Seawatching from 07:00 - 11:00: The first hour saw the majority of passage, with four
Great Northern Divers, two diver sp. (possibly Black-throated Divers) and a
Great Skua flying south. A possible Sabine's Gull was picked up fairly distantly offshore at 7:20, before flying in a direct line out to sea. It was smaller than nearby Kittiwakes, having a bouyant tern-like flight style, but lacked the agility and wingbeat speed of Little Gull. An immature pale morph
Pomarine Skua later flew south at 9:10, followed by a dark morph
Arctic Skua at 10:40. Four
Manx Shearwaters were also seen distantly on the horizon.
Other counts included; three
Eider (one immature male and two females), 30+
Sandwich Tern, 29
Common Scoter, two
Dark-bellied Brent Geese, two
Great Crested Grebe, one male
Red-breasted Merganser, 200+ auks, 5+
Fulmar, 40+
Kittiwake , three
Common Gulls and 24
Black-headed Gull.
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| With lack of any seawatching photos, here are some Green-winged Orchids just off patch at Labrador Bay yesterday. |
Hi Laurie - sounds like the same imm Pom Skua we had at Berry Head at about 9.50 short tail, paler underwing coverts and upper rump but otherwise nice pale phase - surprised there were not more skuas on those winds!Shame about the gull.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike - does indeed seem like the same bird. Sounds like you got a closer view than us. Interesting to get an idea of how long it takes these birds to fly between sites - like the dark Arctic Skua that took 1 hour to get from Seaton to Teignmouth. Shame you didn't stay long enough to pick this one up too! Thanks for commenting.
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