Some Sea Passage

Notched up a couple of new species for the year for me today, both courtesy of the sea although neither that exciting.

During a dog walk at Seaton Hole mid morning looking out to sea showed my first three Whimbrel of the year fly east with three Sandwich Tern and a Kittiwake west.  This evening a twenty minute look off the Spot On showed a few flocks of distant Manx Shearwaters west and a Common Tern (year tick number two) feeding in the bay.

A look along the Estuary late this evening revealed two more Whimbrel and a Brent Goose, which surprisingly was a Dark-bellied. April is the peak month for Pale-bellied Brent passage, most Dark-bellied have already gone through by now.

Off-patch, but very much on-topic, it's been great to hear of so many people seeing the East Budleigh 'Italian Sparrow' since Friday's blog post. It's a stunning bird whatever the DNA analysis might tell us.