Wednesday
2nd
November Strong NW High seas.
Sunny
intervals, heavy showers. Lots of rainbows!
Another
early start seawatch from the hide at the north-west end of the
island.
Samuel
Perfect and I see 6
little auks during 4 hour seawatch. Also 113 sooty shearwater, 1 manx
shearwater, 6 long-tailed duck, 233 fulmar, 131 kittiwake, 95 gannet,
4 red-throated divers, 1 great northern diver, 28 guillemot, 2
razorbill, 1 puffin, 6 black guillemot, 97 auk sp.
21
snow buntings fly in from far out to see and head inland.
Heavy
showers briskly pass, their coming forewarned by beautiful rainbows,
including a few doubles. The Sun is low in the sky here in November,
making each rainbow tower high overhead.
A
restful afternoon before a meal and then a meeting of a newly formed
Green Birding Group. Plans and requirements listed and discussed for
a future event.
An
email arrives stating that the RBA (rare Bird Alert) weekly round up
of the rare birds seen during the week. On opening it and scrolling
down we find the Fea's Petrel we saw a couple of days ago listed and
detailed.
Also
they have placed our Youtube moment of the sighting onto the page!
Thursday
3rd
November Light S-SE
Sunny
intervals at first, heavy showers later.
Yet
another early start seawatch from the hide at the north-west end of
the island. Samuel and I enjoy them so much and the variety of birds
passing each time holds the promise of yet another very special bird.
The
clarity of the air, as we cycle the four miles from Observatory to
hide, is superb and Fair Isle is a series of dark, ricky lumps on the
horizon.
We
follow the same routine as of the last couple of seawatchs; that is
we block four 15 minute counts to make a first hour total of all
passing bird species and then free seawatch for the next three hours,
listing the 'better' birds.
Our
total for the first hour then goes like this:-
Fulmar
3,383
Blue
fulmar 7
Gannet
213
Kittiwake
251
Auk
sp, 212
Guillemot
32
Little
auk 5
Black
guillemot 1
Sooty
shearwater 26
Manx
shearwater 1
Long-tailed
duck 7
Red-throated
diver 2
Great
northern diver 2
Greylag
5
Pomarine
skua 6
Mallard
6
Purple
sandpiper 1
There
is a temptation to count the fulmars as such high numbers are
passing. We don't because there are so many other distracting bird
species to watch. The number of blue fulmars and sooty shearwaters is
relatively high and the skuas are passing again.
Then
there's Fair Isle. Today the island is mirage-like and bits keep
disappearing in the haze. Sheep Rock is almost a constant, except
when a heavy shower hits the island from the south. Yet Malcolm's
Head is suddenly not there. The geos of the west coast and Ward Hill
are usually clear and just occasionally features can be seen on
the cliffs.
I
am watching for passing seabirds using Sheep Rock as a marker when a
few intermittent tall splashes occur just to the south of it. I alert
Samuel and we both watch as a very distant whale species breeches
repeatedly. Too far away to discern what species it actually is, we
do see it clear the water on a few occasions. Frustratingly that is
the last we see of it and also frustratingly we can't alert the other
volunteers at the Bird Observatory as the mobile signal is out of
action. Two hundred yards from a couple of huge radio masts and no
signal!
Our
three hour count gives us :-
Blue
fulmar 27
Little
auk 8
Black
guillemot 2
Puffin 6
Sooty
shearwater 87
Manx
shearwater 3
Long-tailed
duck 6
Red-throated
diver 2
Great
northern diver 1
Pomarine
skua 5
Great
skua 6
Skua
sp. 3
Mallard
8
Wigeon
4
Teal
2
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