Wednesday 6th February 2013

6,500+ seagulls mostly 4 to 5 miles offshore seem to be quite content feeding at that range rather than be dragged in following shipping in any numbers. In that lovely dull flat light early on a juv "white-winged" gull was picked up on two separate occasions but i wouldn't like to guess which one it was. Far better was a Balearic Shearwater tracking north from 0840 to 0845hrs first picked up by the "Deane" buoy but heading out following the deep water shipping channel. This is only the 3rd site record with one of the previous ones also in early February, which is not necessarily the time of year that one would expect to see this species. Also offshore over 50 Red-throated Divers coming & going, 11 adult Gannets north 2 south, 2 Guillemots & an Auk sp. north. Finally, yet another winter record of a Marsh Harrier going south offshore to add to the recently growing list of winter sightings.