Herring Gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull - Exmouth cricket pitch.
It hasn't stopped raining all day and sea-watching was a bit of a wash-out first thing. Actually that's an understatement. Dreadful visibility meant that 6 'skua sp' all went unidentified, although one looked a likely Long-tailed and at least 2 were almost certainly Arctics. Otherwise 1 Balearic Shearwater, 1 Shearwater sp, c20+ Common Scoter, 24 Sandwich Tern, 1 Common Tern and 2 Curlew made it into a very soggy notebook. I had another look off the seafront late this afternoon, before going to pick up Maisie in Sidmouth, and was pleased to find 2 Black Terns zooming around in the murk.
I had a look off Mudbank during a slightly lighter spell of rain and picked up 17 Wigeon, 10 Teal, 2 Pintail, the White-cheeked Pintail and c300+ Mallard. Thirty-nine Redshank was a good count for this corner of the estuary.
One of at least 39 Redshank present off Mudbank/Imperial today.
One of 2 Pintail off Mudbank
Sorry Matt, I bottled it in the rain this morning! Glad you got a few species in the notebook for your troubles... Love the gull picture - their look says it all.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely made the right decision Nick. It was pretty grim.
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