Friday 20 November 2015

Calm before the storm....

Little Auk, Black throated Diver and 4 Scaup passed Whitburn Obs in 5 hours this morning. Magic Mark joined me at first light and Hoggie later for a memorable sea watch. Lots of birds were moving before the coming storm. Already a record number of Whooper Swans had passed the Obs this year and we kept the count going with another 85. Woodcock in off was the first bird in the note book and we saw a steady arrival of migrants as the morning went on with a fantastic 8 Woodcock seen
My Obs year list hit a new record when the White fronts went north, now 168 and counting
This is what we saw in order of appearance

Friday 20th November 07.00-12.00 W2-3 cloud cover most of the time

Woodcock 8 in/off
Common Gull 11n 69s
Black h Gull 52n 144s
Eider 4n 2s
Blackbird 18 in/off
Mallard 9n 14s
Common Scoter 10n 15s
Red th Diver 22n 31s
Great n Diver 1n
Velvet Scoter 1n 3s
Teal 18n 1s
Wigeon 4n
Goldeneye 38n 2s
Great crested Grebe 1n
Starling 7 in/off
Whooper Swan 85s
White fronted Goose 4n juvs
Shag 6s
Redshank 2s
Bonxie 1n
Pink footed Goose 51n 200s
Little Auk 1n
Sparrowhawk 1s
Scaup 4n drakes
Snipe 4 in/off
Goosander 1s
Black th Diver 1s