Saturday 29th August : 8.15am - 11.25am
Juvenile Long Tailed Skua Photo by Dominic Mitchell.
On Saturday the 29th i headed to Oare Marshes to do a seawatch as strong NNW winds were forecast , already present in the hide were MW,RR,DM,Y & another birder i can't remember their name (sorry about that) , i joined AE & DS outside of the hide.
Here are my personal totals :
LONG TAILED SKUA 2 Juvs New bird for my Kent & Oare Marsh bird list.
GREAT SKUA 65+
ARCTIC SKUA 90+
FULMAR 3+ New bird for my Oare Marsh bird list.
GANNET 200+
BLACK TERN 4
ARCTIC TERN 8
COMMON TERN 20+
SANDWICH TERN 8+
LITTLE GULL 2 Adults
KITTIWAKE 2+
EIDER 1 imm
TEAL 4
GUILLEMOT 1 on Swale
MERLIN 1 over Swale
COMMON SWIFT 1 over Castle Coote
Really great seawatch in good company, Long tailed Skua being a particular highlight especially the first bird which appeared out of nowhere in front of the hide.
Dominic Mitchell manged to get a very good photo and allowed me to use it on my blog, many thanks Dominic.
Sunday 30th August : 7.50am - 10.45am
Great Skua.
After yesterdays sea bird spectacular another visit to Oare marshes beckoned this morning as the NNW-N wind was still strong and high hopes of the continued Skua passage were anticipated .
Needless to say there were quite a few more birders here than Saturday when there was only 8 of us, and the sheer numbers of Skuas were mind blowing.
Here are my personal totals :
LONG TAILED SKUA 7 juvs
GREAT SKUA 65+
ARCTIC SKUA 175+
SABINE'S GULL 1 Adult New bird for my Oare Marsh bird list.
KITTIWAKE 3+
ARCTIC TERN 1
BLACK TERN 1
COMMON TERN 20+
SANDWICH TERN 5+
EIDER 2 imm's near Castle Coote
PINTAIL 11
WIGEON 10+
COMMON SANDPIPER 4 in front of hide.
RAVEN 2 over Swale.
Once again a truly remarkable sea bird passage , i have never seen so many Skuas, the reported actual total of Arctic Skuas for the entire day was 500 birds !!!!
It was good to see and catch up with so many Kent birders today which makes the whole experience more rewarding.
Arctic & Long Tailed Skua.
