Appearances Can Be Deceptive

Once again the weather rolls in on a Friday and once again I headed down to Hope's Nose. Albeit a bit later due to some involuntary shuteye...!

It didn't seem too hopeful at first, bright overcast threatening sunshine, but I went on and the wind was just east of south and then a couple of very nasty squalls came roaring through. Sweet. Well, nearly, as there was a certain..shall we say paucity? of birds. A big flock of Common Scoter came through close and high - I counted 33 of them - but aside from a few Gannets that was it for more than an hour!

Eventually more odds and sods started dribbling through behind the showers, and then the front itself arrived, with some serious rain! In its leading edge there were a few good birds and a little pulse of Manxies, but nothing like last week. The outflow kicked in and a nice slick developed, sprouting Fulmars like magic. :) When the rain eased, there was some movement, but oh the wind... instead of kicking around to something like SW, the wind went from S to SE! I'd wedged into the end of The Steps, and so got a lovely taste of spray. Yeah. So much for the South West's Biggest Chumming Machine....

Moving around to the Traditional Seawatching Spot, I started looking for all the stuff that should be behind the front... And looked... and looked.......  Gannets, Manxies, not many of either....
Hope's Nose strikes again - conditions were pretty striking; gungey drizzle and rain giving a nice wall just outside the Manxie Line, strong SSE-SE winds. Sounds great, right? Big Shear weather. But a lack of birds. Hope's Nose is tricksy like that - the seawatch he never shuts up about Four Gannets and a Fulmar watch was in great conditions, too.

There were some nice birds, it was by no means a sea watch; early on a Sooty went screaming past north, way out, and what I assume was the same bird came back south much closer in. This was the first Sooty this year that was close enough to enjoy as well as ID - Star Bird. 3 Balearics and only 45 Manx in more than 5 hours, plus 95 Gannets [91 south] 26 Kittiwakes [only 2 juv.s] and 48 Fulmar. No skuas at all! Singles of Little and Common Gull, Whimbrel, Ringed Plover and Razorbill also went by south. Terns were a bit better, with 3 Arctic - 2 adults and a juvenile - 19 Common and 4 Sandwich, all nice and close in.

Finally, Hermione the Herring Gull turned up within 10 minutes of me sitting down and over the course of the stop-start rain gradually got used to my bumbleshoot enough to only step back a bit when I put it up or down. In the week since we last met, she's acquired a noticeable pink tinge to the base of her mandible. Rockits and a Whitethroat were the most interesting land birds, with amazingly several Gatekeepers on the wing - and having to put a lot of effort in, too!



P.S.
This is Post 400. Woo!
I never thought I'd find this much to natter on about, really I didn't...