Balearic, Sooty and Manx Sheawaters were all off Whitburn Obs today in a feeding flock which included Little Gulls. Sir Ian joined me today and i mentioned id seen a few Little Gulls in a distant feeding flock, he said he had seen a similar flock yesterday so we set about finding it. The feeding flock was distant and you needed the Hubble telescope to look at it, fortunately Ian had brought it he was trying out the 95mm Swarovski courtesy of Chipshop Steve.
He called a Shearwater in the flock and on closer inspection we could see it was a Balearic. A Manxie was in the flock as well so when Hoggie arrived who needed Balearic he had to borrow the Hubble to nail it. A Sooty joined the flock and it was like a pic n mix even Wal had a dip
When unlucky Dave arrived we knew the fun was over so i headed off, 2 large Pipits flew south low over the Obs field toward the Range as i headed back to my car but i could not relocate them. The fields south of the obs had Skylarks and Pipits and need watching
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Tuesday 27th September 06.30-10.15 S3-4 cloud 7/8
Cormorant 9n 265s
Common Gull 20n 25s
Grey Heron 1n 2s
Common Scoter 86n 20s
Black h Gull 4n 28s
Golden Plover 600 plus went south
GBBGull 115s
Curlew 12n 1s
Arctic Skua 6n 4s
Scan Herring Gull 3s
Teal 4n 1s
Redshank 13s
Shag 1s
Fulmar 1n
Little Gull 16s (7 ad) this is an under estimate as birds were moving south from the feeding flock often
Dunlin 3s
Red th Diver 3n 7s
Wigeon 14n 3s
Sooty Sheawater 3n
Puffin 3n
Manxie 1s
Balearic Shearwater 1s
Brent Goose 1n
