Barely buoyant buoy!

Very strong SW wind last night eased before midnight. By daylight it had and moved to the south then SE, before easing further in the afternoon and shifting to NW. showers on and off all day.

South shore (MD)

I checked twice, once in the morning to see if any waifs or strays had been blown in and again at high water in the afternoon, neither were particularly productive (as you may have guessed by today's title).

Wheatear 1 on foreshore both visits

Linnet 9 on foreshore plus 2 near lighthouse in the morning, an additional 5 near waterfall in the afternoon.

Rock Pipit 5 at least - 2 by waterfall and 3 near lighthouse in the morning. 1 on Red Nab in the afternoon.

Common Gull 75, mainly 2nd calendar year, most on seaward end of No.1 outflow in the morning, just a few remained at high water.

Kittiwake 3 on outflows in morning, 1 on outflows plus 2 on harbour pipe in the afternoon. This is the afternoon bird on the outflow.

Redshank 60

A few of the Redshank

Turnstone 16

Redshank and Turnstone 

Shag 1 immature on the wooden jetty in the afternoon 

This Carrion Crow flew to the wooden jetty with nesting material, then disappeared in the tangle of planks in the first section 

Herring Gull heading towards the old Fishers building with nesting material 

This is what today's title refers to. After the last storms I prematurely announced one of the buoys out from the north wall "missing". In fact it was just underwater, something must have been caught on its anchoring chain. Today, I was initially confused, it was "almost missing".

This was what remained of the buoy 30 minutes before high water

I eventually realised that what was visible was just the tip of the buoy, again something must have been caught on the anchoring chain. Bizarrely, 10 minutes later, after I had been down to the waterfall and back, it had returned to normal. Presumably the extra force on the buoy from the rising tide, must have freed the chain.

Same shot 10 minutes later!