From 11:00 until 12:45 in the Bay we had at least 100 Red-throated Divers plus 1 Black-throated Diver moving down Channel. On the sea were 500 plus gulls, mostly Herring, and several Guillemots. At 12:17 a Sooty Shearwater dropped down quite close in and gave us excellent views for 10 minutes before it moved off South.
Gerald, Nigel, Jack.
There was very little on the sea apart from a few Red-throated Divers and Great Crested Grebes. In the area we only had a couple of Goldcrests and Ravens but about 11:00 we heard that there was a White-tailed Eagle at Dover so we went up to the Paddock where we watch for raptors. It was about half an hour before we picked the eagle up moving north and we had good views for some 20 minutes as it flew off towards Sandwich.
White-tailed Eagle (Nige Jarman)
Nigel, Phil, Richard, Jack.
This year's seawatching ended quite spectacularly when Rob Ratcliffe had over 8000 Auks, 60% of which were Guillemots, move S in two hours.
Let's hope that more good seawatches continue in 2024.
On a cold windy day there were few birds in the area apart from 3 Stonechats and singles of Chiffchaff, Firecrest and Goldcrest. On the sea a pair of Goosanders, rare for us, flew down channel.
Phil, Richard, Jack.
Phil and I walked around the area today and had 5 Stonechats and a Chiffchaff on the clifftop. In Oldstairs Road we also had 3 Firecrests,
On arrival at the Bay this morning we were greeted with small groups of Razorbills pouring down channel, after a couple of hours we had counted at least 5500. Other than these we only had 42 Red-throated and 3 Black-throated Divers.
We were joined by Gerald (Gull King) who proceeded to find this first winter Caspian Gull.
Simon, Gerald, Jack.
We did a seawatch in the Bay and had very little of note apart from at least 1000 Cormorants moving down channel in about 10 minutes at 09:30.
Simon, Jack.
In a quite strong SW wind, with most birds moving down channel, we had 22 Red-throated Divers, at least 450 Gannets, 37 Kittiwakes, 82 Auks of which 18 were Razorbills and also 40 Fulmars which were presumably the local breeders off the cliffs.
Unfortunately there was a recently dead Harbour Porpoise washed up on beach.
Simon, Jack.
A seawatch in the bay from 0730-0900 in a chilling SE wind produced the following birds (mainly down channel): 246 Brent Geese, 2 Great Skuas, 1 Sandwich Tern, 500 Gannets, 1 Razorbill, 100 Kittiwakes, 2 Shags, 3 Red-throated Divers and 2 Great Northern Divers.
There was also an adult Yellow-legged Gull on the sea.
Up top, we had 7 Swallows, 23 Goldcrests, 2 Firecrests, 650 Starlings coming in, plus 2 Redpoll, 4 Siskin and 1 Reed Bunting.
Gerald, Jack, Nige, Richard
On a pleasant day with a north westerley breeze we expected more at Bockhill. Overhead movement was a little disappointing and other than 13 Pink-footed Geese that flew over the big field we only had 3 Golden Plovers, a Swallow, Grey Wagtail, 2 Alba Wagtails and a Reed Bunting.
Grounded birds included 15 Rock Pipits on the Undercliff, 5 Stonechats, 2 Blackcaps, 6 Chiffchaffs, 6 Firecrests and 24 Goldcrests.
Nigel, Phil, Richard, Jack.
After Storm Ciaran a seawatch on the Rifle Butts at Oldstairs started at 07:15 with Simon and I hoping to see petrels. Just north, on Kingsdown Beach, Rob Ratcliffe had seen 2 Leach's and a Storm Petrel which gave us some hope. During the morning we were joined by Brendan and Chris Cox who had been in the Bay at St Margaret's and had seen 6 Leach's moving north. We saw petrels at Oldstairs but so distant that we did not identify them.
Notable birds that we had were 2 Great Northern Divers, 2 Arctic Skuas, 2 Sparrowhawks just in off the sea and 3 Sandwich Terns and 3 Little Gulls.
The star birds were 2 Grey Phalaropes. The first, found just off the beach by Martin Collins, flew to the Undercliffe and whilst photos were being taken another bird was found close to sea wall. Note different head patterns.
A very good seawatch.
After Storm Ciaran had blasted it's way up the coast, a seawatch from 1300-1615 from the beach huts at Kingsdown produced 9 LEACH'S PETRELS (the initial one South, all others North) and 1 STORM PETREL South, together with 9 Little Gulls (a mix of adults and 1st year birds) and 1 Great Northern Diver.
Jack also had 2 more Leach's and 1 Storm Petrel from Oldstairs Bay.
Nige
