An Interesting Day

This morning's West Bay seawatch was so good that I ended up having to pay for parking. I started a bit later than planned (about 06:45) and within ten minutes picked up a distant flock of seven Velvet Scoters, almost immediately followed by a dark-phase Arctic Skua. I really hoped it was a statement of intent. It was...

Tom Brereton joined me later, and it made a nice change to have another pair of eyes on the case. Tally as follows:

Velvet Scoter 9 (7+2)

Common Scoter 98 (Lots of small flocks, twos and threes)

Shoveler 10

Gadwall 8 (unusual on seawatch)

Pintail 16 (single flock)

Teal 15

Tufted Duck 3 (unusual on seawatch)

Eider 15 (single flock)

Oystercatcher 3

Grey Plover 6 (3+3)

Ringed Plover 2

Whimbrel 57 (managed to miss a couple of Curlews in with the Whimbrel flocks)

Sanderling 3

Dunlin 6

Arctic Skua 6 (1, pale, 1 intermediate, 4 dark)

Kittiwake 9 (single flock)

Sandwich Tern 154 (undercounted for sure)

'Commic' Tern 2

Red-throated Diver 6

Manx Shearwater 12

Gannet 200+ (probably a lot more than that)

By my standards that is a seriously red-letter seawatch, and the species list is exceptional.

The Eider flock, photographed by Mike Morse as it went past West Bex

Judging by Mike's photos, the Eider were a fair bit closer in at Bex, and at one point strung themselves out neatly for an accurate count. Which was kind of them, because the best that Tom and I had managed was 14...

15 Eider. A very special sight in Lyme Bay (photo Mike Morse)

Despite the very long range usually involved, I did have a couple of attempts at photography. I won't be bothering you with the Arctic Skua dot, but have these two Velvet Scoters...

Velvet Scoters. Just.

Late this afternoon I popped over to West Bex for a short walk. Hearing a Coal Tit singing, I decided to hang about and see if I could get some photos. I have very few pics of Coal Tit. When it finally appeared in the branches above me, I was somewhat taken aback. It looked awfully grey...

First views. Even from this angle I thought it looked remarkably monochrome.

I can probably count on one hand the number of steely-grey Continental Coal Tits (P. a. ater) I've seen, and all of them in autumn. Yet here I was, in April, confronted with a Coal Tit which seemingly lacked any of the olive tinge to the upper parts typical of the British race, P. a. brittanicus. A few more shots...

Has my imagination got the better of me? I'm not getting my hopes up, but have punted out some pics to one or two birders who have some in-the-hand experience with the species. It seems unlikely that a Continental Coal Tit would be singing away in perfectly good Coal Tit habbo in West Dorset right now, but stranger things...etc...

Definitely an interesting day.