Mellow Yellow.......

Balearic Shearwater, Yellow-legged Gull, Little Gull...just another day at the office. Stevie Thunder was a late arrival and Stoney was in the house and we had a cracking sea watch. Full cloud calm sea loads of birds, we loved it. It seems to be the year of the juvenile Yellow-legged Gull...two a penny, and Rob called one today. The video later is one from the 10th. Ducks and Terns were moving along with Manxies and Skuas and one of the stars of the show was a delicious juvenile Little Gull. Smaller than the Terns it was flying near cor..Mute Swan is an Obs mega and we had three
This is what we saw in order of appearance

Wednesday 29th August 05.35-09.40 SW2 8/8

Teal 256n 44s
Black h Gull 22n 63s
Curlew 16n
Gannet 1263n 314s
Common  Tern 75n 92s
Cormorant 18n 158s
Fulmar 14n 4s
Sandwich Tern 49n 29s
Common Scoter 151n 64s
Shoveler 4n
Common Gull 1n 7s
Shag 2s
Bonxie 5n 1s
Manxie 93n 18s
Arctic Skua 18n 8s
Mallard 1s
Shelduck 14n 1s
Puffin 1n
Arctic Tern 2n
Red th Diver 3s
Mute Swan 3s juvs
Oystercatcher 10s
Redshank 2n
Wigeon 9n
Golden Plover 6s
Eider 1s
LBBGull 1s
Goosander 1n
Yellow-legged Gull 1 juv
Balearic Shearwater 1 feeding offshore
Grey Wagtail 1s
Little Gull 1n juv
Porpoise 1s
Swift 1n

Ive lost the ability to enhance videos on YouTube now and can't stabalise the hand shake out, i will find another way but didn't have time today

right in the .....Balearic's

Balearic Shearwater, Black Tern, Minke Whale...are we in heaven.....wye no man Whitburn Obs. The started quietly with little or no wind and few birds Stoney arrived just as the wind started picking up and it all kicked off. He called a distant Shearwater going north and it was the first north so we were all over it and were pleased to see it was the first Balearic Shearwater recorded at Whitburn this year.
I picked up on a very distant Tern and called the juv Black Tern a year tick for Rob, then we both smiled as a Green Sandpiper called as it headed south a tick for me.
As always the Cetaceans stole the show with White-beaked Dolphin's breaching then a Minke Whale showed very well as it surfaced three times heading north my second of the week.
My Obs list reached 159 with the Sandpiper and Shearwater at last almost respectful
It was a fantastic watch here are the details of what we saw in order of appearance

Friday 10th August SW3 6/8 05.05-09.15

Curlew 4n 2s
Black h Gull 16n 253s
Turnstone 2s
Sandwich Tern 49n 212s
Common Gull 4n 17s
Common Tern 41n 96s
Common Scoter 7s
Gannet 148n 58s
Cormorant 19n 252s
Redshank 23n 32s
Dunlin 4n 29s
Fulmar 14n 9s
Shelduck 1n
Wigeon 6s
Roseate Tern 3s ads
Ringed Plover 2s
Sanderling 7s
Goosander 8n
Bonxie 1n 1s
Arctic Tern 1n 4s
Knot 17s
Manxie 10s
Med Gull 2s 2nd w and juv
Balearic Shearwater 1n 07.00
Green Sandpiper 1s
Oystercatcher 13s
Black Tern 1s juv 08.54
White-beaked Dolphin 4n 07.20-07.48 then at least one more
Minke Whale 1n 07.56 3/4 out
phew.....