2 Minke Whale went north past Whitburn Obs this morning. Saint Mark called the first and Stoney and myself quickly got on the right area thanks to his precise instructions, the North Sea can look very big. It surfaced three times and was Stoneys first ever and my first for a couple of years which is daft saying as i spend 1000hrs a year in the obs. Mark picked up the second a bit further out and they were never seen again which is the norm for Whitburn. We do get Whales breaching and feeding sometimes but with Minke more often than not they are in a hurry
The birds took second place but we had some great birds as well, star birds being the Little Gulls that showed well at a good distance to enjoy them
Why stop the pigeon you may ask, well we had a 2nd summer Arctic Skua hanging around and at one point it was like Dastardly & Muttley (remember them stop the pigeon stop the pigeon) as it chased a terrified Pigeon looking for breakfast
All in all a great few hours, this is what we saw in order of appearance
Sunday 17th July 04.35-09.30 WNW1-2 cloud 8/8 calm sea superb conditions
Gropper reeling still
Manxie 51n 6s
Common Sandpiper 2s
Common Gull 5n 5s
Black h Gull 30n 12s
Common Scoter 308n 43s
Swift 1n 2s
Redshank 8n 24s
Puffin 82n 3s
Whimbrel 4n
Porpoise 1n 2s
Red th Diver 2n
Common Tern 18n 16s
Sandwich Tern 16n 175s
Sand Martin 9s
Arctic Tern 4n (1 1st sum) 25s
Dunlin 2s
Little Gull 2n ad 1s 2nd sum
06.20 Minke Whale 2n circa 1.5km offshore first seen to surface 3 times the 2nd just once....magic
Arctic Skua 1n then hanging around 2nd sum
Curlew 2n 1s
LBBGull 1s
Bonxie 1n
Happy Birthday Bro xx
