Balearic Shearwater and a Black hroated Diver were off Whitburn Obs his morning as well as a load of Dolphins. Stoney walked in the house as i was watching a pod of Dolphin, i'd firstly identified them as White-beaked but as Rob and i watched them go south close inshore it became obvious some were Bottlenose. Ive never seen a mixed pod before and add in some Porpoise and youve got a Cetacean mix up.
After the Dolphin fun i called a Shearwater which landed on the sea and generally just loitered for 20 minuites it was our second Balearic of the year. Then Rob pointed out a Black throated Diver on the sea, what the....Did i mention the Curlew Sands, Med Gull, Skuas etc
We saw a load more decent birds including fantastic views of Roseate Terns, as i left the Bottlenose came back north capping a great mornings sea watch. Sadly we could not locate the Red backed Shrike photographed the previous day.
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Friday 2nd September 05.50-11.45 SW1-2 cloud 8/8
Black h Gull 22n 33s
Cormorant 16n 376s
Curlew 16n 2s
Redshank 7n 48s
Eider 3s
Peregrine 1s juv
Common Tern 107n 280s
Sandwich Tern 7n 35s
Shag 5n 1s
06.15-06.35 circa 12 White-beaked and 20+ Bottlenose Dolphin went south together close inshore
Manxie 3n 6s
Red th Diver 1n 6s
Dunlin 1n 24s
Balearic Shearwater 1s 06.40-07.00 lingering and landing on sea
Grey Plover 1s
Arctic Tern 2n 3s
Puffin 2n
Common Gull 1n 9s
Arctic Skua 3n 7s
Med Gull 1s 1st w
Ringed Plover 6s
Porpoise 4s (not together)
Black th Diver 1 on sea
Ruff 1n
Roseate Tern 9n (2 juvs) 1s
Teal 47n 4s
Turnstone 2n 12s
Bonxie 1n
Common Scoter 6n 8s
Curlew Sandpiper 2n
House Martin 6s
10.45-11.00 Bottlenose Dolphin 10 plus n
