Sitting it out!

In brief....

It was a bit difficult today, for starters it was late when I got out birding, the tide was only a couple of hours from high and the waders 'disappeared', and there's a 'howler' still blowing, which reminds me....I was given some interesting statistics today when someone who had measured the wind speed yesterday, told me it had gusted several times at 65mph at Cockersands.

Gannet. David Cookson.

So I decided the best bet was to sit it out in the motor at Cockersands and put it to the sea-watching test, and see what  - if anything - happens. Well, I never really expected it to be the best sea watching location in the land but at least there was a little action and I ended up with 7 Gannets in two hours, including three lingering close in, three on the sea also close in, and a distant individual, also a Great Skua flying out of the bay. Also noted from the motor - not my kind of birding - during the watch, a Whimbrel, 2 Eider, and a Great-crested Grebe.  

With a few minutes to spare on the way home, I called in at Conder Green to see 2 Spotted Redshank both adults, and 2 Greenshank. On Conder Pool 5 Little Grebe, and 2 Wigeon drakes.

And being that seabirds are the topic....

Kittiwake. David Cookson.

Here's another of DC's excellent photographs, this of the Kittiwakes obviously not seeing eye to eye. If it's brilliant photographs you're after....they're all HERE