Roseate Tern, Little Gulls and a Red necked Grebe passed Whitburn Obs by 10.15 today. Back from watching migration and cetaceans in Terrific Tarifa to watching migration and cetaceans in wonderful Whitburn, this is the life.
Looking at the forecast yesterday westerly and no cloud i would have been forgiven for not starting my day with a seawatch but id missed my patch so i headed to the Obs. The Red throated Divers were singing as i arrived. With little wind early on gulls and terns were feeding close in giving me a bit of quality, they moved on later as the wind picked up
Our White beaked Dolphins came along to welcome me back, i will miss them when they move on
Raptors were a feature just like in Spain and i could have done with raptor girl from our trip to help me. Of three species that passed i only id'd one the regular juv Peregrine, the small dark Falcon and large Sparrowhawk type that shot through so fast i couldn't nail
Finally unlucky Dave showed up and asked if id had any Pink feet yet and 30 seconds later a skein went south, lucky or what
And yes the Buff breast did hang around for my return
This is what i saw in order of appearance
Friday 25th September 07.05-10.15 WNW1-2 then 3 bright sun
Black h Gull 54n 28s circa 50 feeding off obs
Wigeon 1s
Red th Diver 6n 11s
Sandwich Tern 8n 2s
Curlew 1n 1s
Red necked Grebe 1n
Little Gull 1n 2s ads
Redshank 1s
Common Scoter 9n 5s
07.30 White beaked Dolphin 3n
Teal 7s
Turnstone 3s
Common Gull 9n 1s
Arctic Tern 2n juvs
Roseate Tern 1n juv
08.15-08.30 ish White beaked Dolphin 10 plus moving south
Tufted Duck 1n
Shag 3s
Sanderling 1s
Common Tern 1n
Eider 2s
Pergrine 1n juv
Pink footed Goose 35s
Cant think of anywhere else id rather be except maybe St Agnes, its been a while since i visited my old haunt should have done it this year....
