Leach's

My alternative blog title was 'too much northerly........again!', and even though we recorded Leach's this morning there was too much northerly in the westerly making the sea relatively quiet.

 Leach's Petrel

I got to the point for 0615 having been thoroughly sand blasted on the walk from the car park and with the wind being a WNW the only place to watch from was the top of the observation tower and that's where Craig, Ian and Me headed.

I know I've said it on here before but for sea watching in autumn to be productive in Morecambe Bay you need a strong southwesterly wind, backing westerly not a northwesterly wind, backing westerly as it was this morning. I imagine the Merseyside boys will have notched up a fair few Leach's today!

 Leach's Petrel

I watched from 0615 until 1035 and then I gave up and cut my losses and went home to catch up on some report writing for work. We did hook up with two Leach's Petrels with the first one rapidly moving west and the second one lingering long enough to get some record shots.

 Leach's Petrel

The supporting cast consisted of 70 Kittiwakes, 22 Cormorants, 18 Common Scoters, four Pink-footed Geese (my first of the autumn), two Red-throated Divers, a Manx Shearwater, a Fulmar, nine Gannets, 41 Sandwich Terns, a Great Crested Grebe and 81 Arctic Terns.

The strong northwesterly air flow is forecasted to remain until tomorrow at least, but I'm not sure yet what I'll do in the morning. If I get out I'll let you know.