Sunday 9 November 2008

The Right Trousers and Back In The Land Of The Bird Scarers, 9th November 2008

I was at Rossall Point at first light this morning for the second outing of the autumn/winter in my fleece lined winter sea watching trousers and today they were very much the right trousers! The wind was SSW and at times probably gusting up to 45 mph, particularly when some squalls came through. High tide was at 0745 and for the first hour a good number of Common Scoters moved west out of the bay and totalled 159.

After the Common Scoter passage things quietened off a bit and I had 2 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Guillemots, 2 Eiders and single Auk sp. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a flock of 30 Turnstone flying low over the shingle with a Golden Retriever running at full pelt in hot pursuit. It's at times like this when I wish I could magic up a .22 rifle to 'take care' of the bird scarer! As a consequence of the bird scarers wader numbers were low with 51 Oystercatchers, 18 Sanderlings, 3 Grey Plovers and 44 Turnstones.

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