Dad and I made it down to The Bill just after 7:30, in hope of some good seawatching action. Upon arrival, nothing seemed to be around, so we walked over to the seawatchers who were already there. They had had a Nightjar (flying over the sea apparently!) and a few Poms already- giving us hope of some good action. A Mediterranean Gull flew east, and a Gannet was way out. The mist was a bit restrictive in terms of visibility, but it was good enough.
A very distant Fulmar went west, but was only a white blob through the binoculars. About 20 minutes later, another one went east, but this one a lot closer, and it was very clear through binoculars, sadly though my camera couldn't pick it up whatsoever- but I was still happy with this sighting, very cool birds. Not long after, someone shouted- "Arctic Skua, going east!" After a few seconds of searching for it, I managed to pick it up in my camera, a pale-form, which I prefer, relatively close in, but it almost immediately turned south and started flying away from us, so I couldn't really get any decent photos.
Still very happy with the Fulmar and Arctic Skua, even though the photos (or lack of them) were not exactly very good!- both were lifers, as I've not managed to catch up with either in my nearly two years of birding.
What was ironically probably one of the best sightings of the day, a very late flock of 9 Brent Geese, looked to be flying east before circling around and dropping onto the sea. Soon after, a pair of Eiders also flew past, and subsequently also landed on the sea, staying there for a good while.
We were kept company after this with two Little Terns on the shoreline, another year tick, the third of the day.
Still hopeful a Pom might turn up, news of one flying east from Hill Head brightened our hopes. A few minutes later, news came through it had been seen at Sandy Point- surely we could pick it up here? As time passed, it seemed more and more likely that it had either altered its course, or we had missed it. It had seemingly just vanished into thin air.
We then needed to leave, as we had breakfast booked for 9:45, so sadly we didn't see any Pomerine's in the end. Still a succesful trip, with 2 lifers and three year ticks- pushing my year list now up to 155, already getting close to last years measly 163. Maybe I'll get the Pomerines another day soon- hopefully!
No comments:
Post a Comment