Tuesday, July 26, 2011

10? Is that all?

Before I start, Birdguides / Rare Bird Alert - Any bird reports on here are usually seen at Howick unless otherwise stated. Yesterdays report of Roseate Tern and Stormies were here, not Boulmer...

Right, where was I...oh yes, Storm Petrels.

If you live in Northumberland and have not seen one of these I suggest you get to the coast pronto before they move offshore or north or where ever they will vanish to, soon. This is a spectacle that will not be repeated in the near future I bet...You may need a telescope though, I tried to see if I could locate one in the binoculars but even at relatively close range they are tiny and take some picking out.

Tonight I seawatched off the coast path (er, Howick) for an hour from 6.35pm. In the first 15 minutes I had 15 Stormies, and ended with a minimum count of 32 birds before 7.30pm. There were more sightings, but I tried to eliminate duplicates of feeding birds.

After half an hour I decided to concentrate further out than Stormie range to see if I could get a July Sooty but it wasnt to be. I did get 12 Manx Shearwaters, 40 Arctic Terns, 3 Puffins, 1 Bonxie and 1 Arctic Skua though so I'm happy with that.

2 comments:

Ipin said...

A lot more than me...6pm to 7.30 at Druridge (in poor visibility) produced 1 bonxie!

Unknown said...

I'm off work with vertigo at present, cant drive, cant use binos, cant walk staight and I really need to get some sea watching in, missing loads by the looks of things!