The Safari has nothing to report from a soggy Patch 1 but at least it wasn’t raining. The peregrine that roosted late last night had already left by the time we got there this morning.
A late start on Patch 2 saw us giving a wild sea a good scouring as the tide reached the toe of the wall. It was rough and blobs of sea foam were beginning to be blown across the road. We were well wrapped up against the elements but again fortunately it didn’t rain, just a bit of spray from the larger waves to dodge. Although the visibility was poor at no more than a mile or so the light was superb, both Lesser Black Backed and Herring Gulls were etched out crisply against the brooding grey sky so we shouldn’t have had any trouble picking up our intended target against the crashing white crests of the waves or muddy brown of the turbulent waters.
The waves were big, big enough to lose large birds like the aforementioned gulls for a minute or more at a time so finding something the size of a crisp packet wasn’t going to be easy. It wasn’t long before we found a Gannet and a handful of Manx Shearwaters but that was about it apart from the gulls. Another Gannet eventually came past but nothing else and certainly nothing small and black...
A late start on Patch 2 saw us giving a wild sea a good scouring as the tide reached the toe of the wall. It was rough and blobs of sea foam were beginning to be blown across the road. We were well wrapped up against the elements but again fortunately it didn’t rain, just a bit of spray from the larger waves to dodge. Although the visibility was poor at no more than a mile or so the light was superb, both Lesser Black Backed and Herring Gulls were etched out crisply against the brooding grey sky so we shouldn’t have had any trouble picking up our intended target against the crashing white crests of the waves or muddy brown of the turbulent waters.
The waves were big, big enough to lose large birds like the aforementioned gulls for a minute or more at a time so finding something the size of a crisp packet wasn’t going to be easy. It wasn’t long before we found a Gannet and a handful of Manx Shearwaters but that was about it apart from the gulls. Another Gannet eventually came past but nothing else and certainly nothing small and black...
Another look over the dropping tide gave us only a Common Tern fighting its way out to sea from the mouth of the river and a few minutes later a Kittiwake followed in its wake.
Others...on the South-side (that used to be our local patch in the early 70s and we never connected!!!) and to the north of of us had the luck we needed...you can really go off some people!!! But we suppose they had more than 2 x 10 minute sessions in which to score.
Where to next? The wind has dropped...ooohhh for another day or two of the blow.
In the meantime let us know if the wind blew anything unusual into your outback.
No pics today...not worth the risk of taking the camera out of the bag or even the bag out of the office.
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