Why Did The Skua Cross The Road?

To get to Berry Head!

Are you sitting down?

233.

I'll say it again. 233.

That's how many skuas went by in a little over 8 hours of watching. I missed a few, too.

There's more...

88, yes, that's right, 88 of them were Pomarine.

I didn't even start watching 'til half nine.... I'd woken up early, looked out and thought "Nah, its all bright, I'll have another hour and just wander over...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" Bugger. [[The plan had always been to do a seawatch at Berry, as the Nose in a strong SE on a sunny weekend is not a good idea, really...]]

They came in pulses, mostly Bonxies and Arctics in the morning, then a wave of Poms, before Arctics numbers picked up again late on. At times it was mayhem - 15 skuas in sight at once, poor innocent Kittiwakes getting 5 on their tails [only one fatality that we saw, fortunately - that being a 1w. Kitt killed and eaten by Bonxies], Arctics robbing Kitts only to be Bonxied themselves... The totals in my notebook came out as 98 Bonxie, 88 Pom [[yup, saying it again! :) ]], 39 Arctic, and 8 'sp.', [including a quite Long-tailed - looking one, which was great on size and structure, but too warm on colour].

But I'm jumping ahead a bit.. I arrived to find [Probably-Devon-But-I'm-Ashamed-To-Admit-I-Forgot-To-Ask Birder] already watching. We had 15 skuas in the first 45 minutes, and it went on from there - the star birds being a Sooty Shear and a ridiculously long-spooned Pom [I've never seen anything like it, either in person or in print!]. After a couple of hours he left, but early afternoon [Famous Devon Birder] arrived and stayed on until the light deteriorated. We had a lot of fun! :D Poms coming in very close, scattering the rafts of Kitts that built up in the lee of the Head before powering on. One even plonked down next to them [[I can just imagine the Kitts' terrified whispers; "It's right there..." "Don't fly! If you fly it has to chase! Just pretend to be driftwood..." "I told you we should have gone past Ireland, but no,no, 'There's always fewer skuas in the Channel', you said..."]]

There was also a fair passage of Gannets and Kittiwakes [I counted ~600 and ~800 in 4.5 hours respectively before I gave up under the weight of skuas!] with 120+ auks [mostly Razorbills], 7 C. Scoter, 7 Fulmar, 4 Common Gull, 2 LBBs, 3 Balearic Shearwaters and an Arctic Tern for colour.

The weather deserves a mention. It was sunny. A lot. There was a gunkyness to the distance [I suspect blown spray, myself] and oh the wind was blowing a hoolie - not so strong at first, but from a brisk to strong SSW it went to S then SSE and finally SE and got up to 'Yikes!'. [Famous Devon Birder] and I ended up huddled next to the cliff face to get out of the vicious gusts and regular dousings of seawater. In the distance, the waves were breaking up to 3/4 up the Ore Stone. That's impressive...

Landbird wise, a couple of Skylarks and alba Wagtailss flew over south as I arrived, and a Wheatear was clinging onto the Head around noon, otherwise all the standards [apart from the Crows and Jackdaws, which loved it] were hiding out of the wind!

What a day.