Duck broken - sort of.

The Safari shot had a short spin round Patch 1 at lunchtime and once again the Peregrine on the tower.

Then it was off to the central beach. we arrived in good time and set up our NWDW 'shop'. As you can see conditions were superb - no sun and, more importantly, no waves. A Grey Seal popped up a few times just behind the Donkeys. The coastguard is warning the punters that the tide has come in behid them and they should get a shimmy on before they can't get back to the safety of the wall...happens all the time...some don't make it and need rescuing...or worse...

Aboutr 1000 Common Scoters went north along the horizon. A single Dunlin then four more whizzed past to a roost somewhere in the estuary to the south. Two Swallows went north well out to sea.

The wind changed, the temperature fell like a stone and then the rain started and before long we were the only one on the promenade as everyone else ran for cover.

After an hour or so the rain eased and the punters reappeared. Several stopped for a chat and almost all told us there were no Whales or Dolphins to be seen off Blackpool - the water is too cold or too dirty...little do they know.
One family came and told us of a dead Dolphin washed up not far down the beach. A good excuse for a warming walk and have a blimp. sure enough we came a cross a gaggle of tourists staring unbelievingly and somewhat sadly at the corpse of a juvenile Harbour Porpoise. it was extemely fresh and was probably brought in on the previous tide, there was no obvious cause of death and had it been found yesterday could have been taken off the beach and fridged ready for collection by the Strandings people at the Natural History Museum for a post mortem.

Plenty of gulls were lurking around hoping to grab an unfortunate victim's chips

Like last year one of them was a Yellow Legged Gull.

Half way through the last hour the tide started to drop and a few Black Headed Gulls dropped in right in front us...but a quick bin through them revealed one was in fact a juvenile Mediterranean Gull! Who needs cetaceans now!!!

After the watch Wifey picked us up and we took a a still poorlyish but recuperating Frank to the beach to the south where we found a small Octopus Jellyfish. Also there was an empty ie hatched Mermai;s Purse ie Spotted Dogfish (= Catshark) eggcase.

Where to next? The mothy is on as we type.

In the meantime let us know which was the best gull in your outback.

A bit of other news - was at the hossy yesterday and the internationally renowned consultant said we've got the worst case of our condition he's ever seen and will be having a seriously big op in mid September...skin grafts and everything so will be out of action for the peak of autumn migration. He must be serious as he had us signing the consent form there and then..jumped the waiting lists!!! Is that good or not???