Grey Phalarope and Yellow-legged Gull

Thrilled with the rewards from this morning's, at times very wet, seawatch.

James Mc was already in situ when I arrived at Spot On Kiosk just before 7am this morning, but things were looking quiet.  Am pleased to say it soon got better though, although never busy.

The two main highlights were nice reminders as to why Spot On is my favoured seawatching spot on patch.  First of all, I like watching from a low level, but secondly because it gives you a nice view of the beach and the river mouth...

At 07:28 a flock of exactly 20 Common Terns (about 60/40 adults to juvs) flew out of the Estuary and straight out to sea.  A kind of blink and you'd have missed it thing, as they really did just head straight out.

Then at 07:40 the star bird came through, when I picked up a small but chunky pale wading bird flying towards us on the beach.  It was a Grey Phal, not over the sea but over the beach!  It turned its back to us as it came directly past Spot On, revealing a mix of juv and first-winter mantle feathering, before continuing west along Seaton Beach until we both lost it.

It flew along that dip in the shingle just before the far ridge

This is the first Grey Phal I've seen on the patch since September 2017 - which was a statistic that really surprised me when I just looked it up. Our bay just doesn't seem to attract/hold them like many other south coast sites.  Obviously settled views are always good, but it is not often you get flight views close enough that mean it's identifiable (and I called it!) even before lifting the bins!  There was something really exhilarating about it too, something a settled bird wouldn't be able to give.  Fantastic, and thrilled to share it with James.

Another along the beach sighting was a flock of 25+ Ringed Plover that flew west then out.  They seemed to have come out of the Estuary, maybe the Grey Phal had done that too?  It would explain why it was over the beach and not the sea!

Out at sea it wasn't all that busy, with about 30+ Kittiwakes west with six Balearic Shearwaters and four Common Scoter.  The best out there was up to five Arctic Skuas loitering, although there could have been as many as nine as we had two pairs go out/east almost simultaneously, then 15 minutes later had five together further out which we have just presumed were the four we had already seen, plus one more.  Who knows, but it is always good to see any skua so who cares!  

This afternoon a quick look along the Estuary and valley after worked revealed a lovely first-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  A huge and very well advanced bird... 

In the rain but looking absolutely mighty!

 

Three sleepy young gulls of the same age, left to right: Yellow-legged Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull

Just a hint of a pale on the inner primaries, as to be expected for this species

 

Other titbits from recent days include a lovely Hobby over Axmouth on 6th (not seen many at all here this year), two adult Curlew Sandpipers briefly on Black Hole Marsh pre-dawn on 7th (hangers on from the previous day, one still a bit red), and five Wigeon on the Estuary also on 7th, with ten on Colyford Scrape today. 

Amazingly I have still not seen a Glossy Ibis, although birds have been reported in flight over Black Hole Marsh on 6th (one), 7th (three) and late this evening (one).