2 Sooty Shearwaters and 26 Manxies passed Whitburn Obs by 10.15 today. An almost full obs was yet again treated to a fantastic sea watch with loads of birds seen. The light was great till 9ish when the sun broke through and changed things. A few year Lister's were in and they were disappointed as no headline birds so far today.....Great and Balearic may be on the way tho
For me the star birds were 9 Mute Swans that left me speechless. That equals the best ever day maximum past the obs, i guess you need to be a regular to realise just how scarce they are these days. I was writing the species list into the log book when i looked up and they were right in front of us close in at eye level....just how the front row managed to miss them i cant imagine
Just after i left a new record day passage of Pintail was logged, 20 beating the previous record of 19 set in 2011, not a bad day so far
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Saturday 17th September NW2 06.15-10.15 cloud 8/8 till 9ish then 3/8
Common Gull 26n 14s
Black h Gull 134n 116s
Shag 8n 29s
Cormorant 37n 411s
Gannet 254n 95s
Fulmar 27n
Common Scoter 30n 11s
Teal 353n 59s
Red th Diver 4n 28s
Goosander 5n
Curlew 12n
Grey Plover 3n
Manxie 26n
Wigeon 468n
Arctic Skua 3n 1s
Dunlin 26n
Sanderling 1n
Lapwing 1s
LBBGull 3n
Pintail 11n
Ruff 2n
Rock Pipit 1s
Siskin 1s
Grey Wagtail 4s
Tufted Duck 2n
Scan Herring Gull 1n
Meadow Pipit 17n
Turnstone 11n 1s
Grey Heron 2n 2s
Bonxie 8s
Golden Plover circa 1000n
Common Tern 21n 9s
Redshank 13n
Sandwich Tern 2n 9s
Arctic Tern 5n
Sooty Shearwater 2n
Wheatear 1
Puffin 1s
Alba Wagtail 2s
Knot 2n
Brent Goose 3n pb
Sand Martin 3n
Swallow 3n
Eider 2s
Mute Swan 9n
