April 5th 2019

GEORGE V AVENUE, 06:30-10:30 Trektellen: It was a busy morning's seawatching, with skua, tern and wildfowl passage featuring well. Skuas started before long, finishing on six Bonxies and eight Arctic Skuas east, with three Bonxies west, two of which were perhaps earlier birds backtracking. Common Scoters went through at a steady pace, finishing on 648 east. A trio of Velvet Scoters - seen at various other points along the coast today - flew east, along with 12 Teal and six Red-breasted Mergansers. The star species was a Red-necked Grebe which tracked east at 7.30am. A 2CY Little Gull was another nice year tick and a forerunner to a strong push of Sandwich Terns and Commic Terns, which finished on 337 and 122 respectively. 39 of the Commics came within reasonable range to assign them as our first Common Terns of the year. Wader passage involved a Bar-tailed Godwit, two Whimbrel, two Grey Plovers and two Curlew. A Shelduck, 11 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 215 Gannets, 20 Red-throated Divers, 14 Fulmars, five Kittiwakes and six Great Crested Grebes were also logged. Two Linnets and a Meadow Pipit flew over. DKC/GJ
 
dark morph Arctic Skua DKC