Saturday 14 May 2011

Northwesterly lie-in

Heysham Obs
The original posting was grossly unfair to the JBP seawatch team who were in place this morning before some of us had crawled out of bed.  It was, I'm afraid, one of those "one hour of tedium and 10 seconds of excitement" routines, which characterises most inner Morecambe Bay seawatching once the Arctic terns have gone through and the less numerate and far more erratic skuas are the 'sole' order of the day.  JBP produced two distant skuas prior to any Heysham coverage and these were thought to be Poms.  However, they would not come closer into the bay and were lost in the direction of Morecambe.  Much later in the morning (c1115hrs), dark and light Arctic Skuas were blogging together in the inner bay
Heysham north wall 0815-0845
A bit too north-westerly, as was forecast.  However, should have been here a bit earlier, but assumed others would be in place here or JBP!  Needed to leave to do the WeBS count & keep half an eye on the sea but nothing else of note was seen pre-1000hrs
Arctic Skua - dark morph in and across towards Ulverston direction
Gannet - distant adult in
Auk spp - 3 together out, probably Razorbill

Ocean Edge foreshore
Wheatear - biggish female

Heysham head
Wheatear - one