A Quiet Sunday Morning

It meant a slightly earlier start this morning as the clocks had gone back an hour but nothing major, the main aggravation was the weather . It was forecast to be overcast and dry with a 15 - 20 mph southwesterly wind. However, as I drove to the Obs for a sea watch it was pouring down! As I parked my car the rain eased and I could see Ian walking along the top of the dunes and joined him in front of the tower. For the next hour we played a game of having to seek frequent shelter because of heavy squally showers that came belting our way. In the end we gave up and called it a day as far as seawatching was concerned.

In that hour all I recorded in my notebook was 33 Cormorants, 27 Common Scoters, two Red-throated Divers, six Shelducks, an Eider and two Red-breasted Mergansers. Surprisingly in such atrocious conditions there was a hint of vis with 15 Chaffinches east and 4 Meadow Pipits low over the sea west!

I then headed to the water treatment works to check on the feeding station. Although I had only put the feeders up four days ago and knew that nothing much would have found them as yet, I wanted to get in to a weekly weekend cycle of topping them up. The feeders had been found, but they only need topping up slightly, reflecting how quiet it was in there. It hardly seems worth reporting here what I found but of minimal interest were two Buzzards, two Goldcrests, a Song Thrush and a female Sparrowhawk.

As on the coast there was a touch of vis with three Skylarks, two Meadow Pipits and four Starlings moving in a more or less southerly direction.

The forecast is looking a bit mixed for the coming week, although remaining fairly dry until Wednesday, so I will try and get at least one morning in between now and then.