Seawatching

 This post might seem a bit austere as there are no photos. The main reason for this is that yesterday it poured with rain most of the time we were out. 

With a NE breeze blowing we could only do one thing - seawatch. The first of the autumn. 

In situations like this a fishing brolly is a godsend so we carted the gear down the track to tuck in behind a ridge and watched from 0720 - 0920 before deciding the day was just about a write off...

Still, a few reasonable local patch birds made it into the notebook - 

Sooty Shearwater 1N always nice to get the season off with a July Sooty. 

Manx Shearwater 23 N

Roseate Tern 4ad 1 juv N

Arctic Tern 15 N

Common Tern 3 N

Sandwich Tern 20+ N

Puffin 25 N

Common Scoter 18 S 13 N

Goosander 4 on sea

Common Sandpiper 1

Golden Plover 50+ 

Lesser black backed Gulls 7 N 

Swift 1

The rain eased off by 3pm so when news of a Cory's Shearwater past Newbiggin it was time for a double shift. This time at Cullernose, no brolly required. Another 2 hours 3.35 - 5.35pm was not lucky with Cory's but was pretty much a copy of this morning with

Sooty Shearwater 1 N

Manx Shearwater 21 N

Roseate Tern 5 ads N

Arctic Skua 2 dark phase N

Puffin 8 N

Turnstone 25+ N

The wind is still quite brisk today so I might get an hour later on...

Arctic Skuas