Pom Skua, Med Gull and Arctic Skua passed Whitburn prior to 7.00am and the 20+ White beaked Dolphins were still about. However the star of this mornings show was a Great spotted Woodpecker that flew south in front of the Obs. Its a new Obs year tick for me (136), we do get them some years but not always when you are in the Obs so i was a happy chappy
Otherwise it was an exciting morning despite the difficult light. Two Skuas were having a mid air dual and one was an adult dark phase Arctic the other a pale phase sub adult Pom, not sure who won
Add to this the Dolphin activity and its been a hell of a morning. I first picked up the White beaked Dolphins at 05.20 and they were not far out so i got my video camera ready but they quickly went east and were very active with lots of breaching till05.45. I picked them up again later and this time they were heading north at 06.00-06.10
Here's what happened in order of appearance as usual
Thursday 18th July 05.00-07.00 W2 bright sun, heat haze calm sea
Black headed Gull 7n 54s
Common Scoter 109n
Manxie 73n 16s
Cormorant 7n 19s
Med Gull 1 ad s
Puffin 7n 6s
Gannet 157n 24s
Arctic Skua 1n
Pom Skua 1s
Curlew 2n 1s
05.20 White beaked Dolphins circa 20 in area till 06.10 at least
Arctic Tern 15n 7s
Sandwich Tern 2n 26s
Common Tern 7n 1s
Little Tern 2s
Red th Diver 5n
Great spotted Woodpecker 1s
Whimbrel 1s
Redshank 5n
Common Gull 1s
Come on Sooty, Sooty come on.........
