Saturday was the day.
My head turned in a virtuoso performance in escalating pain, so I missed it all.
Yeah.
Sunday, when I was finally able to get going, was a day of showers and sunshine. I went to the Nose anyway.
Lugged the Big Scope over on foot; I needed the exercise and have found that migrants can disperse inland a way over the course of a day [you know, when you can't get to where you want to be at a proper time on account of not being allowed to slep until it was getting light...*]
That latter turned up a total of 8 Chiffchaff, so clearly not entirely pointless.
Anyways, the gungy rain band that had really spurred me to get over there proved to be without followup, and the weather just got sunnier [not entirely a shock, there] but a few surprises were in store, not least the return of The Veteran to seawatching! He brought his Artefact [bought at the same time as The Dread Item ::Ominous Chanting:: I've spoken of in hushed tones on here before] and the Power therein Summoned a few surprises...
I started on my ownsome, but most of the 5 hours I watched were in Pete's company [he got down the next day, too I hear :) ]
Not exactly classic conditions
Fog in Channel.
Continent cut off.
Ahem.
;)
Long-range birding
You may note the continuing distant fog, the lack of clouds, and the end of The Veteran's Artefact [[I couldn't include any more in shot without its Power causing interference...]]
Results and so forth.
Glonk Corner, 5hrs
SW wind, clearing weather
Sooty [1402] 1
Balearic 3
Manx 13
Arctic Sk 1
Little Tern [1420] 2
Common Tern 1
Sarnie 7
Guille 2
Gannet 211
Kittiwake 65
Fulmar 10
Also and bird-wise most notable, a Snipe flushed from Lead Stone to Ore Stone at 1712!!! Not only my first ever on site, but Pete's, too. Picked up by him zig-zagging over the water, and caused a lot of confusion until 'a stripey-backed wader with a long dark bill and pale belly' finally hit the right combination of neurons...
But all that even was secondary to what surfaced in the bottom of my scope view when I was tracking the Little Terns past the Ore Stone [far side, the scamps]... A blow! No, two, no more and ohmysweetGoddess the size of those dorsal fins..........................................
Five big, dark, blunt-browed cetaceans, heading south a kilomatre or so offshore, with visible low bushy blow and Jaws-style dorsals...
**
Getting the Veteran - who arrived as they did [Summoning power] - on them was first priority, and I did, just. No pic, though.
So gutted about that.
It was a little over two hours later that any other cetaceans appeared; a group of at least 7 Common Dolphin, who came in from Lyme Bay [just N of E] north of the Ore Stone and turned N.
Pulling myself back together,
Mostly it was watching the sea, clicking the passing Gannets and Kitts as they appeared, and, well, being grateful it wasn't raining on us whilst kinda hoping it would. The Veteran enlivened things no end, he has a plethora of tales and is always good company, birds behaving or not. :)
Be Seeing You...
[[** Yes, yes far far too much with the ellipses, but come on, even for me this is special circumstances. And it's far preferable to what I was actually saying, which was, I can assure you, in no way silent.]]
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