After the equinox, the weather switched as it often does and things got a bit frisky. I was limited in what I could do when, but I still got some birding done, as you're about to find out [Abandon Hope and so on..]
Storm Alex came up from the south in a very unusual manner, and as I'd been working during the midweek seawatching frenzy, I was determined to get something. Or at least spend some hours staring at the sea.
So, home from work, grab a quick bite and my stood-ready kit and off down the Nose I went!
There was nobody there at all. I was shocked, I can tell you. I mean, just look at the glorious weather!
Looking out from IMD
A little closer to
Teensy bit frisky out.
Perhaps not the day to try Berry Head..!!
Surf's up
[nobody was brave insane enough..]
Now, you may be wondering to yourselves what's coming. Possibly due to some different perspectives in those photos? Well, there is a story behind that. A NE 'wind' gusting Storm Force [that's what the radio warned] is not the friendliest on an east-facing coast. See above towers of water looming over the Berry Head seawatching area..
The wind was certainly strong, with at its fiercest being impossible to stand in and hard to breath [fun!]. I had the Bumbleshoot and with that as a brace was able to move even in the wind's full force, albeit one limb at a time, leant over about 45°.. [Definitely fun!]
It was also strong enough to overcome the drift and send the slick - for there was a fair amount of rain happening - down south. As I had noted with only a little surprise absolutely nothing passing when I arrived, the slick was the only game in town, so I found myself finding a spot right down towards Sandy Point so I could see some of it.
There were gulls, quite a lot of gulls, but they weren't close [not much shelter down there so I had to sit back a way] and there was a heap of sea spray [well up the second slope the air was salty!] - which would also mean being able to see all the slick would put you downwind of it.. Arg. - so photography was neither easy not sharp when it did work. Then the rain got at my camera, so that was that until it dried enough for the shutter to stop sticking..!
Gulls! Surf!
Gull
Different gull
You get the idea...
A Little Gull was the only bird of note [not even one shearwater or skua, peoples], and it evaded the camera [not surprising].
A moderate scattering of Gannets passed a bit, eventually, and I saw one [yes 1] Kittiwake. A dozen BHGs and the first [I think?] Common Gulls [a whole and amazing 2] of the season round things out. No, not an auk, either.
The sea was something else, and there were lots of big ships to look at, with the mangy assortment of Herring plus GBBs tarting about the slick keeping my hopes up, but nothing I can tell of joined them. Oh, a half dozen LBBs, too, but all clearly graelsii.
Eventually I gave up and decided to move around to the sheltered side of the peninsula,
Looking towards Berry Head
Meadfoot was indeed fairly well sheltered, but not exactly overflowing with lurking petrels and phalaropes, either..
An Arctic Skua waaaay off towards BH was it. [Incidentally, as I took that photo, The Artist was in Shoalstone shelter looking north towards me. He unsurprisingly saw more skuas.]
This abomination was loitering on the rocks;
Big, brown, ugly
Then it flew off;
Yuck
Woo and indeed hoo.
Let us now head on the the rest of said weekend, where after assorted interludes and interruptions, I got to have les buggeurs risibles played with me by assorted little birds, high up in trees. Windy trees, too.
Having said that, as they included Firecrests and almost certainly two Yellow-browed Warblers - one with a tit band near the Brandy bend of IMD, the other with a tit, 'crest and Chiff band near Kilmorie - it was only typically rather than very annoying.
[Yellow] Red Cage
Fungi show much better than little birdies.
Hedge Woundwort
So do flowers.
While it was nice to not be missing out on the YBW bonanza that had been seemingly hitting everywhere else, a showy one would be quite helpful. Well, if at first and all that, eh?
Be Seeing You...
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