Blowing a westerly gale 6 - 7 gusting force 8. 1,220 Cormorant went out fishing early on. Offshore viewing not clever in bright sunshine but heading south 9 Brent, 9 Kitts, Fulmar & Great-crested Grebe plus 8 Kitts followed a dredger in. One of those mornings when if I hadn't bothered turning up it would have made almost no difference to science with everything on site keeping its head down. Ringed Plover on the beach worth a mention, which is probably one of the local breeding birds popping back from a nearby estuary to check his territory is okay and some young buck has not moved in in his absence.