Although a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened Thomas Hardy
The new normal of climate breakdown was always eventually going to deliver us large shearwaters in previously unimaginable numbers and an overnight blow that arrived in tandem with bucketloads of rain duly delivered that event today. The numbers and species break down are the subject of ongoing discussion, but for the time being it's safe to say that a total of 688 Great Shearwaters counted passing the Bill in 90 minutes during the afternoon adequately reflected the magnitude of an event that involved more than twice that number of large shearwaters in total. Other totals from the day included 500 Kittiwakes, 30 Common Scoter, 15 Balearic Shearwaters, 10 Arctic Skuas, 5 Sooty Shearwaters, 2 Manx Shearwaters and singles of Red-throated Diver and Storm Petrel; another 4 Arctic Skuas passed through at Chesil Cove.
Unfortunately the file sizes of the various videos we'd planned to post have not only compromised their quality but also temporarily caused the Obs computer to grind to a halt(!) so we'll have to make do with a few photos and one poor resolution scene-setting video until we get those issues sorted out © Martin Cade:
In truth we'd have rather seen a Tunbridge Wells Gem in the moth-traps but a Crimson Speckled was good compensation - plenty of field records here but, surprisingly, this is the first one ever caught in a moth-trap at the Obs pic.twitter.com/0nu5o4Ujn9
— Portland Bird Observatory (@PortlandBirdObs) October 13, 2023
