2 Sooty Shearwaters and a Blue Fulmar passed Whitburn Obs by 10 o'clock this morning. Our first Sooty's of the year and yes come on, we want more please. I was joined by Magic Mark and Stoney was in the house. We all thought that the local Dolphins had gone for the year when Rob called a fin, we were wrong. The long staying family of three White-beaked were feeding close inshore south through the flag line. Not long after Mark picked up two distant White-beaked breaching and they gave a fine display. Add to that the increased number of Porpoise and it was an action packed watch. I added two to my Obs year, list Stonechat (thanks to Ross and Rob) and the fore mentioned Sooty. The list is on 157 and well on track for the 170 i need for a new record
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Friday 5th August 04.55-10.00 NW2 cloud 8/8
Gropper still reeling
Fulmar v134n
Common Gull 10n 8s
Oyster Catcher 57s
Sandwich Tern 311n 85s
Common Tern 37n 18s
Shag 6n 6s
Dunlin 5n
Manxie 102n
Sanderling 3n
Common Scoter 11n 2s
Purple Sandpiper 1n
Arctic Tern 11n 1s
Puffin 8n
Black h Gull 6n 5s
Porpoise 8n
LBBGull 1s
Redshank 4n 9s
Blue Fulmar 1s
Sooty Shearwater 2n
Arctic Skua 2s
Red th Diver 1n
Bonxie 1s
Yellow Wagtail 2n
Stonechat juv in Obs field
White-beaked Dolphin 3s close inshore 09.00-09.25 then north at 10 ish
Curlew 1n 5s
Swallow 5s
Turnstone 3n
Teal 3n
White-beaked Dolphin 2 breaching circa 4km offshore 09.40-09.50
