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Saturday 13 May 2017

The Final Tally?

After the morning's Pom bonanza yesterday, I couldn't resist another look in the evening. In previous springs I've sometimes done okay late in the day. It was worth the effort, with a distant pale phase Pom Skua past E at 17:35 and a nice dark phase Arctic at 18:11. So my skua total for the day was 15, comprising 14 Poms and one Arctic. That's a ridiculous 26 Pomarine Skuas in the last week, compared with my Seaton total of 17 in countless hours of seawatching across 10+ years! I am slightly mind-boggled...

Burton Bradstock, yesterday morning at 06:45. As you can tell from the old towel hastily fetched from my van as a concession to my protesting backside, I haven't yet sussed a comfy seawatching perch at Burton...

4 comments:

  1. Come on Gav, I'm sure you can rustle up an old Carp bivvy and bedchair to cover all manner of sea watch weather.
    Great results on your birding re-emergence.

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    1. Ha ha! Cheers Ric, re-emergence is a good way to describe it. What am I like, eh?!

      My very elderly (well over 20 yrs) Fox 'adjusta-level' fishing chair has actually seen seawatching service at Berry Head in Devon a few times, back in about 2010/11.

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  2. The personal shelter would be my main item Gav.
    I have visions of how many sea watchers could squeeze underneath a 50" brolly. Which they would.
    Practicalities being what they are, it's difficult to claim someone looks silly while they themselves are freezing cold and wet, and missing birds, while the subject of their scorn is tucked up warm and dry, having a wonderful time.

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    1. I have used a golf type brolly, and have seen fishing umbrellas used at Porthgwarra. To be honest though, in this part of Lyme bay birds are usually quite distant, and windy weather better than wet, so for me the main concern is getting out of the wind.

      Intermittent showers are a nuisance though!

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