Saturday, 22 October 2016

The long and the short of it.....

5 Long tailed Ducks and 4 Scaup passed Whitburn Obs by 11 this morning. Saint Mark joined me and we were surprised at the lack of observers for such a cracking sea watch. The Long-tailed Ducks were the stars of the show in perfect light. The Balearic was a close second, so dark it could have been a Sooty. Auk movement was up but no Terns today and another Long tailed Skua. Beat that in County Durham today if you can
This is what we saw in order of appearance

Saturday 22nd October 07.20-11.00 NE2-3 cloud 7/8

Common Gull 69n 11s
Black h Gull 128n 12s
Guillemot 1960n
Razorbill 3n 1s
Tufted Duck 1n
Wigeon 76n 17s
Common Scoter 134n 17s
Red th Diver 15n 10s
Fulmar 2n
Eider 15n
Grey Wagtail 2s
Long tailed Duck 3n 2s all drakes
Puffin 2n
Sooty Shearwater 2n
Bonxie 8n
Balearic Shearwater 1n 08.56
Red br Merganser 1s
Teal 6n 1s
Goldeneye 3n
Redshank 2n
Long t Skua 1n juv
Shag  2n 1s
Goosander 1s
Scaup 4n drakes
Little Gull 20n