Seawatching

There had been some good seawatching conditions during the week and although it had tailed off a bit towards the weekend with just light North-westerly winds forecast for this morning, me and Pete Watson decided to give it a go anyway, Flamborough Head being the obvious choice. We spent the morning there and as expected it wasn’t particularly thrilling although there was a steady Northerly passage of Manx Shearwaters and a juv Long Tailed Skua that flew in and sat on the sea for a while was a nice bonus. Midday we went back for some lunch then headed for the Bay Brambles to look for this mornings Barred Warbler, unfortunately that had gone to ground or gone so we carried on to Old Fall, there had been some interesting Gulls coming to the temporary Flashes there recently but nothing out of the ordinary there today while we were looking, a couple of Knot and a Dunlin accompanied the Gulls. Mid-afternoon the wind changed to a more Easterly direction so we decided to head back to the Headland for another seawatch, a good move, we had just got settled down when someone shouted “four Skua’s flying North” and while scanning for them I got onto a large Shearwater, its been a long time coming but I was soon enjoying good views of my first British Cory’s Shearwater, it was mid distance so too far to discern its yellow bill but upper and underwing patterns were seen quite clearly and as it was briefly harassed by a GBB Gull and a couple of Gannets flew past a good size comparison was had, I got Pete onto it who it was also a tick for then a couple of hours later either that or another was picked up flying North but it was a bit further out and passed through quite quickly that time, otherwise it was much the same as this morning, a steady passage of Manx although there were a few more Skua’s mainly Arctic’s but also a single Bonxie.