Sea Watching!

Wind!

Rain!

Wooooooooo!!!

Ahem.

Right, got a little carried away, there. Also running slightly behind, but that's hardly shocking is it? Anyways, only one week ago...

Bank holiday Monday rained. Shocking. A fast-moving frontal system actually turned up when I could get at it and while it was inconveniently late in the day, it couldn't be overlooked.

 

Also meant I could have a lie-in!  :D

So at a very early afternoon I took my kit down the Nose, buffeted by a very frisky strong wind. Said wind proved rather irksome, being squirrely and shifty from SE to SSW, and meaning there was no real shelter from it anywhere. I tried at my spot by the Heap, but only lasted an hour before tiring of being not just sand- but gravel blasted..! It was so dry that there was a vast amount of loose material lying around for the wind to pick up and throw, you see. Not fun.

So I pulled back to the Tower, where even there I wasn't out of it, but at least sheltered from the main force of the wind and finally suffering an un-buffeted scope. The main downsides of the Tower are being actually on a path, close by the main drag [poorly-trained dogs, oiks, etc...], and most of all the 40° view... Not ideal.

 

But most passage was well out, so not the end of the world.

A bit hard to photo, though.

Every so often, however, something came by closer to.

Gannet

Sarnie

Two Arctic and six Sandwich Terns came through, all inside the Lead Stone, so quite possibly an undercount. The Sarnies announced themselves in their usual noisy manner, which is why I had time to get camera out and ready!

I think 'tis time for some numbers;

In 5 hours:

Manx, 767

Balearic, 1

Stormy, 1

Puffin, 1

Gannet, 165

Kittiwake, 9 [4 2cy]

Fulmar, 43

Sarnie, 6

Arctic Tern, 2

Whimbrel, 2+ [heard]

Swift, 3

Swallow, 6

Manx hourly counts make for interesting reading;

19 - 25 - 127 - 414 - 93

Guillemot and Razorbill passage not counted as usual, due to the Ore Stone colony affecting numbers [399 auks counted on the ledges at 1325].

For an afternoon front, it was far better than I expected, and I didn't even get rained on hard!

Woo and other comments.

With weather seeming to have shifted, things looked promising for the coming weekend, too.

But that's another post.

Be Seeing You...