Sunday 11 September 2016

Goosie goosie gander.........

2 Arctic Skuas north past Whitburn Obs were the best of a bad bunch by 09.15 this morning. The more interesting birds were Goosander, another 6 went north this morning (and 2 south) bringing the sightings this September to 47 birds, and total passage for the year is 154 to date. Considering that October is the month we normaly see the highest passage we have a good chance of beating the best annual total of 186. And to think some local listers still need it.....
The sea watch was abandoned as the local farmer was spreading horse muck in the obs field, should be rather unpleasant for a few days 
A very quiet morning but this is what we saw in order of appearance

Sunday 11th September 06.00-09.15 W2 cloud 4/8

Black h Gull 32n 53s
Cormorant 28n 284s
Turnstone 3n
Redshank 4n 3s
Sanwich Tern 3n 9s
Red th Diver 1n 10s
Common Tern 32n 13s
Shag 11s
Common Gull 2n 5s
Common Scoter 6n 3s
Teal 7n
Eider 2s
Curlew 2s
Grey Heron 1n
Goosander 6n 2s
Sand Martin 26s
Meadow Pipit 468s
Grey Wagtail 1s
Dunlin 1s
Kestrel 1s
Arctic Skua 2n