Dungeness/Lade - mild, cloudy, W6 - Storm Ciaran barrelled up-Channel today with the strongest winds and heaviest of the rain this morning, especially around dawn; we waited for the worst of the weather to pass before venturing out on our Ted walk just before noon. A quick look at the bay on the incoming tide from the Tavern viewpoint revealed the Curlew and Oystercatcher flocks heading off to roost, while smaller numbers of Dunlin, Sanderling, Turnstone and Grey Plover lingered along the foreshore. Our next stop was the fishing boats where a big sea was running causing some large waves to break over the beach in spectacular fashion, ripping and rolling huge quantities of shingle towards the `dustbin` in front of the lifeboat station in a fearful din.
In the lee of a fishing boat we joined the regular seawatcher`s where an unprecedented (yet not entirely unexpected given the storm strength) passage of petrels was underway. While the majority were Leach`s Petrels there was also a few Stormies in the mix, a very rare bird in this part of the Channel. During my 90 minutes on site two Storm and 12 Leach`s passed east, mostly a good way out but several close enough to be viewed through binoculars. Hundreds of Gannets streamed west along with a few Brent Geese, several flocks of 30 each of Dunlins and a few Sanderlings, two Red-breasted Mergansers and an Arctic Tern offshore. Also noted before I arrived, a Grey Phalarope and the Sabine`s Gull from earlier this week (for full details of today`s seabird count see the Trektellen website later). Afterwards we checked the bay from the Lade boardwalk to see if any of the petrels had lingered, of which there was no sign, although a Merlin showed well over the beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment