Sunshine and Squalls

Were the order of the day all weekend. Could be worse...


Saturday morning I dragged up and got down to the Nose, determined to do some seawatching. All this stuff about phenomenal waves was no deterrent - there's nothing like a nice lee shore and being well back from the water's edge, after all. Now, if it had been a SE rather than a SW, that would be entirely different. Indeed, when I got the The Steps, I found the Great SE of midweek had indeed had some fun there, too;

That was my tripod rest!

This is looking down a 5' drop from my spot on The Steps. The triangular piece with the red on its left corner is about 50cm across and was part of the step my brolly is resting on. The assorted stones I was using for weighing down mats and supporting cups were unsurprisingly gone, as was the ~4 kilo chunk I used as a foot rest..
Cue a careful look at the cliff above me - it's a raised beach, with the cobbles layered in a nicely stable herringbone pattern - and after I was satisfied with that, a collection of some new rock furniture.


As well as this, I'd earlier looked over the outfall from The Mounds, where Mark Bailey was watching the assembled gulls. He was being a Very Good Son; on a shufti for Little Gulls so Bailey Senior could twitch them. The gulls had evidently got wind of this, as they were nowhere to be seen..


Anyway, I didn't get seawatching until ten to nine - awfully late - and what turned up wasn't terribly dissimilar to the last couple of watches at the Nose.
The first Little Gull arrived just after 0900 - a nice adult. Little Gulls would show on and off for the rest of the time I was there, but never more than one at a time. However, there were I think at least 4 individuals; two different adults, a 1w, and a 2w. With adults needing close views to separate on wear and moult stage, there may have been more. Certainly, only one was possibly present the day before [the first one]; the others were not among the Friday trio. So there's a turnover of birds - probably they're pausing to rest and feed as they pass along the coast.


Right then, time for my version of Spot The Little Gull!
Heh heh heh...

'Perfectly identifiable'...

Close-up answer at the end of the post.


As well as Little Gulls, the BHGs, Common Gulls, and Kitts were joined by a 1w Med Gull, but no proper white-wingers [or brown and white wingers.. :( ].



Offshore, a few divers went by; a diver sp., 6 GND, and 3 RTD [two of which landed], with 8 more GND and a possible BTD on the sea. Also on the sea were 5 GC Grebe and the female Eider still, plus a scattering of auks.

Passage wasn't enormous, but continuous, with more than an auk a minute, [mostly s/pl Guilles in the AM and w/pl Razorbills in the PM], and just under a Kitt a minute. The Gannet rate was only one every other minute, with perhaps surprisingly Fulmars midway between the two.
The passing Fulmars didn't include any dark [let alone properly Blue] ones, but a few were proper Double Lights - one really markedly so - and they displayed an interesting variation in underwing patterning as well. This went from 'all white bar a very thin dark leading edge to the hand' right up to 'a whisker off BCP'. The first one with the latter came up underside first and gave me a moment's pause, so to speak...


The weather was bright sunshine interspersed with vicious squalls - usually opening up with hail - which would have been wonderful if there'd been more birds out there.. But them's the breaks. High tide came and went, but then the swell picked up markedly and I started to get hit by spray from the [newly enlarged] blowhole nearby.

Thar She Blows.

One of the smaller efforts.

This being despite the wind blowing across and away from me. Also, waves were coming up the fissure centre left, and reaching either side of the brown trapezoidal block in the middle of frame. This is also new. So, mindful of the forecast ever-increasing wave height and not really going in for sewage showers, I called it a day a little early. Thus missing the Manxie which went past Exmouth a while later.. Drat.

Swings and roundabouts, though, as I was in perfect time to catch the male Reed Bunting flying south along the cliff top. Birds, eh?



Sunday saw me shamelessly not going out until the afternoon [there may have been sleep involved]. The Folks and I went for a wander about Yarner and the sun was warm and the squalls manifested as hail and schnooooww!! :)  A couple of male Mandarin were on the Pond - first I've seen there since they hacked down most of the cover - and a few Marshies and a lovely male Bullfinch [which Mum saw - result] came to the feeders. Out in the woods, a singing Treeeecreeeper was the highlight.

We had a nice wander, and when it wasn't hailing it was rather pleasant, though very wet underfoot. The watercourses were all as high as we've seen them, and the road just past Parke appearing to have acquired a new spring..



I wonder what's next?




Right, where's the Little Gull?
Right here;

Adult Little Gull, plus Kittiwake for comparison.