Another Day, Another Post

What madness is this??!?


Not that mad, as I haven't been haring off to cornywall after that tern. [Report today of Forster's Tern off Penzance or something..]. Not that I wasn't sorely tempted, mind, but there's the daylight issue, and the whole things to do this time of year issue... [Oh, and the 'mobile' issue - aka 99% probability that you will dip...]


Aaanyway....


I did manage to swing by the Harbour this afternoon, and even saw some birds! There were 8 Purple Sands cowering out of the wind among the Haldon Pier boulders, and out in the chop of the northern end of the Bay, I was able to pick out a few birds bouncing around; 1 Slav, 2 BN and 1 GC Grebes, plus a w/pl Guillemot and a scattering of Shags. The grebes were all in the slightly more sheltered waters off Livermead and Torre Abbey beaches.


I had been hoping to find a few birds in the harbours - maybe even in the Inner Harbour among all the frickin' yachts - and after far too much looking I did eventually get one. Just one. It was an interesting one, though. When it popped up I saw a black and white auk and went 'Aah! Razorbill', but then I got bins on it and no. These phonebinned pics in the low sunlight don't do the bird justice;

Itsa Guillemot?

[All colour on bird is artefacts/reflections!]

Preening Guillemot ssp.

[with a hint of the extent of the flank streaking]

Very burnt out alas, this Guille was black [or close as darn it] and white! You also can't see just how much flank streaking - big heavy streaks, too - it has. Yeah, even more than can be seen. Finally, this was a big one - though hard to be certain as nothing was next to it - however it was in the entrance to the Inner Harbour, so not far away at all. I've seen enough auks [and other birds] there to be fairly confident that this individual was large for a Guillemot.

I've noticed the odd 'northern type' among the passing Guilles - ie darker and bigger - seawatching this winter season. Never one close enough to be sure and thus mentionable, and not in any real numbers [such as has happened in the past, for example in early 2011]. The interesting question is where it [and they] came from. Picked up from pelagic Atlantic waters and hurled our way by all this weather? [so Scottish or even Icelandic] Or having moved west to get shelter from the North Sea and now wandering about the inshore waters of Britain? [maybe Baltic/Scandinavian]


Among seawatchers, there's a lot of speculation about birds coming up from the south in Summer. You know, pterodromas and the like. [And a good thing they are too ;) ]  Less so about birds coming south in the Winter. And with the records of Brunnich's and WBD on the south coast, perhaps there ought to be more? Auks, divers, ducks, gulls... There is a mouthwatering list of possible vagrants to our humble waters. Yes, the probability of actually seeing something is tiny, but it's not zero.


Now if only I didn't have to work for a living...



Be Seeing You.