Who Dares... Gets Blown Away

Another Friday, another battering of the Patch.


After the morning's continuous rain, an easing of the precipitation to mere violent squalls saw me heading out in determined fashion.


After I took care of yet more Stuff, anyway.


Figuring that the only birds viewable would be cowering in the lee of the land, I headed out to the Nose. From IMD, Hope Cove was full of birds! 170-odd Kitts were closest in, with a couple of GC Grebes and a few auks, but holy cow, look at all the divers! 31, yes, you read right, 31 Great Northern Divers were sheltering in the calm[er] waters. Wowzer!

The female Eider flew in to join them, and among the gulls attending the outfall was at least one Little Gull.

Score.


The wind, though.. On my personal scale, I go from Brisk to Strong to Very Strong to.. Holy Shit! When you nearly get blown off your feet sideways three times in less than a minute, you know it's not a good idea to go wandering down near drops. So I didn't go down and get up close and personals on the divers. Twas a pity as a party of a dozen were right right close in and mostly just sitting there looking full of divery goodness. Oh well.

The sea was feeling most wrathful, with huge waves scouring along the side of the Ore Stone - no wonder there's no auks on the ledges! - and sending spray over the Nose for good measure. Not quite as epic as I've heard tell of, but still pretty impressive.


After a big boss squall had finished hailing on me, I headed towards Blackball - pausing at Anstey's to pick up 6 more GNDs - where again, the sea was covered in birds.

Really close in - oh if I'd lugged the Big Scope with me! - were 583 Kittiwake. Yes, close enough to get an exact count. Well, exact until more started showing up as it got dark. Further out, what looked like an RTD vanished amid the swell before I could pin it down. Between the two, a huge raft of large gulls built up. The main roost was right in close - I've never seen them so close. And how many! Counting in hundreds, I got to 34 and change. Ye Gods and Little Fishes... Again I rued not having more optics with me, as I'm sure there will have been a white-winger at the very least amongst that lot. Quite possibly multiples - Kumlien's Gull or even two on my Patch? Dropped. Bugger.

Not that I was without victories.

35 GC and one BN Grebe were good, but the Stars were a couple of ducks, bobbing on the sea. Ducks? No, not Scoter [would you believe I'm yet to see one this year?!?], but something even better.... Scaup!!!! PATCH TICK!!!!

:D

Another squall announced the dying of the light and home I weaved.