Monday, August 27, 2007

De'ja vu

Early on, a moderate to strong NW 6 becoming quite calm by late morning. Sunny, mild clouding over later.

No proper birding today ( Bank Holiday 'n' all that). Out a couple of times down Boulmer with the L'il G, had a covey of 16 Grey Partridges, the female Merlin again, 1 Teal and 7 Wigeon flew north.

While writing this first paragraph my pager gave out news of a Black Tern flying north along the beach at Chevington. This tempted me out to give the seawatching another try. I was going to give it an hour when I heard about 2 Great Shearwaters flying north past Newbiggin at 5pm and 5.20pm. A glance at the watch, 5.50pm and I thought that they would be maybe due to arrive at Boulmer any minute. How wrong could I be. This 'waiting for Newbiggin birds' is becoming an annual event for me now but this time I was convinced I would score. By 7pm I had seen Great Gannets, Cory's Gannets and Pomarine Gannets but no sign of the shearwaters. I was beginning to realise that it was not to be and packed up for home, thoroughly p'd off.

Totals tonight 5pm - 7pm

Sooty Shearwater 36 N
Manx Shearwater 13 N
Bonxie 1 N
Arctic Skua 1 S
Red throated Diver 2 S
Peregrine 1 imm female chasing waders over the rocks.

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