With the wind switching today to include a northerly bias I decided on taking the Jims to Cley for a seawatch. We arrived at around 9.30am having stopped on the way up to dip Golden Pheasant again.
Around thirty birders had already established territory around the coastguards hut so we squeezed in and started the watch.
Hundreds of Gannet and Kittiwake were the obvious birds with a scattering of Auks and a Gulls which made up the initial counts. A few Red-throated Divers flew east before the first decent bird in the form of a Pomarine Skua. The wind increased and with it came more movement to the east of Auks whilst Scoters and other ducks including Pintail, Eider, Tufted and Wigeon all moved west. Then the Skua passage picked up with a count of 27 Poms, 9 Great and at least 4 Arctics all moving east in front of the turbines. Mid afternoon and we got a shout of "Little Auk" and managed to get on two of the five that flew close in from the east to give my second year tick of the day.
A Merganser flew past then a Great Northern Diver headed west along with a small group of Little Gulls and a large flock of Great Black-backed Gulls to add to the fabulous spectacle unfolding in front of us. Waders were represented by Grey Plover, Turnstone and Sanderling andlater in the day we added three Velvet Scoter to the day list and a single Manx Shearwater.
I thought today would be a good day but it proved to be one of my best ever sea watches from Cley.
Year list now 293 and only 7 short of my 300 goal
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| Cley sea watch |
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| Gannets |
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| Brents |
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| Artwork at Cley |
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| Fisherman at Cley |
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| Watching the sea |
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