Gannets and Skuas.........

.........were the order of the day this morning at Rossall. I was a bit late getting out and didn't get to Rossall until 6.00 a.m. and then I spent 5 minutes 'farting' around trying to get in the right position. I had to choose between being buffeted with the wind or putting up with the occasional shower. The problem was the northerly in the westerly, but thankfully after a short while the wind veered due west and I was both dry and sheltered!

Gannets were on the move as soon as I put my eye up to my scopes eyepiece and I wondered how many I would have had, had i got here for 5.00 a.m. In the end I had a respectable total of 132 birds heading into the bay. I love watching Gannets as they will often come very close in giving stonking views and it's the variety of ages that you see making them look so variable; I had 2CY, 3CY, 4CY and adults all flicking the tips of their wing tips at my scope as they flew by! That's a slight exaggeration of course, but some were very close.

 Gannet (Simon Hawtin)

The other headline bird was Arctic Skua and I had four 'into' the bay before 8.30 a.m. I had one dark morph and three pale morphs. The fourth bird was incredibly close and the views I had of it were stonking. Of course there wasn't just Gannets and Skuas and I had a supporting cast of 41 Eiders, 13 Common Scoters, 4 Razorbills, Great Crest Grebe, a full summer plumaged Red-throated Diver close in and 2 Fulmars.

There were a lot of waders about and I couldn't really count them properly as I was concentrating on the sea, but as a minimum I had 1,404 Dunlin, 850 Sanderling, 40 Ringed Plovers and 6 Grey Plovers. One of the Grey Plovers was in full summer plumage; awesome!

 Grey Plover