We got home from the States late last night (see following posts) after the Red-eye from Boston to Dublin, a delayed connection Dublin-Manchester, a fully missed night's sleep (sometimes it just doesn't happen on the plane...) and a blurry drive back to Filey - and then back to work this morning with a whole heap of jetlag on top of the above. Nightmare, right?
Well, not if you love your work, and not if there is, incredibly, a
Caspian Tern calmly waiting for you on the mud of the estuary at King George Dock, one of my Hull riverside Vantage Points (thanks Chris and Will)... this continues a theme at this superficially unattractive, urban, industrial site this year, where I've had Great Northern Divers, breeding Black Redstarts, Little Ringed Plovers and Cuckoo, Little Gulls and more, but where the aforementioned beast was, well, far from anticipated.
After giving good scope views from my VP, the bird took flight - surely to head south-east, away from the city and narrowing river and towards the open landscapes and salty banks of the widening Humber? Nope, instead, it flew directly towards me, over my head, straight over the ferry terminal and er, into Hull....
As if that weren't enough for the day, with plenty of shearwater action reported from the east coast during the day I decide to forsake any rest (or dinner) and drive straight up to Carr Naze for a post-work seawatch; maybe an hour or two. Which, inevitably, turned into four hours - for the simple reason of it being such a joy to be back, at the start of the seawatching season, with the sun shining and seabirds moving again.
Amazing photos of the Cory's (above with Manxie)
In those four hours, I'd 126 Manxies, a 2cy Little Gull, a Bonxie, a juv Yellow-legged Gull, some wader passage, and a few other bits and pieces - good enough for me - but then, at the death, what should sail past at relatively close range but a brute of a
Cory's, effortlessly gliding north in the golden evening light.
It's not so bad to be back after all.
