A 90 minute sea-watch from Orcombe Point, from 1530, produced 16+ Storm Petrel west, 3 Sandwich Tern, 2 Guillemot, 1 probable Pomarine Skua, 118+ Manx Shearwater, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 Balearic Shearwater, c20+ Kittiwake and 2 Swift. I popped back down to the raised beach huts after Joel had been dropped at football, and in a 45 minute spell recorded a further 9 Manx Shearwater, 3+ Storm Petrel, 1 Arctic Skua (presumably the earlier bird), a second-summer Mediterranean Gull and an arrival of 30+ Sandwich Tern with a single Little Tern. The wind had subsided a little.
Sea-watching is rarely this good off Orcombe and once again it was a pleasure to get good views of Storm Petrel. At one stage a little party of four birds was feeding around one of the marker buoys.
Typical. I'm out of the country for a few weeks and it all kicks off. A nice haul Matt and as you say we don't always get it that good off Orcombe.
ReplyDeleteHi Spencer - no it's been quite a while since we last had decent numbers of Stormies. Have a great holiday! Matt
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