Blustery again today with the sea getting most of the attention. The Herring Gull and Gannet flock off the Bill lingered all day and proved constantly attractive to a succession of other gulls that included c30 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, c20 Mediterranean Gulls and c15 Yellow-legged Gulls; 2 Arctic Skuas were in constant attention, whilst a good many of the 60 passing Manx Shearwaters also joined the melee for short periods. Six Common Scoter, 5 Sandwich Terns, 3 Balearic Shearwaters and a Whimbrel were also logged there.
This season's incursion of Yellow-legged Gulls got going yesterday and there were even more about today, with ten or more at a time lingering amongst the gull flock off the Bill:
Lesser Black-backs have also suddenly increased, although these are going the opposite way to the arriving Yellow-legged Gulls: we watched quite a few both last evening and again this morning that left to the south until they disappeared from view - next stop Cherbourg harbour?
Also of interest at the Bill tip, the gulls were often frenzied in their quest for whatever it is that's attracting them; bigger fish - are these Bass? - were also attracted and at times the water looked to be boiling and they all broke the surface:
The sea's gone a lot quieter now that pretty well all the local auks have departed - today's trickle of passing birds had all the look of outsiders that were speeding through en route to their offshore moulting grounds:
Shearwaters didn't feature in any numbers today - as they haven't for most of this summer; a trickle of Manx were heading west...
...and the day's only Balearics didn't look as though they were hanging around either:
Finally, these two Arctic Skuas lingered for several hours, beating up the gulls from time to time © Martin Cade:
