Seawatch

It was too wet to ring this morning :-(

I did an hour and a half seawatching this evening after work, there was a NNE force 3 which strengthened to a 4.

Highlights were 1 bonxie, 1 pale phase arctic skua and 1 drake velvet scoter (all north). There were a couple of flocks of small waders way out on the edge of science and a flock of 1 ringed plover and 6 dunlin closer in.

The most interesting thing was white butterflies, presumably large white's, migrating, you could actually watch them coming in off the sea, I counted at least 25 though there would have been many more.

Otherwise there were lots of terns, including at least three roseys, one manxie, quite a few kitti's and gannets but very few auks, just a few loafing guillies with their young on the sea. There were about 140 common scoter in the bay and a red-breasted merganser and oddly a hang of 52 eiders have suddenly appeared in the bay, mostly moulting drakes.

130 bonxie