Putting The Hours In

More, perhaps, than any other field of birding, seawatching requires time.

You have to put the hours in, because the goodies pass so infrequently, and are in view for such a short time, that bursts just won't cut it.

[[Well, unless you have a Deal with the Dark Powers or something...]]

At a sub-prime site like the Nose [well, it is, compared to even the Other Side Of the Bay...] this is especially true. While you can get lovelies right down your throat, often what does go by is at range, and that requires plenty of practice just to be able to pick them out. [Massive scope helps, too.!]

Ok, not always;

Must be lunch time!

Couple of watches to report on, 4 and 4.5 hours, both from Glonk Corner, on the 6th and 8th.

I don't have any more [useable] seabird pics [unless you'd like some black things that are Manxies, honest...??] so have a little variable visibility instead;

Lead Stone, Ore Stone

Lead Stone, Ore..?

Oh yeah, there it is.

Now raining sideways

Four views. Of note, the transition from 2 to 3 is where you tend to do best; a clearance in the weather reveals what's been going past unseen, before it moves far enough offshore to vanish again...

Right, 

 

Numbers.

Gannet  136/2                  Gannet  168/3

Kittiwake  132                 Kittiwake  42

Fulmar  7                         Fulmar  1

Manx  151                       Manx  316

Puffin 3                            Puffin  2

The extra half hour in the second watch gave exactly 8 Gannet and nothing else, so a fair comparison.

Extras,

Pom Skua [dk] 1, GND 2, LBB 7, Com Gull 1, BHG 2, Mallard 1

LT Skua [ad] 1, Whimbrel 1,

In/offs,

Swallow 11, Swift 3, Grey Heron 1

Swallow 4, Swift 2, Cuckoo 1, Grey Heron 2

A couple of stand outs there.!!

The Pom, on the Manx Line, didn't have obvious spoons, but was nicely all-dark and adult. The Long-tail was quite well out [Big Shear Line] but in that lovely clearance [like I said, the good birds] and tracked by over a couple of minutes. Long-tail adults have a very distinctive look to them*, and this one was with a small party of Kittiwakes, which really helped :D

One of the Puffins dropped onto the sea just north of the Ore Stone, the rest zipped through.

 

The Cuckoo... Oh dear the Cuckoo. Picked it up coming almost straight in, thought it was an Arctic Skua at first. Realising it wasn't raising its wings above the horizontal made the lightbulb illuminate and I scrambled for my camera! At which point it turned to pass to the North and dropped under the horizon. Camera said 'You are kidding me...??' and a wonderful opportunity went bye-byes......

As for the herons... Yeah, I got nothing but this;

"Yaaark!"

'Eight hours for 2 skuas and 5 Puffins in a light Manx passage, plus some interesting migrants.' Is how it would have been, so very recently.

How times change.

Be Seeing You...

[[* At range they are tern-like; dark with a bright throat/upper breast below and in front of the wings. Light morph Arctic Skua shows pale belly under the wings rather than in front of, likewise Pomarine {whose structure is closer to LT, if you can't get a size comparison} ]]