Friday 7 October 2011

Not Too Bad for a Northwesterly!

Every time I mention the diabolical nature of a northwesterly wind for seawatching I get a sense of deja vu as I know I have mentioned it so many times. Why go out if it is so crap on a northwesterly? I think it's because I'm off work this week and off work = must go birding!

As it was northwesterly I didn't go to my usual seawatching location but went to a spot in Cleveleys that I knew would offer some shelter in this wind direction. It was a little slow to start but just like yesterday I had a dark morph juv Arctic Skua head south exceedingly close in. This was followed a little later on by a second dark morph bird that was further out and less showy.

 The view from my seawatching shelter

Common Scoters were the most numerous bird this morning and in total I had 50. A juv Gannet headed south and so did a high flying Red-throated Diver. Five Kittiwakes shot south close in and the best birds were two pale-bellied Brent Geese that headed north giving excellent views as they did. In fact I was able to text Ian at Rossall to warn him they were heading his way and he picked them up.

It looks like it's more northwesterlies tomorrow but slightly less in strength, so it might be a bit more seawatching for me, but I promise I won't moan about those pesky NWs!

4 comments:

Stringer said...

Spare a thought for us over here if you think NWs are bad for you !!

Bob Bushell said...

The Northeasterly is the worse, I think. A nice amount of birds.

The Hairy Birder said...

You're probably right there Bob, northeasterlies are pretty bad on the west coast.

Jero Milán said...

Congratulations on your blog. It is beautiful. A greeting from my terroir