Following the absolutely epic day of seawatching in Cornwall in early August, I knew I had to return to normal birding expectations as soon as possible. And what better way to do that than instead of pointing my scope on the Runnel Stone off PG - pointing it at the horizon from Seaton Beach!
Still, this hasn't been without highlights, and we have had some pretty wild weather at times. In date order...
4th August
It wasn't actually seawatching weather at all, with a flat sea thanks to a gentle north west wind. I was there to scope behind any distant boats incase a Storm Petrel or two might be visible. There weren't, but my searching was interupted by bird-shapes flying through my scope view far more often than I was expecting - including my first Balearic Shearwaters for Patchwork Challenge!
19:20 - 20:20 from Spot On Kiosk produced: 3 Balearic Shearwater (1 w with a Manx at 19:52 and 2 w together at 20:10), 58 Manx Shearwater (4 w, 54 e), 11 Sandwich Tern, 1 Mediterranean Gull and 1 Ringed Plover.
5th August
This was a proper rough day, with lots of rain, gusting south westerly winds and big big waves! I was keen, really keen, watched from Fisherman's Gap 05:20 - 09:50 and saw (west unless stated): 6 Arctic Skua (an awesome group of 5 and a single e), 1 Skua sp. (e), 54 Common Scoter, 41 Kittiwake, 15 Manx Shearwater, 2 Sandwich Tern, 3 Mediterranean Gull and 1 Yellow-leged Gull (juv).
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| Love Seaton Beach when it looks like this! |
So not a dreadful haul, infact those Skuas were really nice to see, but considering Dan just along the coast at Sidmouth had 18 Storm Petrels, with a Sooty Shearwater seen just west of him, and a Pom Skua seen flying my way 13 miles east of me - I was really disappointed with the lack of quality.
12th August
Conditions not all the appalling but a south westerly breeze and some overcast skies were enough to have me watching from Spot On Kiosk 07:10 - 08:40 showing (west unless stated): 1 Balearic Shearwater (07:40 and fairly close), 90+ Gannet, 12 Kittiwake, 6 Manx Shearwater, 1 Sandwich Tern and 1 Mediterranean Gull.
Had another look in the evening 19:05 - 19:50: 6 Balearic Shearwater (two 3's), 17 Manx Shearwater and 24+ Shearwater sp. All distant and all west.
14th August
Another wet and wild morning so I watched from Fisherman's Gap. The entrance to the public toilets isn't the most pleasant place to stand early on a Saturday morning, but the cover is much appreciated especially during the wet bits!
06:00 - 09:40 produced (west unless stated): 1 Storm Petrel (finally! Came through at 09:05 nice and close which meant all my scanning on 60x zoom was futile!), 1 Balearic Shearwater (09:25), 5 Arctic Skua (a single and two 2's within a fourty minute period - lovely prolonged views), 110+ Gannet, 46 Kittiwake, 42 Common Scoter, 11 Shelduck (one flock), 6 auk sp., 5 Sandwich Tern, 3 Mediterranean Gull, 2 Whimbrel (1 e, 1 out) and 1 Turnstone (flew out, possibly flushed off the beach).
I have done more birding than just seawatching, but I will leave that for another post. But there is one more thing I'd like to add to this post, and please take this as your reward for reading all of the relatively mundane sightings above...
Back to my Cornwall seawatching post, and in particular that Fea's-type Petrel that I was really fortunate to get on as it quickly flew west past Porthgwarra. Well next to us in the front row of seawatchers were the supreme duo of Ryan Irvine (who was expectionally helpful to all present, loudly announcing directions) and Mike McKee. Mike has a brilliant video recorder setup on his telescope, and he filmed the Fea's for exactly the period of time I was watching it. Well I picked it up at the same time but I did see it for an extra couple of seconds as it chased a Manx Shearwater before going out of view to the right (I was sat a little further left than Mike). His clips shows that I watched it for about a minute, which oddly felt more like twenty seconds at the time...
What a brilliant reminder of this nugget of seawatching gold, and I love how the video captures how frantic the situation was with many struggling to get on it. That is mostly Ryan you can hear trying to help all.
And back again to reality! As always, thanks for reading...
Thanks for including the video link, Steve. Quite incredible. How on earth does he keep the bird so locked-solid and central, even when it's out of view in troughs?! I suspect there must be some technical wizardry at play.
ReplyDeleteAnd your Seaton seawatching hasn't been too bad at all really. Only a few miles W of West Bay (13 is it?) but you often get a very different selection of birds. I wonder if this is a common situation in all very large bays where the coastline is curved?
Thanks for the comment Gav. From what I have heard he has a camcorder fixed to his telescope which lines up exactly with his telescope. So wherever his scope is pointing, if the camera is on then that is pointing there too! Quite a remarkable feat of engineering if you ask me!
DeleteYes overall it has been good here really, there is clearly some food about. I guess birds just drift in and out, and during squally weather some ditch on the sea, whereas others pass some sites when the visibility is down to not much. Really does seem like a lottery though doesn't it. Wildfowl and the larger waders seem pretty reliable when it comes to coasting, and skuas probably the best of all sea birds but even they don't always play ball... although I'll never forget that lovely spring Long-tailed though that did the right thing :-)