Bridlington Skua cruise

I went on another Brid skua trip this morning. Quite a contrast from last week as southerly winds put a bit of a chop on the sea.

There were a couple of skuas on view from the harbour wall to start as well as a couple of red throated divers. Almost straight away the skuas were on view mainly bonxie but also the odd arctic. A confiding manx shearwater was nice as was good views of a sooty at the rear of the boat. There was a big flock of plunge diving gannets that was quite spectacular.

there was another flyby sabines gull which i didn't see, then on the way back there was some close views of a bonxie.

All in all another very enjoyable trip but far more difficult trying to photograph birds when the boat is pitching and tossing in the sea!

Pat Haven Re-Visited

Went down to Pat haven tonight, small tides gave a different set of challenges but after selecting a spot and waiting a while I was rewarded with close views of a group of 4 curlew sandpipers.

Also present was a little stint and marsh harrier.

felt a bit sorry for my mate Dave-he went especially for the CS's and packed up no more than 5 minutes after these flew in.

Black Tern

I went up to North cave this morning for the reported black tern.

Got there for around 7 and it was pretty miserable-with nothing else about I was pretty content to watch the black tern and slowly but surely the rain stopped and light got better.

There were a few waders about including ruff, green sandpiper, greenshank, common sandpiper, dunlin, golden plover and hundreds of lapwing.

It gave quite a spectacular show especially when it came close mainly picking small insect off the surface but also taking the odd fish.

Nice bird.