'Another Manxie North'

2 Balearic,32 Sooty and 980 Manxies, 2 Pom Skuas a Sabs Gull and 3 Red necked Grebes passed Whitburn Obs by 11am
Another full Obs another action packed sea watch, shame about the light.The phrase another Manxie north was regular as 980 went past I missed the juv Sabs gull which Stevie Thunder watched through my scope as i had popped out to see Rosefinch in the hand
I will fill more detail in later but birds are waiting for me
This is what we saw in order of appearance

Saturday 7th September 05.50-11.00 SE2-3 some cloud early on then yuk

Shoveler 2n
Manxie 980n
Black h Gull 94n 6s
Teal 24n 50s
Cormorant 4n 135s
Arctic Skua 33n 7s
Common Tern 40n 4s
Common Scoter 117n
Sandwich Tern 81n 14s
Sooty Shearwater 32n
Turnstone 5s
Red th Diver 8n 6s
Bonxie 10n 3s
Black Tern 1n
Balearic Shearwater 2n
Bar tailed Godwit 2n
Arctic Tern 27n
Wheatear 1
Kestrel 1n
Shag 3n
Redshank 4s
Ruff 1n
Little Gull 27n
Red necked Grebe 3n
Wigeon 23n
Pintail 4n
Velvet Scoter 2n
Puffin 1n
Pom Skua 2n 1ad
Great crested Grebe 2s
Grey Plover 1n
Curlew 1n
Greenshank 1s
Gannet 1213n

back later for more.........

when the north wind doth blow............

Long Tailed Skua, Balearic and 55 Sooty Shearwaters and a Roseate Tern passed Whitburn Obs in 11.25 hours today. It was a great sea watch with a full Obs we didn't get the biggy that was down to Steely on the Farnes again. The cast is too numerous to mention all but it included Magic Mark who called the 2 star birds, Pink Floyd, The Babysiter(Derek Lawrence),The Doctor was in the house, Timmy Mills and Hoggie,Foghorn,etc etc etc
Here is what we saw mainly in order of appearance

Friday 6th September 06.00-18.00 minus 45mins when obs wasn't manned N6 rain all day

Red th Diver 9s
Manx Shearwater 289n
Sooty Shearwater 55n
Balearic Shearwater 1n
Cormorant 18n 18s
Shag 3n 2s
Common Scoter 56n 1s
Eider 5n 6 on sea
Wigeon 285n 58s
Pochard 3n
Teal 227n 166s
Pintail 5n
Gadwall 1n
Mallard 1s
Tufted Duck 1n
Goldeneye 1n
Scaup 1n
Goosander 1n
Black h Gull 9n 26s
Arctic Skua 6n 39s
Bonxie 19n 2s
Long tailed Skua 1n juv
Sandwich Tern 12n 38s
Common Tern 7n 8s
Arctic Tern 1n
Redshank 2n
Golden Plover circa 500n
Purple Sandpiper 1n
Grey Plover 4n
Fulmar 280 by 11.30


Pergrine 2n
Brent Goose 49n
Red necked Grebe 1n
Roseate Tern 1n
Puffin 1n
Porpoise 1

No two days alike...

Merlin, Little Gull and Med Gull passed Whitburn early morning. No two days are alike in the theatre of dreams. Today hardly a Shearwater, no Skuas, few waders etc etc. Who knows what tomorrow will bring and the outlook for the weekend is promising with easterly winds, i might pull back some of the migrants that i missed on my holiday in Ibiza. Wryneck and Icky could still end up on my year list
This is what i saw in order of appearance

Thursday 5th September 05.55-07.15 SW2 broken cloud some mist

Curlew 2n
Black h Gull 5n 179s
Teal 58n 3s
Common Scoter 5n 3s
Common Tern 19n 1s
Cormorant 1n 27s
Sandwich Tern 6n 5s
Shag 1s
Red th Diver 4s
Merlin 1s (my first of the year from the Obs and a landmark as its 150 up for my Obs year list)
Med Gull 1s ad
Arctic Tern 5n
Porpoise 2
Red br Merganser 1n
Wigeon 2s
Manxie 2s
Grey Wagtail 1s

