13 Roseate Terns went south at Whitburn Obs by 9am this morning. I was joined by the Prof and Stoney was in the house. It was dark when we started with the heavy cloud and rain and nothing was moving except Gannets. In the first hour we did not record any Terns, then they started with a trickle that became a flood. The guys picked up on two mid distance Roseate Terns heading south, i was mainly using my Bins on the close birds when i started to see Rosy's. Some family parties and some lone juvs all going south. One nearly slipped through unnoticed when i heard it's call and we managed to find it and add it to our tally. We ended up well short of the day passage record of 115 on the 30th of August 2010 but it was a start. I checked Whitburn Steel to try and get some Roseate video but didn't see any so i found this old video which is interesting...
The Prof still has to improve his Roseate i.d. skills and Rob gave him this gem of advice "they are like Daz" whiter than white
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Thursday 17th August 05.15-09.00 SW2 6/8 rain
Gannet 237n 191s
Curlew 2n 4s
Black h Gull 9n 13s
Manxie 3s
Common Scoter 34n 27s
Bar t Godwit 1n
Whimbrel 3s
Grey Heron 1n
Common Tern 29n 189s
Common Gull 1n 2s
Sandwich Tern 20n 266s
Peregrine 1n hunting waders
Oystercatcher 25s
Arctic Tern 2n 5s
Redshank 24s
Arctic Skua 3n
Teal 3n 4s
Turnstone 7s
Roseate Tern 13s (6 juvs)
