9th May

A day that'll be chiefly memorable for all the wrong reasons as, far from the first time ever, the sight of cutlery in motion was denied our attentive stalwarts as 'Pom Day' passed them by: with the breeze far too easterly rather than onshore the waves of Pomarine Skuas moving up-Channel weren't inclined to hug the shore until they were well past our vision and no more than a paltry three laggards were detected during multiple sessions at the Bill and Chesil. Notwithstanding this crushing let-down, the land was so quiet that seawatching did have some merits and among the rewards were 178 commic terns, 11 Black Terns, 5 Arctic Skuas, 4 Eider, 2 Great Northern Divers, the first Balearic Shearwater of the year and a Yellow-legged Gull. Another Turtle Dove at the Bill was a noteworthy sighting on the land but new arrivals were otherwise few and far between, with 2 Pied Flycatchers at Avalanche Road and 5 Whinchats and a Redstart at the Bill the pick of the less frequents.

So infrequently have we managed to feature images of Black Tern on the blog (...is it just once ever - an autumn bird at Ferrybridge a few years ago?) - and of course in the absence of the elusive Poms - that we may as well gross out with these lingerers that joined some feeding commic terns off the Bill early this afternoon © Martin Cade: