Sea Keeps On Giving

Another wet and windy one last night, blowing in for most of the night from the south west.  So the sea was yet again calling me when I woke up this morning...

Conditions were far less dramatic than I was expecting on Seaton Beach at 07:30, quite different to what was forecasted too.  Despite a load or rain during the night there was not a drop during my 1.5 hour watch, and although there was an onshore wind from the south west it had dropped in strength and sea conditions, although of course rough, were nowhere near the mighty waves we've seen with the other recent storms.    It took about half an hour for the horizon to show though, with a sea mizzle (wasn't a fog or mist so am calling it that!) not clearing until nearly 8am.

Quite pleasant to be honest!

Despite the slightly tamer conditions it was yet another really good sea watch.  It had an 'end of the season' feeling for sure, but I love sea watches that result in a variety of species going into the notebook, and this one had that!  

07:30 - 09:00 at The Spot On revealed (west unless stated):  79 Gannet (flying both ways and feeding), 64 Kittiwake, 22 Common Scoter (1 east), 18 auk sp., 10 Dunlin, 8 Brent Geese (dark-bellied), 2 Great Northern Diver and singles of Long-tailed Duck, Pintail, Arctic Tern, Red-throated Diver and Turnstone.  Also noted one Bottlenose Dolphin - my first here for over a decade! 

The Arctic Tern was brilliant, and not expected on this late date at all - my latest ever tern in the UK excluding the few over-wintering Sandwich Terns I've seen.  Although it has been a brilliant year for sea watching on patch, I haven't done well with terns seeing just Sandwich and one pair of Common Terns all year. I had accepted this as my tern-fate for 2023, but at 08:15 the lovely sight of a delicate tern appeared to the east, and as it passed by I could see on plumage it was a first-winter Arctic, not to mention its wonderful buoyant flight.   Just about managed some video of it too...

 

The rarest bird of the watch was of course the Long-tailed Duck, however it was so nearly 'one that got away' in more ways than one!  I was so distracted videoing and watching the Arctic Tern that I hadn't been scanning the waves for several minutes, and as soon as my eye went back onto my scope aimed  towards the horizon, a flock of five birds came though. First one was an auk sp., with three Common Scoter but at the back was a smaller paler duck.... oh crap!  And ten seconds later it was gone around the corner... 

I knew what it was on shape and structure, just didn't have the confidence to call it due to lack of plumage detail and time on it.  I alerted others there was an interesting 'small duck' on the way west with 3 Common Scoter, and put the following message on the local sea watching WhatsApp group - only included here so you can see what I was thinking...

Then at about 09:10 I received a wonderful message from Mark B that read...

"Paul d hopes nose 908am long-tailed duck with 3 common scoter".

As I already knew what it was, that was all I needed to cement the record.  However I thought I would do some time calculations just to see if the timings fit. I saw it at 08:18 and Dan had it fly west past Sidmouth at 08:31.  So as you can see from this map, that is just over 7 miles in 13 minutes...

 

Some calculator-cleverness tells me it was flying at about 32 mph. So let's see how far Hope's Nose is from Seaton, for a duck who is following the coast...

If my calculations are correct, which they may not be, I would say a Long-tailed Duck passing Seaton at 08:18 flying at 32mph would reach Hope's Nose approximately 49 minutes later (according to an online speed calculator).

08:18 + 49 minutes = 09:07. Seriously!

Honestly I didn't need this calculation to have this Long-tailed Duck (which is my first here since 26th March 2021) but the fact it passed Hope's Nose almost on the dot is just brilliant!  Am so pleased Paul D decided to sea watch at Hope's Nose this morning.

Other notables during the watch listed above include the female Pintail that flew close west past me at 07:48, then went past Dan at Sidmouth at 08:05 (slow for a duck!), the Turnstone which is a decent November bird for the patch and it's always good to see a flock of Brents over the sea.  The Kittiwakes weren't coming through in close tight flocks like the sea watch last week, but dripping by in two's and three's mostly at distance. 

I keep expecting each of the last few sea watches to be the last one of the year. Can't help but feel the same considering the date today, but am really hoping it isn't...