Iceland, Glaucous and Med Gull passed Whitburn Obs by 10.35 this morning in an amazing white out. I had hoped for white wing gulls yesterday in the stronger southerly so today when i sat down on a misty morning i wasn't sure what to expect, but it was all about the gulls. As yesterday big gulls were moving from first light tho today i didn't to any large gull counts. I was checking out the Black heads that were moving south in bigger numbers than recently and saw large gulls beginning to roost on the rocks just north of the Obs. The 5th bird i looked at was a juv Glaucous Gull, back of the net. I managed to get some video and put the news out before my phone died, and when the local fishing boat called to check his pots they were off heading south. PTB just happened to be passing and headed off to look for it at the Steel
The Med Gull was expected with that number of Black heads going south but the Iceland was not. I Popped out for a call of nature as you do and saw a white winger going south over the obs, got my scope and managed to nail it as it went south over the range.
This is what i saw in order of appearance
Friday 16th December 07.55-10.35 S2 cloud 6/8
Black h Gull 15n 172s
Common Gull 1n 69s
Gannet 7n 7s
Cormorant 1n 10s
Fulmar 2n 4s
Curlew 67s
Eider 2s
Glaucous Gull 1s juv 09.10, flew south 09.20 ish
Shag 2s
Red th Diver 3n 1s
Scan Herring Gull 1n 2s
Common Scoter 5n
Med Gull 1s ad 10.00
Iceland Gull 1s ad 10.10
540 Great Black Backed Gulls passed Whitburn Obs by 11 o'clock this morning. The southerly was brisker than yesterday and large gulls were moving from the off, i fully expected to add to our tally of white winged gulls for the month but sadly it wasn't to be today. We did get a few quality birds to warm our cockles and bring some Christmas cheer to the Obs
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Thursday 15th December 07.50-11.00 S3 cloud 7/8
GBBGull 11n n529s
Scan Herring Gull 5s
Common Gull 3n 64s
Black h Gull 16n 48s
Eider 5s
Cormorant 1n 7s
Fulmar 4n 7s
Shag 1n 3s
Gannet 31n
Wigeon 8s
Teal 5s
Kittiwake 2n
Goldeneye 6s
Red th Diver 1n 4s
Brent Goose db 3n 2s
Pom Skua 1n
Great Northern Diver 2s
Long tailed Duck 5n
Bonxie 2n
2 Great Northern Divers and a drake Scaup passed Whitburn Obs by 10.30 this morning. I saw a Great Northern going north high up and needed to get the scope on it to check the bill when i saw some Pinkfeet going south, i sorted the Diver and looked for the Geese with my bins when i saw another large Diver going south, oh bugger it never rains it......
The morning started with a Whooper heading south then another two, they were a bit distant so id from the bill pattern was not on, not a bad watch, this is what i saw in order of appearance
Monday 12th December 07.50-10.30 S2 cloud 6/8
Common Gull 7n 58s
Black h Gull 9n 34s
Shag 1n 2s
Eider 2s
Cormorant 2n 4s
Red th Diver 2n 2s
Common Scoter 8n 7s
Goldeneye 1s
Scan Herring Gull 5s
Whooper Swan 3s
Fulmar 1n 5s
Redshank 3s
Great Northern Diver 1n 1s
Pink footed Goose 35n 24s
Scaup 1n dr
Wigeon 2s
Great Northern Diver and 130 Pink footed Geese passed Whitburn Obs by 10 o'clock this morning. Saint Mark called the Dolphins as soon as we had sat down, it was still very dark tho Magic Mark was already counting Gulls. Circa 15 headed slowly north fairly close inshore, plenty of youngsters were evident and i tried to video them using 'night shot'. As it turned out i was able to get decent video in good light as some of the pod came back south for a short visit in better light before heading off north again. This also gave Stoney a chance to enjoy them as he had missed the first pod
We had a canny selection of birds with Pinks and a close Great Northern, Mute Swan is scarce from the Obs so a close bird on the sea was exceptional, bet we don't see another for a while when i need a year tick
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Sunday 11th December 07.35-10.00 W2 cloud 7/8
Herring Gull 350s
Bottlenose Dolphin circa 15 nth close inshore 07.40-07.55
Bottlenose Dolphins 5 plus south then back north 08.35-08.45
Common Gull 4n 16s
Velvet Scoter 3n
Black h Gull 4n 24s
Shag 1n 5s
Red th Diver 5n 11s
Cormorant 2n 4s
Eider 7n 3 on sea
Common Scoter 26n
Great Northern Diver 1n
Mute Swan 1 swimming north
2 Glaucous Gulls and 2 Black throated Divers passed Whitburn Obs today by 10.40. Stoney was in the house and after an hour of nothing passing we wondered why we were. Both of us had a day off yesterday and had been looking forward to a brisk southerly rather than the doldrums but it just wasn't happening. Often this time of year it takes a while to get going and we were glad we stuck it out as two Glaucs and two Black throats is a canny watch and we both called one of each. We noticed a big increase in larger gulls moving south and Glauc had been predicted but more in hope...
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Wednesday 7th December 07.25-10.40 S4 cloud 7/8
Black headed Gull 4n 37s
Common Gull 4n 58s
Eider 4n 1s 4 on sea
Turnstone 2n 19s
Sparrowhawk 1n
Redshank 10s
Shag 5s
Red th Diver 2n 12s
Cormorant 4s
Gannet 11n
Ringed Plover 1s
Fulmar 2s
Black th Diver 2s both wp
Glaucous Gull 2s both juvs but different birds one was much darker than the other
Dunlin 1s
Common Scoter 2n
Shelduck 2n
Golden Plover 40s
Great Northern Diver and 3 Brent Geese passed Whitburn Obs on our sleepy Sunday morning watch. Sundays can be a bit like that but we did our best in good light to enjoy Decembers slim pickings
Highlights are the 5 Mergansers a new day record passage and this week saw a new annual passage record for Great Northern Diver beating the previous best of 110, today we hit 113...and counting
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Sunday 4th December SE2 cloud 8/8
Common Gull 9n 25s
Black h Gull 11n 20s
Porpoise 2
Scan Herring Gull 1s
Red th Diver 20n 10s
Eider 9n 1s
Gannet 9n 2s
Shag 1n 11s
Common Scoter 96n
Red br Merganser 3n 2s
Wigeon 3n
Redshank 1s
Fulmar 3n 2s
Turnstone 1n 2s
Shelduck 5n
Mallard 1n
Great Northern Diver 1n
5 Sooty and 1 Manx Shearwater passed Whitburn Obs by 10 this morning. Magic Mark joined me and Stoney was in the house. The Shearwaters were a bit of a surprise considering the previous maximum December day count for both was one of each, so five Sooty's was mega..
We didn't get much to support them this morning except the stars of the show a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins. They were distant but showed for long periods with lots of breaching. I didn't manage any video at that distance but I've included some from earlier this year
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Friday 2nd December 07.25-10.00 NW2 cloud 7/8
Black h Gull 41n 16s
Common Gull 41n 26s
Eider 2n 4s
Red the Diver 5n 3s
Common Scoter 2n 4s
Fulmar 52n
Sooty Shearwater 5n
Gannet 23n 9s
Cormorant 1n
Manx Shearwater 1n
Shag 1s
Bottlenose Dolphin 12 plus distant 08.30-09.50 at least with breaching
