Sunday
6th November Very strong N – easing to strong later
heavy
showers AM, cold 7C
The
day starts with a message from Nepal on Facebook. Mike Grundeman is
asking how things are going. Attached is a superb photograph that
reminds me I haven't been in mountain regions for a couple of years.
Out
early again, cycling into the gale and showers with Samuel Perfect to
go and seawatch from the hide on the north-west coast of North
Ronaldsay.
The
last two days had been tough weather wise and although this morning
is no different one can only go so long before raising one's
binoculars.
Only
minutes pass once we have set up and I shout . . .
“white-billed
diver!”
“No,
it can't be........... Yes it is! White-billed diver heading north.”
The
diver is very close to the shore and flying straight past us. Flying
just above the waves prevents it from being lost in the waves and
swell. Both of us have great views of such a rare bird.
Maybe
we are tired but we don't display the same ebullience we had with the
Fea's petrel a week ago. Instead we carefully go through the features
we both saw and it is handshakes and congratulations.
White-billed
diver, bird number 315
BOU.
Texts
are sent and I phone Mum and Dad with the news of yet another Green
year tick.
Back
to the seawatch, sooty shearwaters are passing but in fewer numbers
than recently.
Erin
and George arrive from the Bird Observatory and together the four of
us seawatch for an hour or so.
Soon
after they have left, George phones to say he has something avian to
show us. Their Land Rover is parked about one hundred yards away and
Erin is sitting with a juvenile gannet on her lap. They take it back
to the Observatory for assessment, processing and ringing before
releasing it from the harbour.
I
start a one hour count. The final figures for that hour are as
follows:-
Fulmar
1208
Gannet
86
Kittiwake
50
Auk
sp, 36
Guillemot
15
Litte
auk 2
Tystie
2
Sooty
shearwater 12
cormorant
1
Great
black backed gull 16
Common
gull 45
Herring
gull 7
Curlew
1
Purple
sandpiper 1
Long-tailed
duck 3
Totals
for the three and a half hour seawatch :-
Sooty
shearwater 27
White-billed
diver 1
Great
Northern diver 1
Red-throated
diver 3
Little
auk 3
12:30
Samuel and I start to cycle back towards the Observatory. We stop to
look over a large pool; two pairs of gadwall, one pair of shovelor
and a pair of red-breasted mergansers on here with 26 bar-tailed
godwits on the side.
Around
twenty snipe are sheltering behind a tall dry stone wall and a little
further we come across the bar-tailed godwits again in a field.
A
relaxing afternoon, I read about the race over in the US, not for the
Presidency but for the Big Year. Always fascinating, this year is no
different and the ABA (American Birding Association) Blog details the
four front runners.
http://blog.aba.org/2016/11/aba-area-big-year-update-8-weeks-to-go.html
No comments:
Post a Comment