Picked up Tropical and Bazzo early this a.m and headed down to Crosby Marina and shore, before a seawatch at the Tobacco Dump.
Conditions looked great, a force 6-7 NWly with heavy showers first thing, but unfortunately the Bank Holiday went all sunny and the wind dropped to a force 5.
Still these Common Terns were good value in the south east corner of Crosby marina, although my pics are a bit blurry - hey c'mon they're flying about for crying out loud....
In amongst the Common Terns and Black Headed Gulls were two dapper Little Terns - an adult and an immature, but I couldn't get a shot of 'em.
The beach itself was pretty quiet, as was the Mersey river mouth, but it was low tide. Common Terns still carrying food into the colony on the other side of the fence, and a Kittiwake batted out to sea, but there wasn't a lot else to write home about.
Starling flocks were growing in size around the marina, and I noticed all the Mute Swans on the small boating lake are unringed - an opportunity for the North West Swan Study Group?
Left Crosby as the weather began to improve and we drove back north to Freshfield in time to meet the Bank Holiday traffic, kite flyers, dog walkers, windsurfers and paddlers that are the bane of a seawatcher's life.
By the time we set up at the Tobacco Dump, the sun was out and while the wind was still brisk, it was far too nice for a good seawatch.
We stuck it out from 11.50am to 2.30pm more in hope than anything else...but as the old seawatchin' adage, beloved of those stuck staring at the sea on a dead day, goes, "it only takes one bird...." (God, how many times did I hear that today?)
Terns were still moving south, but not as many as yesterday, and we did have a single close in Manx Shearwater, which gave superb views in between the windsurfers....
Guillemot 2
Arctic Tern 1
Common Tern 35
Common Scoter 18
Gannet 15
Fulmar 1
Manx Shearwater 1
Sandwich Tern 3
Cormorant 8
Kittiwake 6
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies....
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neill wrote...
Call that a seawatch, hee hee
Posted by: neill | August 29, 2006 11:09 AM