It was a beautiful day, despite being wild, wet, dark and windy here at Filey. Fortunately, the rain at least stuttered for a while this morning and then again late this afternoon, and either side of fullfilling a commitment to taking the mom and the Mrs for a long lunch (I know, it's all about karma), I was lapping it up on Carr Naze, with a constant flow of storm-driven wonders to savour.
Little Gulls
Back to this morning: as it turned out, it wasn't even a 'proper' seawatch (i.e. a sit down with a 'scope), but more a repetitive patrol of the clifftop, praying (successfully) for the heavy rain to hold off - which it did, for pretty much the whole two hours I was there - so it was just the head-on north-easterly gale to contend with.
Little Auks
Clearly this part-timer style of seawatching (which I'd otherwise have looked squarely down my nose at) is the way forward, as various quality and quantity paraded past me against the raging waves. Highlights of the session included 26 Little Auks, a juvenile Sabine's Gull, 108 Little Gulls, a Velvet Scoter, a Pomarine Skua, plenty of wildfowl (including plenty of Brents and Goldeneyes), two Great Northern Divers and plenty more....
Dark-bellied Brent Goose
... while a quick, hopeful roll-of-the-die late on for an hour produced a European Storm-petrel, four more Little Auks, 74 more Little Gulls and lots of waders on the move before the rain became a deluge. Did I metion how much i love this time of year on the east coast? I thought so.
Snow Bunting - welcome back! Noticing this bird is ringed, I photograpghed it from enough angles to get the full sequence, and it turns out it was ringed a year and five days ago in the same place (by my good friend Ana) - an amazing site fidelity record!
Blackbird
Common and Velvet Scoters
Kittiwake and, look closely, European Storm-petrel (honest)
Golden Plovers
