Sunday, 13 September 2009

Sea-watching

We had planned to spend the day cycling to the coast but during the night strong (and rather unexpected) winds came in from the north-east making for a rather sleepless night in our tent. We therefore headed to Sherringham where we enjoyed an excellent long sea-watch:

Gannet – constant parties moving east; hundreds of birds.
Kittiwake – hundreds east.
Bonxie x 4 east (new for Tom.)
Arctic Skua x 3 east.
Fulmar – east.
Sandwich Tern – several.
Common Scoter x 7 west.

Unfortunately we had to stop after about an hour and a half to meet with Michelle and Sam, but after lunch we managed another short session at Cley:

Gannet – similar numbers to before, all moving east.
Kittiwake – as above.
Manx Shearwater x c.200 east.
Arctic Skua – east.
Sooty Shearwater x 3 birds lingering then slowly drifting east; new for Tom.
Bonxie x 2 west!
Fulmar – east.

To top it off, on the North Scrape, were the following:

Red-necked Phalarope
Little Stint
– juvenile.
Curlew Sandpiper – juvenile.
Spotted Redshank x 2
Greenshank

Tom at Cley