Wednesday 28 December 2016

On the 4th day of Xmas.....

3 Glaucous Gulls, 2 Bewick Swans, 1 Killer Whale and a Partridge in the Obs field. Yes I'm having quite a week but still not tempting anyone else into the Obs. To tweet or not to tweet that is the question. I tend to tweet news of birds going north or south for other interested observers. I also tweet cetacean news like say a pod of Dolphins showing. I didn't tweet anything yesterday about the Killer Whale, it was very distant not really twitchable and we didn't get an id until late on. Even though i was sat two foot away from Magic Mark the finder it was difficult to find the spot of a blow or the whale surfacing, you needed a lora lora luck....
It had been suggested that people would have been interested in coming to see the Orca, shame no one could be bothered to come and look for it today on a nice calm sea tho the light was challenging
Am amazed  i saw yet another 3 Glaucous Gulls today, one was way off shore in Killer territory and landed on the sea a couple of times the other two were close and with the bright sun i failed to get my camera on them. The last bird was the most interesting as it was not the usual juv plumage but a worn white and with the bright sun to the south looked huge, hope it comes back and i get another go at video of it. I did head to Roker pier to see if any of the Glaucs were roosting but looking into the bright sun......
This is what i saw in order of appearance

Wednesday 28th December 07.55-10.45 SW2 cloud 0/8

Cormorant 2n 3s
Eider 4s
Shag 2n 1s
Common Gull 5n 34s
Black h Gull 15n 12s
Gannet 8n
Fulmar 1n 11s
Scan Herring Gull 13s
Red th Diver 1n 1s
Wigeon 3n
Grey Heron 1s
Kittiwake 2n
Curlew 2n
Common Scoter 2n
Redshank 3n 1s
Snipe 1n
Glaucous Gull 3s 9.03, 9.25, 10.05 (2juvs,12nd w)
Goldeneye 1s
Turnstone 1s