Saturday 14 October 2017

Sing-a-long-a-Obs.......

Balearic Shearwater and 36 Little Gulls passed Whitburn Obs on this mornings watch and we saw our latest ever Minke Whale. On a dead still sea with full cloud cover and a westerly wind you would not expect a lot....We did ok. Saint Mark called the Minke and it hung around for 25 minutes distant but viewable with a scope on the flat sea. In the past we have been accused of being protective of what we see at the Obs but this is not true, we always put the news out when we can and any locals had time to come and look. The video is from a previous Whitburn not enough light today.
Many smaller Gulls were moving and it wasn't a shock when Magic Mark started picking them up. At some time during the watch Moth Man arrived and soon started his well known singing??? and humming, all it needed was for Pink Floyd to start singing comfortably numb.....
This is what we saw in order of appearance

 Saturday 14th October 07.00-10.45 W1 8/8

Black h Gull 350n 46s
Common Gull 200n 11s
Gannet 129n 34s
Common Scoter 18n 18s
Curlew 1n 1s
Porpoise 3n 1s
Red th Diver 10n 20s
Cormorant 1n 10s
Meadow Pipit 4s
Shoveler 1s
Eider 5n
Arctic Skua 4n 1s
Redshank 1s
Turnstone 12s
Manx Shearwater 8n 2s
Grey Heron 1s
Balearic Shearwater 1n 08.00
Tufted Duck 1n
Little Gull 34n 2s
Common Tern 1n
Redpoll 2 in off
Wigeon 6n 1s
Shag 18s
Greylag Goose 20n
Arctic Tern 1n
Pied Wagtail 1n
Pink-footed Goose 85n
Scan Herring Gull 1n
Minke Whale 1s 08.40-09.05