Almost sunny

The safari noticed a pale blue sky through the office window late this morning, the first time there hasn’t gloomy low misty cloud for yonks!
In the pre-dawn early morning though there was nothing doing on Patch 1, still far too dark for any activity of note. Neither the Fox nor the Peregrine were seen today, the Mistle Thrush was singing though.
A quick, cold look at Patch 2 before work saw the remains of the Harbour Porpoise had been washed a little way along the beach by the tides and it still had its pair of Great Black Backed Gulls in attendance – wonder how long it take them to finish it and how fat will they be when they have.
Very little else out there, just a few of the usual suspects, Redshanks, Oystercatchers and Sanderlings. About fifty or so Black Headed Gulls were sat together in a pool but as ever there were no Mediterranean Gulls hiding in their midst…one day…
The visibility out at sea was poor and with the tide being out poor was also a long way off – consequently we had the grand total of one Common Scoter…yes it was THAT good!!!
At lunchtime the sun meant the light was pretty horrid and there was still a misty haze out towards the horizon. The incoming tide pushing against the breeze had the sea chopped up more than in recent days with plenty of white horses. However, there was more out there than earlier. The number of Cormorants seems to be increasing with birds going this way and that while several others were sat on the water. In the middle distance a Great Northern Diver (90) flew south high over the waves; it’s always good to see these big beasts but, sadly, we don’t often get the chance to see them close up. Nice as Great Northern Divers are it was the much more numerous Red Throated Divers that stole the show. They, like the Cormorants, seemed to be everywhere. At three different times during the watch we had three in the air together, along with odd singles here and there. How many does that make altogether? More than nine, four? Your guess is as good as mine they were moving about all over the shop, somewhere in-between ‘probably’. The three Great Crested Grebes sat amongst the white horses surrounded by Cormorants. Two small rafts of Common Scoters were also out there, numbering only about three dozen birds all told. All in all an interesting half hour.
Where to next? Realistically it can only be more of the same.
In the meantime let us know what’s zooming hither and thither in your outback.
Apologies for the lack of pictures today – gory or otherwise.