What had looked to be a promising week for seawatching actually turned out to be fairly poor. That was until today where for once a decent wind gave a decent return of birds, and especially Skuas where there was one less seen today then the 70 on Monday. By far the highlight today was an exceptionally close Great Northern Diver, so close in fact I didn't have time to fetch my camera, but thankfully Simon further down the beach managed to. Also the first Black Tern was seen, at long last some Common/Arctic Terns and a nice passage of Manx Shearwaters.
An interesting sighting for the day was a drake Common Scoter with lots of white on the upperwing, and this bird was first spotted today along Chesil Beach, Dorset, and roughly four hours later at an approximate distance of 120 miles the same Scoter flew past, apparently an average speed of 30mph (thanks to Paul Harris for details). It was seen later past Dungeness.
Afterwards I nipped round Mum and Dads and spotted a Swift flying towards the town centre. Despite having no bins, it looked like a Common and nothing rarer.
Totals for today are as follows:
Gannet - 200
Common Scoter - 618
Whimbrel - 48
Great Crested Grebe - 3
Arctic Skua - 34
Black-headed Gull - 150
Manx Shearwater - 22
Common/Arctic Tern - 153
Sandwich Tern - 342
Little Tern - 4
Auk sp - 30
Sanderling - 14
Mediterranean Gull - 69
Great Skua - 34
Bar-tailed Godwit - 98
Brent Geese - 52
Velvet Scoter - 8
Avocet - 1 (initially sat on the sea)
Red-breasted Merganser - 1
Dunlin - 1
Red-throated Diver - 8
Great Northern Diver - 1
Little Gull - 3
Teal - 2
Black Tern - 1
Black-throated Diver - 2 (5 more by SL)
Pomarine Skua - 1 l/p 11.28
Arctic Tern - 5
For seawatching totals from yesterday see https://trektellen.nl/count/view/292/20190424
Its been an interesting week elsewhere, on Tuesday with Marc Read, a female Marsh Harrier flew over Seaford Head, and when doing the washing up at home (yes I'm a good house wife), a superb Cuckoo landed in the garden. Sadly it all too soon flew, no doubt put off by my bright yellow gloves! A couple of evening visits to the Cuckmere has produced very little of note.
An interesting sighting for the day was a drake Common Scoter with lots of white on the upperwing, and this bird was first spotted today along Chesil Beach, Dorset, and roughly four hours later at an approximate distance of 120 miles the same Scoter flew past, apparently an average speed of 30mph (thanks to Paul Harris for details). It was seen later past Dungeness.
Afterwards I nipped round Mum and Dads and spotted a Swift flying towards the town centre. Despite having no bins, it looked like a Common and nothing rarer.
Totals for today are as follows:
Gannet - 200
Common Scoter - 618
Whimbrel - 48
Great Crested Grebe - 3
Arctic Skua - 34
Black-headed Gull - 150
Manx Shearwater - 22
Common/Arctic Tern - 153
Sandwich Tern - 342
Little Tern - 4
Auk sp - 30
Sanderling - 14
Mediterranean Gull - 69
Great Skua - 34
Bar-tailed Godwit - 98
Brent Geese - 52
Velvet Scoter - 8
Avocet - 1 (initially sat on the sea)
Red-breasted Merganser - 1
Dunlin - 1
Red-throated Diver - 8
Great Northern Diver - 1
Little Gull - 3
Teal - 2
Black Tern - 1
Black-throated Diver - 2 (5 more by SL)
Pomarine Skua - 1 l/p 11.28
Arctic Tern - 5
For seawatching totals from yesterday see https://trektellen.nl/count/view/292/20190424
Its been an interesting week elsewhere, on Tuesday with Marc Read, a female Marsh Harrier flew over Seaford Head, and when doing the washing up at home (yes I'm a good house wife), a superb Cuckoo landed in the garden. Sadly it all too soon flew, no doubt put off by my bright yellow gloves! A couple of evening visits to the Cuckmere has produced very little of note.
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| Great Skua from a few days ago |
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| Common Scoter |
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| Arctic Skuas |
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Great Northern Diver captured here
by Simon Linington.
Being only my tenth individual at Splash Point,
a picture was much appreciated.
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