With the day seen in by a stiff southerly and patchy rain the sea was always favourite for attention and duly rewarded with a passing
Cory's Shearwater off the Bill - an overdue first for the season during a period when points further west have been awash with them. Passage was the best that it's been there in recent weeks, with 362
Kittiwakes, 236
Manx Shearwaters, 43
Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 9
Arctic Skuas, 8
Common Scoter, 7
Balearic Shearwaters, 4
Mediterranean Gulls, 3
Sandwich Terns, 2
commic terns and singles of
Sooty Shearwater,
Storm Petrel and
Yellow-legged Gull also through before clearer conditions rolled in and the wind abated early in the afternoon. Not a great deal of attention was given to the land there but it was evident that common migrants remained in short supply, with singles of
Ringed Plover and
Whimbrel overhead the only worthwhile sightings. Improved wader totals at Ferrybridge included 140
Dunlin, 60
Ringed Plover, 10
Turnstone, 9
Whimbrel, 6
Sanderling and a
Common Sandpiper.
With a bird-day total of 82 at the Bill since the weather took a nose-dive in early July, Arctic Skuas have been in good supply in recent weeks - whether that's a good thing for their species remains to be seen since a good many of them look to have been full adults that you'd have expected/hoped would still be nearer their breeding grounds at this juncture © Martin Cade:
Part of the group of Whimbrel that dropped in at Ferrybridge this morning © Pete Saunders:
A peculiar sight at Ferrybridge in recent days has been this extremely juvenile Little Tern that's being fed by its parents right out on the sandflats (today it was quite close to the visitor centre) - regular watchers there report that they've never seen such a young bird away from the close proximity of the colony further up on Chesil Beach © Debby Saunders:
