Saturday 29 April 2017

Wind of change....

 Shore Lark, Great Northern Diver and a Blue Fulmar passed Whitburn Obs by 11am this morning. The wind of change was blowing as i arrived, a warmer southerly wind i enjoyed Gropper reeling and Whitethroat singing as i made my way down. It was busy and i sent a few tweets trying to muster some support as both Marks were not in today and Stoney was not going to be in the house, maybe Boy Wonder would come to my rescue. I hadn't expected to be working this hard lots of birds and lots of species to keep a note of. Eventually Pink Floyd arrived and made a big difference you cant be looking through your scope at distant Terns and still see Divers going past close in. The Shore Lark was a bonus bird only the second year I've seen one from a sea watch
The sea was flat and calm so it was no surprise we had a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins heading north as well as a good selection of birds
This is what we saw in order of appearance

Saturday 29th April 05.40-11.00 SSE2 7/8

Common Gull 107n 14s
Gannet 259n 27s
Red br Merganser 1n
Common Tern 17n 18s
Wigeon 2n
Common Scoter 227n 52s
Eider 7n 11s
Grey Wagtail 1s
Sandwich Tern 32n 113s
Arctic Tern 23n 1s
Puffin 3n 4s
Redshank 3n
Black h Gull 2n
Red th Diver 13n 3s
Curlew 1n
Teal 2n
Grasshopper Warbler 1 reeling by the Obs
Shoveler 1s
Yellowhammer 1 singing
Porpoise 3s
Whimbrel 12n
Oyster Catcher 11n
Turnstone 5n 5s
Swallow 6n
Sand Martin 1n 2s
Great n Diver 1n
Shore Lark 1s 08.55
LBBGull 1n 3s
Goosander 3n
Mallard 2s
Shag 1n
Blue Fulmar 1n L
Sanderling 2n
Bottlenose Dolphin circa 12n fairly close inshore 07.48-07.55