Mix it up

Sooty Shearwater, 2 Med Gulls 3 Little Gulls and 23 Arctic Terns passed Whitburn Obs by 07.30 this morning. It was a pleasant warm morning with early cloud clearing to bright hot sun and plenty of birds moving a good mix of gulls terns waders .....
Here's what i saw in order of appearance

Wednesday 4th September 05.55-07.15 S1-2 flat calm sea cloud at first then bright sun

Knot 2s
Dunlin 1s
Cormorant 1n 72s
Common Tern 19n 5s
Black h Gull 2n 165s
Sooty Shearwater 1n
Sandwich Tern 2n 45s
Med Gull 2s 1ad 1 juv
Arctic Tern 19n 4s
Manxie 9n
Teal 4n
Common Scoter 8n
Little Gull 3n
Turnstone 6s
Curlew 3n 1s
Shag 1s
Arctic Skua 2s
Red th Diver 2n

Call of the wild

Great northern Diver, 25 Manxies and 12 Arctic Terns went passed Whitburn Obs early morning.
On a much better day with calm conditions a few birds did show today although my sea watch time was limited to an hour with work getting in the way. It started with a lovely red sky sunrise and the stars of the show were the two Red throated Divers sat on the sea close inshore that were singing for the whole time. If you haven't heard it before its a real experience, an eerie call
This is what i saw in my hour in order of appearance

Tuesday 3rd September 06.15-07.15 W1 dead calm broken cloud

Manxie 25n
Black h Gull 7n 20s
Fulmar 48n 5s
Common Tern 8n 5s
Cormorant 1n 34s
Sandwich Tern 7n 10s
Great northern Diver 1n (a beast of a bird flying high up)
Arctic Skua 1s
Arctic Tern 10n 2s
Common Scoter 1n 4s
Red th Diver 3n 2 on sea
Teal 10n
Cuckoo juv flying round fields south of obs which is probably the bird that has been on Jackie's Beach lately

Birds, what birds

Sooty Shearwater, Arctic Skua and a Bonxie went past Whitburn Obs early morning on a dissapointing sea watch. A strong westerly wind, poor light and a rough sea put paid to any passage but this is what i did see in order of appearance

Monday 2nd September  05.50-07.05 W5 broken cloud

Curlew 2n
Cormorant 65s
Red th Diver 1s
Black h Gull 1n 1s
Wigeon 1n
Manxie 1n
Arctic Skua 1n
Ruff 1n
Bonxie 1n
Sooty Shearwater 1n

Feeling Ruff

13 Sootys, 229 Manxies 15 Little Gulls and a Black Tern passed Whitburn Obs by 10.00 this morning. Yes its great to be back after a week in Ibiza and a hat full of missed migrants it was business as usual with a great watch this morning. The only birds i had missed from the Obs when i was away were Red backed Shrike and a Ruff and within the first half hour 3 Ruff went north a great pull back bringing my Obs list to 148. As for the Shrike well i missed one earlier in the year as well some things just arn't meant to be
I was late in and joined Magic Mark and Stevie Thunder at 06.15, the Doc arrived later still. As usual Mark was in fine form
This is what was seen by 10am in order of appearance and what a great watch for a Westerly

Sunday 1st September 05.50-10.00 W2 cloud cover

Black h Gull 6n 4s
Common Gull 3n 2s
Manxie 193n 36s
Sandwich Tern 5n 70s
Common Tern 9n 7s
Sooty Shearwater 13n
Common Scoter 6n 3s
Turnstone 2n 8s
Redshank 68s
Dunlin 6s
Ruff 3n
Little Gull 11n 4s
Black Tern 1n
Red th Diver 5n 2s
Whimbrel 1s
Bar tailed Godwit 1n 5s
Arctic Skua 1n 1s
Knot 1n 3s
Shag 1s
Bonxie 2n
Puffin 1n
Pintail 4n
Teal 2n
Ringed Plover 3n
Cormorant 6n 104s