Backward Birding: Seawatching 2.0 Pt. 2, Having Another Go

21 August, 2019

Seawatching 2.0 Pt. 2, Having Another Go

Back at it the next day, after all the fun on Friday afternoon, but I found the weather far less [normal people would say more] clement. Still, I gave it three hours, and managed to see one whole skua [light morph Arctic] and a handful of Manxies.

With the wind forecast to be more WSW, I tried the Steps, but it seemed to be a lot more S, and I was a bit relieved to only get rained on once. Only a bit relieved, as the showers - mostly passing to the north - missing made it both hard to watch and led what did come by to be well out. Hmm. I reckoned most birds had already legged it, being closer to Start than Tor Bay. [This proved accurate]

Itsa Gannet

Very different birds to the day before. Also much larger chance for photos of horrid gulls! Uh oh....

Numbers; 32 Manxies, 124 Gannets, 75 Kittiwakes, 'lots' of Fulmars [I strongly suspected circling, so stopped counting in the thirties], 2 Razorbill, 11 Sarnies, a juv. Arctic Tern - which kindly posed against the light for locked-on ID - and an adult light morph Arctic Skua. 3 Med Gulls, that YLG [I reckon it was the same one as the day before] with another that just might be one of those evil hybrids, and a wader sp. [small, grey, fast]... That's it.

Oh, and assorted commoner gulls. Some of whom even posed. Yup, gull shots....

Looking out

Ooh, what's that?

Yacht transporter;

maritime version of the flying aircraft carrier!

You were expecting gull shots? Well, I couldn't disappoint;

A bit silhouetted

A lot silhouetted

Oooh!

Juvie Kittiwake

BHG numbers starting to rise

Uuuuugly

Compare and contrast

Yuck

Much prettier

Wait.. You're not a gull!

Nicely backlit, at least..

Ok, no more gulls.

Stripey sea

That last reminds me of one of the classic situations in seawatching, the Directions. Someone gets on something and tries to get everyone else on it. In this case you get the 'it's in the band of sunshine / bright water', to which comes the response 'which one??' 'the one below the horizon!' 'there's five bands under the horizon?!' etc etc....

Finally, some relief for those of you allergic to bad pictures of dodgy Herring Gulls. On my way out, with more sunshine flying around, a few things closer to and more in focus caught the eye;