Thursday 30 May 2013

Rain Rain Go Away........

30th May N3 rain 04.35-07.30

A week on from the fantastic Skua passage that came with last weeks northerly i had high hopes for today with another northerly forecast, and the company of Mark Newsome
Sadly the rain made all the difference and i hardly had a bird in the first hour. Things did improve but its still raining

Gannet 212n 9s
Common Tern 37n
Sanderling 4n
Cormorant 11n 5s
Arctic Tern 7n
Common Scoter 4n 7s
Sandwich Tern 3n 2s
Manx Shearwater 5n
Purple Sandpiper 1n
Puffin 8n
Tufted Duck 2n
Red th Diver 1n 1s
Knot 1n

I left Mark in the Obs and hope to be back in myself later

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Bank Holiday Blues

Back to work and back in my bloging routine. I was so busy birding over the bank holiday weekend i didn't have time to update the blog, if i get time i will do a highlights roundup (there were many)

28th May 2013 04.55-07.00 S2 gusting to 3 early on, nice calm grey sea when the wind had calmed down

Sandwich Tern 1n 25s
Gannet 33n 1s
Common Scoter 37n
Common Tern 23n 7s
House Martin 2s
Cormorant 3n 5s
Puffin 6n
Swallow 2s
Shag 2n 1s 3 on sea
Grey Plover 1s was the only wader and an Obs year tick to boot
Arctic Tern 5s
Shelduck 3s

a quiet morning but the plover was great, A fox with 2 cubs was frolicking in the nature reserve

Obs year list is on 126, county list on 216

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Wot no- Harriers, Shrikes, Wood Sands and Groppers

So i went to Finland for 4 days and missed 5 potential Obs year list ticks, bugger

Wednesday 22nd May 04.30-07.00 SW1-2
Cormorant 8n 17s
Razorbill 455n
Eider 1n 2s
Guillemot 290n
Common Tern 7n 27s
Puffin 7n
Sandwich Tern 7n 7s
Shelduck 9n 1s
Common Scoter 16n 10s
Turnstone 4n
Gannet 455n
Arctic Tern6n
Red throated Diver 3n
Great northern Diver 1n
Curlew 1n
Black headed Gull 2n
Gadwall 2n
Swallow 2n

Thursday 16 May 2013

It's snow joke

I went back to the obs on Wednesday afternoon to see if the northerly was still producing good movement
On my way to the Obs i saw 4 white morph Snow Geese fly north behind the obs, a great record but cant add them to my Obs year list.

16.25-18.00 NW3

Cormorant 12n
Guillemot 150n
Razorbill 70n
Common Scoter 5n
Red th Diver 3n
Whimbrel 1n
Gannet 24n
Common Tern 7n
Eider 2n
Manx Shearwater 1n
Ringed Plover 1n
Arctic Tern 4n
Sandwich Tern 3s

Thursday 16th May
04.55-07.00 W1-2
Gannet 44n 1s
Cormorant 8n 9s
Eider2n 3s
Guillemot 180n
Razorbill 180n 6s
Greylag Goose 3s
Common Tern 18n 16s
Puffin 1n
Swift 1s
Arctic Tern 4n 2s
Sandwich Tern 4n38s
Red breasted Merganser 5n
Shag 2n
Common Scoter 1n 12s
Blackcap was added to the Obs list which is now on 116

Off to Finland for a few days but will be back in Obs on 22nd or 23rd


Wednesday 15 May 2013

Summertime Blues

05.10-07.00 ENE3 then 4-5 rain

Manx Shearwater 1n ( at last i found the manxie on button)
Guillemot 750n
Razorbill 115n
Sandwich Tern 4n 44s
Gannet 115n 7s
Dunlin 15n
Common Tern 1n 1s
Puffin 8n 1s
Eider 3n 5 on sea

was a crime to leave but i have a course at 8am ref a speeding offence!

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Purple Haze

The sky was tinged purple as i approached Whitburn this morning, but hopefully no hallucination's for me today

Just a reminder i list the species in order of appearance. and can i say a big thank you to Andrew Kinghorn for sorting out my Blog, i hope to improve it over time so any help appreciated
For a few years now i have been sending e mails of my early morning sea watch to fellow Whitburn devotees Mark Newsome and Steve Addinall titled view from the obs and this Blog is a natural progression of those e mails
Anyway on with the sightings news

05.10-07.00 SW3 bright sun no cloud today sadly

Cormorant 3n 20s
Red throated Diver 1n 2s
Razorbill 205n
Guillemot 73n 4s
Eider 2n 6 on sea
Swift 5s (a new obs year tick for me bringing the list to 115 for the year)
Common Scoter 20n 1s
Sandwich Tern 1n 68s (they were late starting today didn't get my first till 5.40)
Curlew 1s
Gannet 4n 1s
Swallow 4s
Black headed Gull 3s
Arctic Tern 5n
Common Tern 5s
Shelduck 2n
Red breasted Merganser 3n
Puffin 1s
Sand martin 2s
Shag 1n

Monday 13 May 2013

wot no ducks and divers!

Well here goes for my first blog post

not ideal cionditions for a sea watch and none of the excitment of Sunday (Turtle Dove, Arctic Skua, Yellow Wagtails etc)

No Ducks wasnt quite true I had 5 Shelduck south

in order of appearance

Razorbill 155n
Guillimot 51n 21s
Common Tern 7s
Sandwich Tern 1n 52s
Cormorant 5n 14s
Arctic Tern 1n
Gannet 3n 2s
Black headed Gull 4s
Swallow 5s
Little Tern 1n

Sunday 12 May 2013

New Blog

This is the first ever post from the "View from the Obs" blog. It's going to be all fun and games.

Cheers,