Thursday 13 February 2014

Black Guillemot surprise

Heysham Obs


A Black Guillemot was reported indirectly as being seen off Morecambe a few days ago and I wonder if this mornings sighting was indeed that report coming to fruition.  It flew past the end of the outfalls and disappeared either into the troughs or re-landing on the sea.  A quirky feature of this morning was that the only other auk seen was a dead Razorbill on the sea off the harbour mouth


I suggest this might be a good week to check tidelines for ringed seabird corpses. 


One lengthy seawatch is still in the observer's notebook so hopefully more later


Sea/outfalls
Black Guillemot - one 'out'
Kittiwake  72 'in' including flock of 47 (more to add).  At least 15 inshore with 11 in harbour
Little Gull - At least 17 'out', some having previously been on the outfalls.  In addition, 28 still on outfalls after seawatching finished
Common Scoter - male floating in on sea
Red-throated Diver - one out
Med Gull - adult
Razorbill - dead one on sea off harbour mouth

North Harbour Wall
Twite - 35
Linnet - 8
Goldfinch - 2


Middleton NR
Scaup - 2CY male still