So I Had This Idea...

Why not try the same thing as yesterday? Same route, same time, see what happens. Only this time, with the li'l scope as well for more reach!


Well, first up I actually find some Sandpipers Purple! 8 of them, plus 6 Turnstones. This is great. I also find a sea empty of birds.. Ok, two very distant Shags and a Cormorant in the Outer Harbour but that's it. It's not that rough, I've seen BN Grebes out in worse.. Oh well. There were a couple of Rockits and three Pied Wags, but while there were about 60 gulls above the Inner Harbour, there were none in it!

I also met a very nice couple from Off East - near Brighton - down on holiday. We chatted about birds, where to see them here and there and so on. Time wandered on, but a Turnstone wandered up :) We parted ways and I headed on to Meadfoot, where there was nuttin' bar a couple of rather puzzled-looking Geebs "Where have all our poor innocent victims gone??"


Hope's Nose... I'd had to choose due to lack of time before the light went and decided the Nose was a better bet than Blackball [I've been half-expecting to see a report on DBN about the record-breaking roost there today...]. The scope showed 114 Guilles on the Ore Stone, the naked eye showed 26 Scoter inside the Lead Stone! :) Less good was a drastic drop in gull numbers, with only 25 on the Lead Stone - yesterday it was more like 200 - and only one Common Gull now staying with the outfall. The wind having more south in it may be a factor - the slick was being pushed up the coast and churned more - though the lighter rain [the few heavy bursts had much shorter duration] can't be ruled out either.

No divers, no grebes, no fancy birds at all - just the odd Razorbill. A few Gannets were moving south.


To end on a more positive note; before I headed out today, Frau Schwartzkopf was joined in the Garden by a Coal Tit, 3 Chaffinches, a Dunnock, and no less than 5 Blackbirds. These all at the same time, which involved some careful manoeuvring by the Blackbirds!