More Dots...

With a day filled with assorted Things to do, I was nevertheless unable to resist taking a scenic route to the supermarket [very scenic!] to have a quick look at the Buoy Farm scoters, on the off chance.


Lots of scoters present, broken up into various mobile flocks due to persistent harrying by gulls [mostly young GBBs] - numbering anything from 4 to 220+! - made counting interesting, and I ended up spending half an hour on them in the rather strong wind.. But eventually I caught them all either flying or just landed and got a count of 395. So I think ~400 is reasonable.

The swell and mobility made picking things out more interesting, unless said things wingflapped or flew. Of interest, one group, conveniently flying away in line abreast contained not one or two but SIX Velvets!

Here are some nice dots for your amusement;

Blobs

More blobs

Blobs and flying blobs

Landing blobs

On the deck and in the air. Again.

How many scoters blobs..?

Ok, I'll stop now...

When the sun shone, and as I'd picked a vaguely sheltered viewpoint, it wasn't as bad as those look - at least not through the Big Scope, anyway! - but these little darlings are not in any way close inshore..

Also present by the Inner Buoy Farm was a nice GND - amazingly the first I've seen on-Patch this year! [Though one might wonder about the one near the PacD, but that's another issue]



This afternoon, I've just counted 2 22-Spot, 6 4-Spot, and 8 Harlequins in one room, all wandering around going "Is it Summer yet?" The Robin sang on the balcony, and the Blue Tits [who've been coming in a lot more recently] were very cute in the sunshine.

Then the rain showed up again.



Be Seeing You..