Second Helpings

After a treat for my special day, the next dawned with the promise of lighter winds and more mistyfog..

[Those reading back may be thinking about Lucy, and with reason...]

So it was play it again, Tom as I headed down to the Nose in the morning, hoping for bushes full of migrants and maybe even a nice Wryneck...

 

 

Yeah yeah, stop laughing.

 

 

Same weather, more or less than Friday. Same birds? Well, sort of.

 

I did find some freshly-arrived migrants;

Wheatear!

[LookOut]

 

Wheatear 

[The Mounds]

Wheatear

[Sandy Point]

At least 4, possibly as many as 7 arrived on site [there were none the day before] over the morning [they are diurnal migrants].

Nothing else, alas, was doing.

I ended up watching the sea for 2 hours, just as the day before.

Things were a little different.

Passage was all south, for a start [going the 'right' way!].

Second;

ID challenge!

It's going away [of course..], in active flight with some gliding.

Dark morph!

Yes, it's an Arctic Skua [I know, awful photos, but better than nothing... Er, maybe.]

I had this one in close - turning away as it approached the Lead Stone to pass outside the Ore Stone - and 8 more way out. As in Big Shear range or more..! Plenty of time to watch them go past, though, so able to be confidant with the IDs. Numbers are a slightly different thing, as they came in three bursts [and indeed one group] of three. So theoretically could be 3 birds going round and round in circles....

I don't think so, though; they all were moving in 'going somewhere' mode, not wandering about looking for victims.

Proper numbers;

Arctic Skua 9

Balearic 5

Common Tern 6

Sarnie 7

Common Scoter 4

Razorbill 1

Fulmar 6 [plus at least 4 loitering by the nesting ledges]

BHG 9

Kittiwake 32

Gannets ~96/hour [timed count]

On shore, 9 Oystercatcher.

Also,

YOC pose!

 

Again I was wishing for a scope, but what can you do?

Be Seeing You...

[[Next post will be different, promise!]]