Tuesday 23 November 2010

Blistering sunshine – for a while at least

The Safari has nothing to report, not even a roosting Peregrine, from a very early Patch 1 walk in the brilliant light from an almost full moon; no need for a torch in the park today, not that we normally take one.
Patch 2 gave us a swiftly disappearing beach which held 264 Oystercatchers, 59 Redshanks and the lonely Dunlin was there again. As with yesterday there were far more Oystercatchers out of range, off patch, to the south. Similarly once again we weren’t able to pull a dodgy gull out of the many hundreds scratting around on the sand in front of us.
The sea gave us a pleasant change in the form of a flock of seven Eiders. Yesterday’s bait-ball/line was nowhere to be seen and consequently there was little in the way of Cormorant activity. Only two Red Throated Divers were seen too. As for mammals – no chance!
The lunchtime watch was disappointingly devoid of mammals, not a sniff of a shoal of fish to attract them or the Cormorants.
A cold northerly breeze had the water chopped up a bit and viewing was singularly uncomfortable. However the seven Eiders were counted better as they rode the waves and we got eight with a Great Crested Grebe and a first winter Herring Gull joining them.
The tide was only just on the ebb and ebbing out with it, floating face up, just beyond the wall was a dead Great Black Backed Gull.
A small flock of Common Scoters was nearby again with a Great Crested Grebe in attendance.
Bird of the day was without doubt Red Throated Diver with a minimum of 24 seen and if conditions had been easier we probably could have doubled that – they seemed to be everywhere; near, far, left, right and in flight too, even had one from our desk later in the afternoon which means it was very close inshore, possibly almost over the beach, and was high up! Pretty good bird for an ‘at work at your desk’ tick!
Where to next? Only more of the same for the foreseeable – hope that Iceland Gull doesn’t get its fill of bacon butties and chip barms before the weekend!
In the meantime let us know what your favourite office ticks are – poor big Frank has come home from his jaunt in the woods with a REAL Tick - - yuk!

3 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Have you got a 'seen from desk' list Dave ?

Monika said...

Now how in the world do you know there weren't 265 oystercatchers?

We had some sunshine today too - really helps improve the mood, and the willingness to get out and bird!

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Fortunately they were sitting fairly still and spaced out along ther waters edge so quite straight forward this time. It's the tightly bunched flock a mile or so away I give up on! The fewer redshanks were far more mobile and nipping in and out between hundreds of gulls so the 59 might be +/- a few. Oh the joys of counting birds.
Cheers

Davo