Saturday 9th February 2013

A light dusting of snow overnight soon melted but it's still cold. Bird wise it's a bit "same old same old" at the moment. A Ringed Plover near the point is probably one of the locals returning to check his territory is still here as, despite the cold, days are lengthening which normally stimulates some thoughts of spring. The regular Sanderling is on the beach with just 2 Turnstones. Turnstone numbers this winter have been poor for reasons not known although it could just be tied in with numbers declining nationally across parts of the country. 6 Med Gulls were loitering along side a fisherman - do they learn which individual fishermen feed them as opposed to those that don't ?

Friday 8th February 2013

Yet another Marsh Harrier seen this morning, this time coming in off the sea. 2 Siskins on site is a bit unusual for the time of the year & not sure what 12 Goldfinch's going south are up to. Plenty of gulls a long way out still. Usual Red-throated Divers & Cormorants going back and forth with the only offshore movements 3 Shelduck & a Dunlin south plus a Gannet north. Finally a Shag offshore is possibly the same one seen a few days ago.

Thursday 7th February 2013

Glorious sunny morning with a biting NNW wind. Forget starring out to sea looking into the sun although still plenty of gulls feeding a long way out. A walk around the site just produced the usual birds in the usual places.

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.

Tuesday 5th February 2013

Glorious sunny but windy morning with a distinct nip in the air. Spent the morning on maintenance tasks so limited observations. 2 Siskins went south & a Collared Dove has built a nice new nest feet from one of last years nest sites. Later news concerns a Marsh Harrier south + a Velvet Scoter north at 1335 hrs.

Twitter

A Twitter feed for this blog has been available for some time but by adding a Twitter feed button on the blog to advertise this fact has resulted in more people signing up. The way we are using this at the moment is just as a means of notifying you that the blog for that day has been published. Unfortunately, if after a blog is published for that day and then edited later on, to add extra information, it appears that this will not result in another "tweet" being sent out in the same way that it does not change the time that the blog was published. Although blogs are not altered very often, on occasions decent birds have been found later in the day & edited into the days blog. As far as we are concerned Twitter is a work in progress but be warned that if a blog is edited then this does not result in a fresh "tweet". Hope that makes sense.

Monday 4th February 2013

A Rock Pipit going south is notable as none are wintering here this winter - in fact for those of you who wander up our estuaries in the winter the cataclysmic decline in the numbers of this species wintering in local saltmarsh's & along sea walls is almost depressing as this is yet another example of a severely declining common species that we, until quite recently, took for granted. Only other things of note on the rough pad for today are 12 Red-throated Divers, 2 Oystercatchers & a Skylark south plus 2 Great-crested Grebes north. 6 Med Gulls in the View Point car park a couple of minutes ago.

Sunday 3rd February 2013

Cold & dull. 9 Red-throated Divers north & a Shelduck south. Fairly grim returns but it's not all that bad with c1,000 seagulls to look at in the harbour area following ships (+ another 1,000 a long way out). Interestingly many of the Herring Gulls are pairing up & loitering around favoured nesting sites in the docks but only one Lesser Black-back seen this morning as they haven't even contemplating returning so far. With a northerly air flow due this coming week then if we are going to get any big white winged gulls then now's the time.  Finally the Sanderling is still on the beach.