Light northerlies and sunny after a few days of unsuitable migration conditions.
A perfect migration day and the birds took advantage of it. Aiming to hit such days is not always easy but today was never going to go wrong. A very hard frost and temperatures below freezing for the first couple of hours meant I was glad I had plenty of warm clothes. In a little of five hours of seawatching I logged the following (among other things):
All heading north:
Common Gull fiskemåke 1200
Oystercatcher tjeld 900
Cormorant storskarv 285
Iceland Gull grønlandsmåke 1 (3 cy bird - pale eye)
Red-throated Diver smålom 21
Shelduck gravand 5
There was some auk passage today too, however, most passed at long range. Those identified included small numbers of Puffin lunde, Little Auk alkekonge, Razorbill alke, Guillemot lomvi and a single Black Guillemot teist.
All in all a much more typical early April seawatch than a couple of days ago!
Cormorant storskarv
Above and below: 3rd year Iceland Gull grønlandsmåke
Above and below: A steady stream of Oystercatcher tjeld passed during the first few hours
Part of a flock of Shelduck gravand
A perfect migration day and the birds took advantage of it. Aiming to hit such days is not always easy but today was never going to go wrong. A very hard frost and temperatures below freezing for the first couple of hours meant I was glad I had plenty of warm clothes. In a little of five hours of seawatching I logged the following (among other things):
All heading north:
Common Gull fiskemåke 1200
Oystercatcher tjeld 900
Cormorant storskarv 285
Iceland Gull grønlandsmåke 1 (3 cy bird - pale eye)
Red-throated Diver smålom 21
Shelduck gravand 5
There was some auk passage today too, however, most passed at long range. Those identified included small numbers of Puffin lunde, Little Auk alkekonge, Razorbill alke, Guillemot lomvi and a single Black Guillemot teist.
All in all a much more typical early April seawatch than a couple of days ago!
No comments:
Post a Comment