Oh, At Last!

Sunday.

Wind [from the South-SouthSouthEast] and sort of eventually rain!

Yes, at last, at frickin' last I got a half decent seawatch in.

Woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't out of bed as early as I might have liked, and probably missed assorted large shears as a result, but nm, eh?

I did give the sea 6 hours from Glonk Corner - aided and abetted for 31/2 of them by The Teacher and No.1 Son - and I did see a few birds...

:D

 

Looks ok, maybe?

 

Most insanely a flock of 9 - yes 9 - Ruff. I kid ye not. Sticky-out legged brown waders with a lack of obvious white anywhere above {like wingbars, wedges, etc.} but about the rear end can only be Ruff [Wood Sand are closest, but have LOTS of white back there and 9 of them is very very unlikely. There were 7 Ruff on one pool at Exminster same day, folks]. Also - while we're on waders - 9 Dunlin and 19 unspecified small waders which went behind the Ore Stone and didn't appear again..

Let's have another picture.

ID Challenge

You are minding your own beeswax when this flies past you. What do you call to your fellow birders?

Answers on a Comment, I dare you.

;)

Now for some blobs.. Heh heh heh

Arctic Skua

[yes, really]

Wai-...Yes, that's

a Grey Heron

[Spot the Med Gull, btw]

Closer one.

Another Arctic Skua

Similar-sized birds; the Med at about 100m, the Arctic at 1000m!

I see dead people Gulls....

And now for the horror

Oh, wait, already put the gulls up.

Glonk Corner, 6 hours.

[The Teacher and No.1 Son for 3.5 hrs]

Sooty Shear  1  (0743)

Balearic Shear  172

Manx Shear  10

shear spp  2  (0818,1307)

Arctic Skua  15

Bonxie  2

LT Skua  1  (Intermediate juv., 1259-1305)

Razorbill  16

Guillemot  7

Arctic Tern  5

Common Tern  32

Sarnie  28

Med Gull  8

YLG  1

BHG  11+

Fulmar  25

Kittiwake  140

Gannet  427

Ruff  9

Dunlin  9

small wader sp.  19

Grey Heron  1

swift sp [in/off]  1

['swift sp.' as it came in/off with a very weird wingshape and flight action. Like an all-dark Alpine. Really got me going 'what the..?!?' On reflection - and after much looking at lit. - I think it was a Common in primary moult, which made it come over like a much bigger bird... ]

Most of the excitement was early on, but enough kept happening to keep me interested until it was clear the '80% chance of heavy rain at lunchtime' was BS. The Sun kinda came out, too...

Lovely to be watching almost properly again, and though BH got the glory [duh, Seawatching Rule 3 'Go where The Boss is'] and Lizard Point's been kicking all our asses, the Nose is the Nose.

:D

Next?

Be Seeing You...

[[Rule 1 'Put the hours in', Rule 2 'The more you suffer, the more likely She will smile upon you'  ]]