A Day Of Sea Watching

Some would blame my current bed-loving nature for missing three Pom Skuas this morning - I blame the weather men! They said it was going to be tipping down, clearing mid morning, about 10ish. So I had set today aside for a mid morning til early afternoon sea watch. When I did wake up soon after 7, I looked out to see no rain and lots of wind!

Just after half 7 a text from Bun informed me of the Poms - I really have rotten luck with this species on patch (as you will read later!). The last spring Poms I saw were in 2007, three in one sea watch, and they were awesome. But I want to see more!!!

So I rocked up at the Beer shelter just prior to 8am. And the shelter was VERY busy...

Almost full capacity!

They had already notched up nine Bonxies, the Poms and an Arctic, along with a load of Whimbrel and two Velvet Scoters.

Bonxies were the main feature of this sea watch, but they were flying in both directions, so the true number of birds is impossible to know. I saw 23 in all (17W, 6E), whether this is 23 different birds, or 17, or 11, I don't know. Who knows? The four Arctic Skuas were all different birds though, with two (pale and dark) west, then a single dark phased west, and lastly a single pale phased east.

The full list of what I saw (08:00 - 10:40) looks like this:

43 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (3, 13 and 27)
2 Mallard
11 Common Scoter
2 Great Northern Diver
1 Black-throated Diver
1 Red-throated Diver
79 Whimbrel
23 Bonxies
4 Arctic Skuas
70+ Kittiwake (they picked up near the end of the watch)
40+ Sandwich Tern
2 Common Tern

The largest flock of Brents

Passage really died at about 10:15ish, the sun had come out and wind dropped right off. It could almost be described as being pleasant.

Sea watchers getting bored!

So we jacked it in at 10:40.

After doing a few jobs at home, and having a bite to eat, the weather turned again, and after a text to Bun, Me, him and Dad were back down Beer shelter for 14:00. Within five seconds of setting my scope up, two Arctic Skuas flew past, and a third came through a couple of minutes later. I sent a text to all the other patchers which ensured Ian M joined us at half past, and later Phil and Gav.

The star bird in this watch was a Little Tern - only my sixth on patch ever! I picked it up as it was flying south west with a small group of Sandwich Terns - such a tiny bird! Luckily for the year listers it hung about, and remained for a couple of hours - although it was a right git to see! It took Phil about an hour and a half to catch up with it.

The totals of what I saw in this watch (14:00 - 16:40) are:

32 Common Scoter
14 Bonxies (8W, 6E)
7 Arctic Skua (5W, 3E)
36 Whimbrel
25+ Kittiwake
c9 Sandwich Tern (blogging)
1 Little Tern
2 Swift (in off, my first for 2012)

Well, when I said I watched 14:00 - 16:40, there was about a three minute period (about 14:40) when I nipped off to move my carpark to avoid getting a parking ticket. In that time, a sodding full spooned pale-phased Pom flew REALLY close east. What a total bummer! I have seen 48 skuas today, but the only Poms flew by when I wasn't there. I was ok about missing the morning ones, but this was just cruel. It didn't put me in a good mood! (sorry Jess!!). It has insured though that my alarm will be set for 6am in the morning though!!

Ok, enough about sea birds! I have had a couple of looks up the river, the highlights being 16 Whimbrel and a pair of Gadwall. I was expecting to see more though as there was a heck of a lot of water in the valley today - it looked great for a Black Tern. Maybe tomorrow...

A Lazy Sea Watcher

Normally I am quite an intense sea watcher. Pockets full of clickers, a notebook and pen, there for dawn. But not today, yet it was probably one of the greatest spring sea watches I have ever had on patch! And this was pretty much my first attempt at a proper sea watch this year!

Last night, Bun texted to say he was going to be sea watching off Beer from 7am. My alarm went off at 6:10am, but I hit snooze...and again....and again.... I finally got up at 7am, soon received a text from Gav simply saying "sea busy", then made my way to join Bun at Beer with no clickers and only a scrap piece of paper. Bun was running late, and we both arrived at the shelter at about 07:22. In the first scan, several flocks of Manxies were in view - oh goodie!

Top bird number one came at 7:30, when I picked up a first-year Little Gull flying in from the east with five Sandwich Terns. The Little Gull then spent the next ten minutes or so feeding fairly close in. Another one, or the same bird, reappeared at 08:30ish. I'm more inclined to say it was a second bird, as it appeared to fly in strongly from the east.

Next highlight was after a tip-off from Gav, who was sea watching from Seaton. At 07:45 two pale-phased Arctic Skua flew in from the east, at close range. They came into view with two Kittiwakes, but soon lost them when they spotted a small group of fishing Sandwich Terns. The Skuas spent the next half an hour offshore, often resting on the sea near to the fishing terns, only flying up when they had 'pirating' to do! We got excellent views of these two beauts.

The final highlight was without doubt the best. At 8am, we had kinda given up and were just chatting about all sorts of rubbish, when I fixed my scope on a bit of sea that had a summer plumaged Black Guillemot flying over it!!! SHOCKER!!!! I shouted to Bun, and despite his shaking hands and noticeably panicky voice, he quickly got on it.

It was distant, but the light was brilliant. We both managed to lose it soon after, me whilst I was hopelessly trying to photograph it, and Bun when he moved his scope. For Bun it was a patch lifer, but I saw a single moulting bird off Branscombe in Feb 2005, followed by two in summer plumage there in March. As it's a Devon A rarity, and didn't photograph it, I quickly penciled out a sketch of it on the scrap bit of paper in my pocket - much to Bun's amusement! Needless to say I will not be posting it up here!!

This is the full list of what we clocked up this morning (west unless stated);

2 Common Scoter
1 Great Northern Diver (east)
1 Red-throated Diver (east then landed on sea)
40+ Gannet
200+ Manx Shearwater
10 Whimbrel (see photo)
2 Arctic Skua
8 Kittiwake
1+ Little Gull
8 Sandwich Tern
10 auk sp.
1 Black Guillemot

My first of the year - they gained height and appeared to continue west over Beer Head

Another short sea watch from Spot On Kiosk, Seaton, 11:30 - 12:15 revealed the now westerly wind had pretty much killed it. Except for Sandwich Terns, of which 29 flew west. It was nice to see hirundines trickling in off the sea, including my first House Martins of the year (at least six).

Despite almost immediately alerting other Devon birders about the Tystie, it wasn't seen off anywhere else. So I'd certainly advise a look off Branscombe in the morning - the sea should be a bit calmer too.

Dolphin Action

Yesterday afternoon a couple of Dolphins were swimming amongst people just off Beer Beach. One was still present this morning, although a local fisherman reported a pod of 30 at one stage.

I went down there mid afternoon, and soon spotted one that I have nicknamed Nick as it has an obvious nick out of its dorsal fin. After a couple of brief views it followed a boat right in and kept appearing just off the beach. After a little while it went a bit further out, but here it leapt out of the water several times - with the crowd cheering and clapping each time! After this though it totally disappeared.

Unfortunately, whenever it appeared in the line of fire of my camera, it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared! It was just so quick. Anyway, here's the best that I managed...

Look out for Nick - quite distinctive!

And there was quite a crowd. When it was really close, families were running down from the town to get a look...

Dolphin watchers