As I was heading up the Lune Valley yesterday morning to measure some hedges Ian phoned me to say he had had a Long-tailed Skua, three Poms and eight Arctics off the obs! I gave Ian an expletive laden congratulations and cursed the fact that I had to work this morning during classic conditions for Skua movement!
This morning at 0530 saw Ian and I sat on the beach with our backs against the sea wall, eyes glued to telescope eye-pieces staring out to sea. Unfortunately 'Long-tailed' lightning didn't strike twice and during the three hours that I slowly lost the feeling in my legs from my backside down, we didn't have a great deal. Sea passage included a dark morph Arctic Skua, 65 Common Scoters, 22 Gannets, a Bonxie, 42 Sandwich Terns, four Red-throated Divers, 15 Manx Shearwaters, a Kittiwake and two Auk sp.
There was some vis with Swallows moving west at first and then later northeast. The vis totals were 62 Swallows, two Meadow Pipits and three Swifts.
The highlight of morning, for sheer spectacle, was a stonking male Peregrine gave a fantastic display as it unsuccessfully chased and tried to catch a wader.
No seawatching for me tomorrow, in fact no birding at the obs, as Gail and I are checking my Pied Fly and Tree Sparrow boxes. What a treat for her!
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