 7 Common Gulls, a Dunlin [just one, with a lot of wingbar showing, it made me look hard to be sure of it] and a GC Grebe also went by south. The Red-necked Grebe popped up late on - I thought I was leaving, but as it was fishing in Hope Cove I had to stay on and look at it for a bit - and the 1w Eider was in the lee of the Ore Stone. None of these crackers [ok, maybe not the scoters, which unlike all the divers went outside the Ore Stone] were able to eclipse the Star of The Show, however.

I must confess to a slight ulterior motive for all this auk-watching. Though primarily I've been in it for the seawatching, and the scientific curiosity [[yes, I know how unscientific this really is]], I have a Patch Yearlist to think of, and I've been quietly hoping for a Little something. Yes, the pun was very intentional. No, I'm not going to apologise; I think it's funny. Yes, really.

Anyway, at the carefully noted time of 1426 I got my reward - Little Auk. Yeeeehaaaa!!

Ahem. Yes, so, I'd been hoping for a Little Auk or Little Gull with all these sustained winds. The Puffin on Thursday was a real surprise [[*]] - they're very regular in spring, often sat on the sea by the Ore Stone [I think they stop off, look at the Ore Stone and go "Hmmm..", then look at all the Geebs and go "Ah."] - though with the huge numbers of auks around maybe not quite such a one? What I did expect was to have picked up a Balearic by now - they're off Gwennap, so why aren't they here?? One of birding's many mysteries.

It was a good day, even though the rain [which had looked so promisingly full of squally goodness] didn't really show up 'til I got home! There were bands of spotty rain and drizzle, and after about 1430 it started on a light rain that eventually picked up as I packed up [of course] but earlier it had started to get dangerously close to sunny. I was thinking about stopping at 2, but as I hadn't finished my coffee and as the 'Constant Friend' had been by [I almost always see something good on days when I see her] I decided I might as well make it a 5 hour count. So very glad I did! :D

[[Edit: I'd originally noted the absence of January records in the DBRs, but having now looked at my own records, there was one on the sea by the Ore Stone on 19/1/08, so not quite such an unprecedented sighting after all.**]]

[[[**Interestingly, that day in similar conditions I also watched for 5 hours and saw 9 Balearics pass, plus a Little Gull, all 3 divers and a couple of GC Grebes. I didn't take proper passage rate counts {amateur} but did note a moderate auk passage of primarily Guillemots.]]]

PYL:72