I go on a bit [ok, a lot] about the value of Patience, Persistence, and Fieldcraft in birding. I suppose you could stretch 'Fieldcraft' to include 'Taking the Right Kit'. Certainly having lugged the aforementioned Big Scope along helped no end today, oh yes indeed...
Having survived my last 'Have to get up at "Aaaarrrgghh...." o'clock' yesterday, this morning I dragged up even earlier because I wanted to. Oh yes, that mad mad passion for staring at the sea while it rains sideways strikes again!
It wasn't as early as I'd have liked, but I got settled at a vaguely respectable 0640, with murky conditions - no Berry Head in view - but a wind westerly enough for me to sit on the Steps [the wind stayed between SW and WSW the whole time I was there], which was not super-promising. No other birders present or arrived that I knew of [but as the Steps are around the corner from the Traditional Seawatching Spot, someone might have arrived after me] in my 5 hours of fun. Yes, that's right, it got 5 hours.
Why so long? Well, yes I was waiting to run out of coffee, but also there were these showers that kept rolling through, and around them there was the odd really good bird, plus just enough of a trickle of standards to keep me looking. The time went pretty easily, I have to say - I'm glad it did, as I had been meaning to stop after 4 hours, and only my not noticing the time kept me from missing - ah, but that's the good bit, so I'll save it. :)
Mostly, it was quiet, 154 Gannets south and 39 north quiet. 37/0 Kittiwakes, 30/20 Manx.... BUT, a very nice count of 86 Common Scoter past south, including groups of 24, 29, and 17 kept me on my toes - the 17 came through very close and I only just got a good count on them. At least one and probably two juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls went by south after lingering to annoy the Herrings - one posed nicely next to 2 juvenile Herrings, which was considerate of it. A single [yes, I only saw one!] Balearic Shear went by at 0903, though it was nice and close. A single Arctic Skua at 0816 and a Bonxie at 0802, plus another by a huge deep sea-type trawler at 1127 were the skuas, a single LBB and 3 BHG made up the rest of the gulls. One single solitary tern flew past north. Wouldn't be much except it was a Little - Patch Tick! :D Also of note, on the Lead Stone among the carbos was a Cormorant of the form haigi. :)
Ok, time for the main event. 1043 and it was raining. The last one had missed north but this shower was a fairly dense one and had hit nicely. Far out, something broke the horizon, towered briefly, then dropped. It was brown. It was way out. I got on it and tried my best to stay on it, zoom in, twitch the focus, and not lose it as it was faster than it looked. It was skirting the shower and re-oriented to miss Berry as I kept getting and losing it and it was heading out and south all the time. What I saw was a bird shearing without ever once flapping [unlike Manx, Balearic, Fulmar etc, which all put in a flap or seven on the way up at least], mid brown above and white below, with wings pressed at the carpal even when banked over at the top of a tower, not held stiff. Not a Fulmar, not a Balearic, not a gull, not a Gannet [anything else?]. A big shear, a Cory's Shear, oh hell yeah!
And finally.. the "Awww" and the ;)..
"Awww..." - at least 4 juvenile Guillemots on the sea still.
;) - a 2cy Gannet with dead-on Great Shear plumage. [[There's always one, isn't there...]]
Now then, what to do tomorrow...?
PYL: 129
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