All quiet after the buzz of the sooty tern, which continued to disport itself shamelessly at Cemlyn over the weekend - what a bird, but does it have to make itself so easy?
Staring up at the evening sky on Saturday during the usual summer barbecue O.D. I watched a flock of about 300 gulls, black headed mainly, hawking for the flying ants that had emerged from under the nation's patios in the warm weather - nothing unusual about that, but it was nice to see a flock of about 100 swifts doing the same.
This is a good number for our neck of the woods (Southport) and it won't be long before they start heading south agaiin for the winter, by the middle of August most of 'em will be gone, so enjoy 'em while you can.
The summer lull continued out on the marsh too - even the flocks of roosting black tailed godwits looked bored, and the avocets couldn't be bothered with hassling other species.
This ennui was disturbed by a peregrine zooming through the waders out on the water's edge on a hunting sortie - at least someone was trying to break out of the seasonal coma!
89 little egrets were at Aber in North Wales on the tide - they get commoner by the day, but I was more taken with the numbers of storm petrels blown into Liverpool bay last week - 30 off Meols was the best count.
Strong winds obviously pushed them into the coast, but with double figure counts at several other locations (hurrah for seawatching) I wonder if their arrival in numbers reflects a lousy breeding season further north ... with arctic skuas moviing south at the same time, it is quite possible.
Until the sand eels come back to northern waters I think dwindling seabird breeding success is something we've got to live with.
Off to work now, and by the way, isn't it lovely to have to use your headlights when driving in the early a.m. again (not)?
PS: If you want to e-mail me, you can get me on john.dempsey@liverpool.com, and you can always read my column in the Liverpool Daily Post every Saturday.
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