I tried for a short sea watch early morning but it proved to be quite quiet so I thought I would give it another go this afternoon. The wind was a very strong gale force north north westerly and became almost pure northerly at times. I tucked into the most sheltered spot I could find which unfortunately still gave very little protection from the wind. The visit started well with a group of Arctic Skua's moving west, as were all of the birds I saw during the afternoon. This turned out to be the largest group I saw during the afternoon and they were quite a sight as they made there way through.
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| Arctic Skuas |
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| Arctic Skuas |
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| Arctic Skuas |
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| Arctic Skuas |
Arctic Skua's continued moving in groups of 2 to 4 birds as well as singles during the afternoon but there were fairly long intervals in between. Great Skua's were also heading past and, once again, there were fairly long intervals between them coming through. A couple were obliging enough to come through a little closer than the others enabling me to try for a photo.
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| Great Skuas |
I had a single, what I thought was a Long-tailed Skua, move west. It kept very low to the sea as it came past but was too far out to get a useable photo. At present I have not got enough experience or enough confidence with my identification of Long-tailed Skuas to be one hundred percent happy that I had identified it correctly so it will have to remain a query. But each of these experiences will only help me to get better at identifying them in time.
In between looking out for whatever was passing by out to sea I enjoyed watching the various gulls that were also moving west and coming in close to the towers as they did so. A lot of photos came out blurred as I was really struggling to hold the camera steady enough in the wind but though none of these are the sharpest of images they give me some good memory shots of what I saw, as well as the chance to see upper and lower wing patterns. The first gulls I tried for were the juvenile Herring Gulls that were giving good views as they came past.
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| juvenile Herring Gull |
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| juvenile Herring Gull |
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| juvenile Herring Gull |
All the adult Herring Gulls coming past were showing signs of wear and various stages of moult in their wings, some with bigger gaps than others.
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| adult Herring Gull |
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| adult Herring Gull |
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| adult Herring Gull |
The Black-headed Gulls looked very smart in the dull light and a first winter gave good views of its upper wing pattern as it came past.
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| Black-headed Gulls |
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| first winter Black-headed Gull |
Small numbers of Common Gulls were heading west and came close in to the towers as they did so. They are beautiful birds.
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| Common Gull |
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| Common Gull |
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| 2nd winter Great Black-backed Gull |
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| 2nd winter Great Black-backed Gull |
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| 2nd winter Great Black-backed Gull |
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| 3rd winter Herring Gull |
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| 3rd winter Herring Gull |
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| 3rd winter Herring Gull |
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| 3rd winter Herring Gull |
It was time to head for home so I grabbed a quick photo of the rough sea to give a reminder of the afternoon.
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| Rough Sea |
Unfortunately disaster struck as I left when I was blown off my feet by a particularly strong gust of wind and having landed badly it was clear that bird watching was going to cur-tailed, at least for a few days. The fall also damaged the voice recorder I carry so I am unable to put down the numbers of birds that I saw as that was on the recorder. It did not make the best of endings to the visit but I had enjoyed watching the pulses of Skuas that came through and watching the various gulls that passed by close in.
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