Warm November Rain

'cos nothing lasts forever, and we both-


Ok Ok, I'm stopping...



One of the less obvious things about the night shift is deciding when to sleep. [Didn't see this line coming, did you?] Three days, one of them at least needs to not be an early start, so which to choose? I went for Sunday, reasoning that Abigail's back and Kate's front would be more productive*.



Well, Abi [[Don't call her Abigail.. ;) ]] was a pretty sunny affair, with the odd big munchy shower - which after the early line mostly missed. To be honest, it was a little disappointing, and despite the strength of wind, I didn't give it long. There were birds passing - mostly Kittiwakes - with a Bonxie [waaay out] seeming to be the best bird. Well, until right before I gave up, when a frickin' juvenile BTD came in from what seemed like mid- Lyme Bay and zipped around the corner towards Blackball! First diver of the winter and it's a Black-throat. Who'da thunk it?

Also around to the north was a small group of Harbour Porpoises; I think 3, but they were being a bit sneaky.

Somewhere under the rainbow..

Most of the showers missed.

Kate proved a much rainier business, and while it was never epically heavy, it just didn't let up. You'd get a few minutes, the brolly would come down, and then back up it had to go... But there were birds. The greater degree of south in the wind might have helped, too.
Also of interest, it seems, nobody at Berry Head. Again. Ex-hurricane, come swinging over the Atlantic and nobody covering the other side of the Bay. Ah well, all ya'll losses.


This time I was in for the day [such of it as remains this time of year] and again Kittiwakes were moving in numbers. 772 went south, with more still tarting about the slick when I left. This compares with Gannet numbers of 182/11 and auks of 199/47 [Primarily Razorbills, with northbound mostly Guillemots]. Oh yes, the slick. Nothing when I arrived, but then all of a sudden someone somewhere must have pulled a lever;

Kate shows Abi how to do seawatching weather

And 5 minutes later..

The SWBCM attracted a variety of gulls, including 2 different 1w Meds, 15+ Common, 5+ BHG, 19+ LBB, but no Fulmars. Also hanging around were 11 Turnstone - at first I thought they were just passing, but I kept hearing them calling.

A lone Balearic came through, with an Arctic Skua, 2 Bonxies, and an RTD. Also a group of Common Scoter accompanied by my first shiny white secondaries at the Nose for a long time :)



Yesterday I got some sleep, and was going to spend the day doing useful stuff, but then as I sat down here to have a bite and just check [you know, just in case..], I saw Leach's Petrels [[which might have been the primary target of all this seawatching..?]] all over the damn place. Including the Warren. At this point, some norty words may have been uttered. Having played the 'twitch Leach's at the Warren' game before, I instead hurriedly decamped to the Nose.

This time the Gannets outnumbered the Kitts, and a Bonxie [v dark one], a Puffin!, and an Arctic Skua were the best birds. The Arctic being of especial note, as it scragged a couple of Kitts with great persistence, then came in and plonked down, revealing what had seemed a light morph adult [with streamers] had a little barring in the secondary coverts - the medians - and was thus perhaps a 4s?

The Turnstone flock was still present, though now only 10 strong.




In other news, new bird for the feeders; Chaffinch. :)




[[*Perhaps I ought to find a better way of phrasing that, but who decided giving weather systems human names was a good idea anyway? They name typhoons after monsters in the Philippines, which makes more sense to me; "Storm Hydra is coming!" is more likely to provoke caution than "Storm Derek is coming!"...]]