The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Following on from yesterday, Dave Miller had a second porpoise at 1445 as I left.

This morning, Richard Lorand and I counted from 0930 to 1330hrs and had 3, probably 5 porpoises moving south only a few hundred yards off shore. Dave took over at 1330hrs and said they had had 2 porpoises, also south, at Skegness pier during the morning. Please report any cetaceans to Dave, Lincs Trust coastal action zone ranger, based at Gib.

During our 4 hour watch that Richard & I did, it was much quieter than yesterday, with no swallows or swifts moving and very little movement at sea. There was a mixed flock of terns resting on the beach, which went fishing when diturbed by dog walkers, so we didn't bother counting the same birds moving around over the sea:

Arctic Tern 1
Common Tern 41
Sandwich Tern 69
Guillemot 12 > drifting S on sea comprising 4 adults and 8 juveniles
Arctic Skua 3 1>N and 2 >S which drifted by on the sea
Pomarine Skua 1 >N
Gannet 20 >S
........... 9 >N
Common Scoter 2
Sanderling 8 >S
Turnstone 3 >S
Dunlin 15 >S
Oyster Catcher 42 >S

Regards
Cliff

Cliif - I was watching at Chapel Point for an hour yesterday - 10:00 - 11:00 and three hours this morning from 09:30 - 12-30.
Not much to add from yesterday - I did see the Marsh Harrier- juv.
Today there was some Tern Passage with Sandwich going south, Commons mostly south and Arctics going north. Similar numbers to you except for Arctic Terns - 47 inc 7 juvs ( largest flock 19 ). Chapel Pt seawatching can often be different to Huttoft but seemingly less so than Anderby!! I counted 14 Guillemots drifting south - 6ads 8juvs.
Just 2 Harbour Porpoises.
I didn't know anything about the co-ordinated watching - was it advertised on this forum?

I was Sea Watching at Gib for a couple of hours this afternoon and had 18 Guillemot on the sea which appeared to be drifting slowly south.10 adults and 8 juvs. 7 Arctic Skua south as well and 1 Fulmar. The Terns I counted were moving from Greenshank's Creek going south as the tide came in. Sandwich (300), Common 52, Arctic 8, Commic 18 (I still struggle with flying Terns!) and only 2 Little Tern. Also had Hobby north along East Dunes, Marsh Harrier juv south over Croft Marsh. 7 Greenshank, 12 Blackwit, 1 Ruff, Common and Green Sand on Jackson's Marsh. 14 Whimbrel and a Spotted Redshank over.

No Harbour Porpoise

Regards

Nige

Edmund,

I was on a circulation list for the weekend's watch from Dave Miller and agreed to do 3 hours Sunday, but as you saw, I went on the Saturday as well.
Dave is on holiday this week, so I asked Rachel Shaw at Trust HQ if she had advertised the event, but she said the information came thru' too late to put it out in the events calendar. I don't know if it was on the LNU website either and I hadn't joined the LBC at the time of agreeing to participate in the count.
What I will do, is copy this down to Rachel and David so that we can ensure full involvement of members next year, but I will certainly put a note out myself as soon as I hear anything.
I did hear reference to the national event a few days previous on both TV and radio, so I guess it was well known about nationally.
Cheers
Cliff

Cheers Cliff, in future we may be able to coordinate sightings so that events like the Arctic Tern movement I had can perhaps be followed up.