At Least I Tried

A combination of strong southwesterly winds, a mid-day tide and the dent I made in a case of Orkney Brewery beer last night lead to a late start for me this morning and it wasn't until 10.00 a.m. that I made it to my seawatching location at the Obs. The weather has been funny these past several days with strongish winds ranging from NW through to SW, and the issue has been that the winds have been 'strongish' and not strong, and consequently there has been a lack of decent seabird passage.

This morning I had full cloud cover with a 25 mph SW wind. At about 10.30 a.m. the sun made a brief appearance and made the already tricky murky conditions worse by adding a heat haze into the mix! And the poor viewing conditions were probably a contributory factor to the lack of action!

A few waders gathered on the shingle as the tide ran in and passing my location were 158 Turnstones, six Ringed Plovers, 42 Sanderlings and a Dunlin. The sea was very quiet and all I had were a Cormorant, a Gannet, four Common Scoters, two Auk sp. and two Kittiwakes.

 Turnstones bathing

The ropey shot of the Gannet above illustrate this mornings poor 

viewing conditions

After about an hour and a quarter I'd had enough and headed home, but I suppose I could console myself with the thought that at least I had tried.