No Matter The Weather...

... You can always seawatch!

:D

The bloody new blogger's 'small' font is very small indeed [another thing worse..] so I'm trying 'normal', which seems pretty damned big on the interface but what the hell.


Speaking of hell...


A gale force NNE, heavy persistent rain, a marked drop in temperature and those bloody [or, it seems, other bloody] Stilts way up in't north. What to do? Sod the Stilts, they'd only bugger off if I went for 'em, I'm off seawatching!


Well, its an onshore wind [just] and it wasn't too shabby yesterday and moreover, it is a maxim of mine that no matter the weather, you can always seawatch. You never know what might go past. Ok, maybe half the Channel, horizontally, or 500 yachties in summer, but there's always a chance. Also, the forecast said that the wind would ease off and swing round to the south [or so], the rain would die off to odd showers, and thus everything cowering in, say Tor Bay would come streaming out past Hope's Nose late morning / early afternoon. 


Yeah, right.


I'm used to being let down by the Met Office's gerbil-powered supercomputer, but I expected better of Magic Seaweed [thus the naming and shaming. Tut.]. The wind did kick a bit more to the east twice, ending up a fair NE, but die down? Hah. Did the rain ease? Well, it got a bit brighter in the afternoon, but the rain did not let up. At all. [[Admittedly, it has now, but too late.]]


But these things are sent to annoy you. I mean, imagine if you could actually predict the weather - you know, accurately? Chaos would ensue....


 But back to today. I was unsurprised to find nobody there this morning [wimps and lightweights the lot of you! ;) ], as even the craziest fisher-fanatic has trouble casting when waves are sweeping him into the sea... Oh and the waves! A big beefy swell was sending white water right over the Lead Stone and 2/3 up the Ore Stone [not bad for such a short fetch] and the sea [away from the outfall's input] was that grey it goes when it means business. A 'thunderous swell' was definitely the term as the waves shook the ground twice - as they broke and as they slammed into the shore. It was quite a sight and worth the trip by itself.


Not being entirely crazy, I didn't even think about going lower than the grass - I set up in the lee of one of the spoil heaps, where I'd been yesterday. This time I had the bumbleshoot with me, which was its usual mixed blessing. Yes, it kept the rain and wind off, but it also demanded a hand and a half at all times or risk the wind seeing how far it could drive it into Berry Head....


It was all good fun and games; proper 'ardcore seawatching! I gave it seven hours.  :)


There were even some birds, too. [Oh, his cup doth floweth over!] Six skuas. Four of which I could call, too. And a few other bits of interest...


Pomarine Skua 1 S [dark morph]
Bonxie              3 S
Skua Spp.         2 S [1 light morph, probably Pomarine, 1 intermediate, Arctic/Pom]
Manxie             2 N
Yellow-legged Gull  1 N [3cy, nice and close!]
Med Gull          1 N [2cy, briefly harrassed by Geeb]
Whimbrel   1 N
Swift  3 N
Swallow  4N
Feral Pigeon  4 in/off from SE [presumed racers]
Fulmar  50 N  6 S
Gannet  36 N  15 S
Kittiwake  19 N  1 S
Auk spp.  20 N  6 S [all close enough to ID were Guillemot]


The Manxies were well out - there could have been a lot more hiding in the gunk as I got a fair few glimpses of 'stuff'. Everything going south of its own volition [several Gannets went by backwards and the first Bonxie was flying sideways!] was going at one hell of a lick, as you might expect. Thus two skuas who, even though they passed inside the Ore Stone [they all did], were too brief to be sure of. The gulls were among what seemed to be a movement of Herring and GBB in the hundreds [though an unknown number may have just been recycling back over the top] and all came through inside the Lead Stone, nice and slow. :) The only birds unbothered by the wind were the Fulmars, who progressed into it with no apparent effort; I didn't see a single wingbeat all day! Now that, my dear readers, is flying.