Seawatching

Went to Cley this morning for a few hours of seawatching. With winds predicted to be like this, there wasn't really another option:

Got there early to secure a spot inside the shelter. I was first! But the wind was too westerly in the first part of the morning, so rather few birds and pretty distant.  And it was bloody freezing. From about 08:30 the wind became a bit more northerly and birding improved somewhat. Still, less than I had expected though things did improve in the afternoon and are expected to be even better tomorrow morning. When I will be at work.

So what did I see? Highlights were one Little Auk, one Arctic Skua and 11 Bonxie, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers, 11 Red-throated Divers and one possible Great Northern, and almost 40 Snow Buntings flying west in a few groups along the shingle without stopping. Here's my eBird checklist with the full list. Sadly I was so cold that I did not notice my camera settings were completely wrong. I screwed up a few seaduck shots.

 Great Skuas

8 Snow Buntings flying to Blakeney Point

Had to leave early for family commitments. On the way out looked for brents but couldn't find any viewable from the road. Had a very quick scan through pinkfeet for something else but found nothing:

Seawatching at Cley is funny. It's actually two (or more) separate seawatches. Those inside the shelter and those outside the shelter, using the shelter as a shelter from the wind... Funnily, a good friend stood outside all morning, 5 meters away from me, and we both didn't know. Even inside the shelter some people stick their eyes in the scope and never call out birds or at best mumble something undecipherable - I wonder what those people saw today.

Scotland #3 - seabird extravaganza

Back home in Norwich already, but I have some more Scottish tales to tell. On July 31st we went out to sea with my mate Phil from Shetland Seabird Tours. We left Lerwick harbour and headed towards Noss NNR. Phil boat is great - small enough to get close to water level, but sits very well on the water. 

Noss is an impressive rock and has even more impressive gannet numbers - in fact 22,000 pairs breed there. The sea was somewhat choppier than normal but we all did well, especially Libby who fell asleep halfway through the trip...

The gannets there know their duty and showed up when they were invited by Phil. I was so unprofessional and forgot my small lens onshore. At these distances, my 500 was useless, so all these photos were taken with my phone. Phone photos should never be displayed on a computer screen, I know. But all in all they're not too bad I think, for phone photos at least.

Quite a few Bonxies joined the feast too:

As did the local Great Black-backed Gulls:

Most breeding gannets had Masked-Booby-like fluffy chicks still in the nest:

Lots of non-breeders too

Shags, made in 2017

On the way back we stopped for some seabirds away from the cliffs. We encountered some feeding concentrations of puffins and Arctic Terns. Closer views on Sumburgh Head but lovely to see them at sea:

Most Common Guillemots had already left - only few seen

Several Black Guillemots (Tysties) were loafing in the harbour - losing their summer plumage:

 Some more Arctic Terns in the harbour:

And a few Common Eider families: 

Back on land, one of the few Common Terns on Shetland was especially obliging just in the carpark:

Many thanks to Phil for the brilliant tour. Great fun and quality birding. Highly recommended to anyone visiting Shetland. Till next post...

Shetland day 3 - Winds of change

Too late to blog so I will do it short. Hey, sleep is completely over-rated. Difficult weather in the morning. Force 7 westerlies but I headed out anyway. Walked through Clevygarth towards Virkie. Hoped for a Buff-breasted sand or something like that but nothing good. Few passerine migrants but plenty of snipe on the wetland. Among the 50 or so commons were at least 8 Jack Snipe - not bad. A pair of Bonxies followed me closely:

Then I went with Gary to Lerwick to do some stuff. There were about 200 Eiders in the harbour, and two sweet Black Guilelmots:

Whooper Swans on Clikcimin Loch:

Then suddenly the wind dropped, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It smelt like sibes in the air... We checked Hellendale and Seaview in Lerwick, there were some fresh migrants in - Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Lesser Whitethraot, Grey Wagtail and quite many yellow-brows, but nothing more than that. We decided to give the OBP a miss. There was this Purple Sandpiper roosting with knots on the shoreline:

Red Knots

In the afternoon a short walk with Roger in Exanboe produced very little, only a Merlin that flew past. In the evening following a lovely dinner with Becca and Phil (thanks!), I gave a talk to Shetland Bird Club - it was a fun evening!

The wind really dropped this afternoon and the weather from Sunday onwards looks much more promising. So with some new birds today I am optimistic towards the weekend. Good night.

As good as it gets

Northerlies blowing here in Norfolk so I went out seawatching with Quentin at Cley this morning, and what a brilliant morning it was. We arrived (too) early and as soon as there was enough light to see somehting, we noticed that there are tons of birds out at sea. Pretty early I got on to the first Little Auk of the day going past west. Then we had another, and another... Lots of groups of two and threes. It was a pretty big day for Norfolk - we logged 66 until 12:00! The northerlies kept blowing all day and should blow all night too, so tomorrow there's a chance for even more - huge numbers in the NE today. What sweet birds they are! Few landed on the water close to shore, and a couple even flew inland - probably into Cley reserve...

Little Auk

But most were seen in conditions similar to this:

Until about 09:00 birds were going in both directions, but from then onwards there was heavy passage from west to east - constant stream of birds. Biggest numbers were Kittiwake (we estimated 1000 or more) and Gannet (about 800). Skuas never stopped passing through. Most were Great Skuas (250!) but a count of 80 Pomarine Skuas was impressive.

Great Skua 

Pomarine Skua - dark 1cy. I managed to screw up all of my pom shots.

There were also 3-4 Arctic Skuas, and 1-2 probable long-tails but they were too distant. Little Gulls went through in big numbers mainly during the first couple of hours - we ended up with a total of 400!

Other highlights included 1 Grey Phalarope, 2 Sooty and 4 Manx Shearwaters, 4 Med Gulls, 3 Black-throated Divers among the many red-throats, 7-8 Puffins among the hundreds of commoner auks, Shag, 4 Velvet Scoters and many other sea ducks - so much fun!

Common Eiders

Gannet - 1cy

Kittiwake - 1cy

We were inside the Beach Hide so were relatively protected and conditions were pretty good today. Nice double rainbow just before we left - this is a result of bad panoramic shot I took with my phone:

 Pretty surreal shot - Gannet and some Kittiwakes flying through the rainbow...

I have a confession - I had two lifers today! Can't remember when I last had two lifers in one day in the WP. They were Little Auk, and (embarrassing I know...) Great Skua. Somehow I managed to miss them in the past, despite spending many hours seawatching in the UK, Helgoland, Scandinavia etc.

Thanks to Quentin and all the other birders who shared with us this great morning.