Sunday 3 November 2013

Early morning seabird flurry

Heysham Obs
Fell a bit between two stools this early morning and missed what could have been 30 minutes of rather good seawatching whilst diverting to the office for Twite food (and washing up liquid/water 'screenwash'!).  The action started as soon as I arrived at 0745 but by 0845 it had reduced to a trickle of tidally-readjusting inshore Guillemot and a few Common Gulls heading south

Vis by the office for 5 mins 0730-0740
Chaffinch - 6
Brambling - heard call once

Sea 0745-0845
Bonxie (Great Skua) - one flew in at 0800 and seemed to land on the sea
Red-throated Diver - 3 out - two adults, one 1CY
Common Scoter - female out
Kittiwake - flock of 16 adults 'out'
Common Gull - a constant trickle of mainly adults south
Razorbill - 5+3+6+2+4+2+2 out (24)
Auk spp - at least 31 which were mainly in small groups further out than the Razorbills but looked likely to be that species.  Offshore auks stopped moving after 0815hrs
Guillemot - at least 5 inshore plus two in the harbour, at least 5 heading out further out with the close Razorbill line

Miscellany
Purple Sandpiper - showing well on the near naze on the incoming tide
Med Gull - 2 adults and 2Cy following the 'Arrow' into port
Twite - There was no available seed at all first thing and 5 Twite were sitting around and trying to 'dig' food out of the ground whilst 29 Linnet sat on the fence.  At least two were ringed (by us) one a split ring involving orange above pale blue, the other pale blue over green/white split.  Provision of seed resulted in two Twite and 29 Linnet during a quick check