With a strengthening north-easterly wind for once coinciding with a day off I dusted off my scope and headed to Reculver for a sea watch. I was very lucky as on arrival I met Matt Hindle and Marc Heath who were both already there and I was able to join two brilliant birders for the length of the sea watch. It was only down to their sharp eyes, helpfulness and experience that I was able to see as much as I did and it proved to be a very enjoyable day spent in great company.
The first bird past I saw was a smart Common Gull and Great Black-backed Gulls were also passing by heading east regularly mixed in with mainly Herring and also Black-headed Gulls. I cannot even pretend that I have an accurate count of the gulls as most of the time I was scanning out to sea while they passing by closer inshore so I missed lots of them.
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| adult winter Common Gull |
Most of the Red-throated Divers heading east came past singularly with 3 being the largest group that I saw together. One of the highlights for me was a juvenile/1st winter Kittiwake which gave superb views as it gave us a close fly past. They are beautifully marked birds and a joy to watch.
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| juvenile/first winter Kittiwake |
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| juvenile/first winter Kittiwake |
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| juvenile/first winter Kittiwake |
I enjoyed watching the Gannets that went past and trying to age them by their plumages. The amount of variation is marked and I found some difficult to pin down to age. Most were too far out to try for photos but this one came close enough to give it a try. I think it is a fourth winter.
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| ? 4th winter Gannet |
It was nice to catch up with Razorbill (157) and I enjoyed watching a group of 5 Skua's west which were comprised of 4 Great Skua's and 1 Pomarine Skua (158). Another highlight was seeing a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull coming with another gull that I thought was going to be another Lesser Black-backed. However as it came closer it did not look right for one and I grabbed a few photos as Yellow-legged Gull seemed a definite possibility but I must admit that I expected to be wrong. All of the photos came out pretty badly but it is nice to have some memory shots of what did indeed turn out to be a Yellow-legged Gull (159), a third winter.
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| 3rd winter Yellow-legged Gull |
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| 3rd winter Yellow-legged Gull |
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| 3rd winter Yellow-legged Gull |
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| 3rd winter Yellow-legged Gull |
It was great to have a couple of distant Velvet Scoter (160) and during a quiet patch I went back to enjoying watching the various ages of Gannet.
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| 3rd winter Gannet |
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| Gannets |
There was still another highlight to come when a Shag (161) flew east past us and gave some good views as it did so. Once again I did badly with the photos but was pleased to be able to get a memory shot if nothing else.
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| Shag |
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| Shag |
As I said at the beginning I am extremely grateful to both Matt and Marc for enabling me to have a hugely enjoyable first proper seawatch for a good many years. Roll on the next one that coincides with a day off.
Birds seen this visit include: 10 Common Scoter east, 21 Gannet, 2 Redshank east, 56 Brent Geese, 12 Dunlin east (2 and 10), 1 Snipe east, 17 Red-throated Diver east, 7 Kittiwake, 1 Curlew, 3 Wigeon, 15 Common Gull east, 28 Great Black-backed Gull east, 2 Razorbill, 9 Great Skua 5 west, 4 east, 1 Pomarine Skua west, 1 Red-breasted Merganser east, 2 Grey Plover east, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull east, 1 Yellow-legged Gull east - third winter, 2 Velvet Scoter west, 10 Shelduck, 1 Shag east,
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