Pages

Monday 23 November 2009

Portland Hogs All Scarce Sea Birds!

Seawatched this morning with Gav from Beer; I did 07:35 - 09:00. It was pretty rubbish!

By the end of the watch my notebook read (all west): 1 Brent Goose, 3 Common Scoter (plus 30+ on sea), 1 Great Northern Diver, 63 Gannet, 9 Fulmar, 17 auk sp. and 5 Kittiwake.

The two Little Gulls were still performing well this afternoon off the yacht club, with a Black Redstart on nearby roofs.

A sweep of the estuary mid afternoon revealed one of my favourite large Gulls...a stonking adult Yellow-legged Gull : )

The light meant the photos were never going to be stunning, but still, here you go....


Stonker!!!

And I'll attach this photo which shows how big its hooter was...

That's a right finger-cruncher! Also note the square head shape and red orbital ring

After five minutes of watching the Yellow-legged, a Peregrine came in and flushed everything! It was great to watch the falcon as it attempted to pick off a Teal from the water on a couple of occasions. The Teal kept diving under to avoid becoming supper - it worked! The Peregrine went away empty taloned.

The two Whooper Swans were still opposite Stedcombe Manor this afternoon, though they weren't there first thing this morning.

Will try AGAIN tomorrow morning for a decent seabird.... fingers crossed....

No comments:

Post a Comment