Yes, I know that applies to every season for me - there's always something out there, after all! - but Spring means Spring passage, with skuas and terns all in their shiny best duds and you never know what else might be around. Not to mention the Manxies coming back! Woo! [Yes, I like Manxies. A seawatch with even one going past is by definition not wasted time.]
So, the end of the long weekend; with a frontal system annoyingly coming past overnight but conveniently leaving 'strong S-ish winds' and 'lots of heavy showers' there was nowhere else I was going to be than the Nose.
You're all shocked, I know.
There were not vast numbers going by, but what there was was a very agreeable mix of all sorts. There was also an annoying amount of drizzle and spray in the air which caused my expletive deleted camera to mostly sulk. Why the fool who wrote the code for the autofocus couldn't have put in one little line telling it that 'If you can't get a reliable range, revert to infinite focus', I do not know...
Yeah yeah, one day I'll stop moaning about it.
Right, on to the important stuff;
Quite a grey day
Five hours gave a mighty southerly passage [mostly];
36 Manx Shearwaters, 66 Kittiwakes, 52 Fulmars [passing at distance], 167 Gannets, 56 Common Gulls, 26 Sandwich Terns, 12 Common Scoter [possibly including 3 who turned around and went back north], 3 Puffins [together at 0840], a Bonxie [0830], a Pomarine Skua - light morph, petite spoons - [0850], and a skua sp. - Pom/Arctic [0926], a lovely Little Gull [1004], and two cetacean sightings.
The cetacean sightings could well have been the same animal; a massive angled splash to the ESE at 1154, then a diving rorqual - appeared to be heading out into Lyme Bay, so view at angle showed a big steeply curved black back and small fin - to the E at 1211. Both events were well offshore; 2km plus.
Of the good stuff, only the Bonxie was close enough to try a photo, but camera said 'ha ha'. It also vexed me over the scoter, but I got a couple of tern shots, so here you go;
Sarnie
Sarnies
With horrible Herrings for scale
Also of note, the Ore Stone auk colony is in business and well-stocked with mostly Guillemots [ok, couldn't pick any Razorbills out in the vis.].
Splots on limestone
Move camera, shoot
..And again.
Getting an accurate count would be simples if they all showed up in these, but unless they've got their ickle white tummies on display, you have an awful time picking them out. Especially when they squeeze together in clefts. So, big scope required, and even then I tend to the conservative; I counted 254, and recorded ~250. Not full numbers, but there's usually plenty out and about during the day.
Much closer were the variety of 'orrible gulls playing about in the slick from TSWBCM... Not a single white-winger, though. Not even a Med Gull! I had hopes, I admit, of maybe even a great big gribbly Glonk, but I was denied. I had to make do with shooting interesting-looking Herrings and Commons. Yep, it's going to be that bad;
Itsa Herring Gull
It's always a Herring Gull
Nice tail
Not the best angle, but this one
showed characteristics of a
3cy argentatus
2cy and 3cy
3cy argentatus candidate
showing darker mantle
Note the grey adult-type feathers in inner primaries, some coverts etc. and of course saddle, with whiter rump but still very extensive black in tail. [It was also a big bugger, too!]
Another 3cy; nice bill!
2cy with contrasting pale head
Ok, enough horrible Herrings, time for smaller and cuter gulls!
Not quite full adult
Very pretty
Shock! Not a gull..
The inevitable Rockit
Plenty of them about, bold as usual, but they had competition in the shameless scrounging stakes..
"Feed the gull?"
That's tripod, bottom left - very bold!
Despite the wing injury, this reprobate is quite flight-capable and has been knocking about the Patch area most likely since hatching. Presumably being not as capable as her 'friends' has led to some lateral thinking when it comes to foraging methods - such as a fine sense of which humans aren't going to be a threat but do have sammiches which shed crumbs. They're clearly working.
Finally, here's someone I saw on the way up,
Mr Kestrel
Be Seeing You..
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