Seawatch Seaford!!

 With my scope back from the menders, more exemplary work from Swaro, note to self stop trying to fix things yourself😲😢, I decided I ought to take it down to Seaford for a Seawatch, not the most conducive time of year but there was a bit of a breeze forecast and you never know your luck!! 

I was in nearly full winter plumage with both parts of the heavy duty winter coat, winter trousers (fleece lined) 2 pairs of socks, scarf, hat and heavy thermal gloves, only balaclava and thermal long johns to be added should it get colder, although to be fair, though windy was quite mild and pleasant!

The good thing about this time of year is you don't have to get up to early so I arrived at approximately 7.30 as forecast there was a bit of a breeze, but generally cloudy and dull, there had been reports of a couple of Black Redstarts, so before unleashing the scope I had a quick look for them, a couple of Rock Pipits and a Pied Wagtail the best I could manage

Obligatory Gull on the Basket shot

Even more obligatory Newhaven Lighthouse shot! 

Pied Wagtail

Rock Pipit

Bit more natural habitat

Showing off the ring!

So to Splash Point, lots of Gulls about today, which always keeps the interest going, it's amazing how hard I can try to string Juveniles into Skuas😂 alas for no reward today😢, The main interest to start with were Gannets and plenty of them although most incredibly distant!! Quite a few dark Juveniles amongst them which I often forget about and then spend ages trying to figure out what they are, duh!! Mostly they were heading west, a few groups of 7 or 8 but mainly in pairs or individually.

Gannets told you they were distant!😅

Yep distant nice group though!

Other points of interest were quite a few Auks again at distance, a group of 12, a large group of about 35 and several 3s and 4s all heading west with a few individuals taking off a bit close from the sea where I had predictably failed to spot them, got no pictures at all of any😢 I had 2 lots of 2 Great Crested Grebe fly by, sighting of the day was a group of 3 Red-throated Divers which flew in towards me from great distance, however I went for the camera too early, couldn't find them in the view finder, back to the scope couldn't refind them in that either!! They may have landed or possibly gone west but most annoying!!😢😡 Also had a few Common Gulls, a couple of Oystercatchers, some Black-headed Gulls and a couple of Cormorants, but it was mostly Gannets!!

Oystercatcher

Common Gull

Gannet getting a bit closer

And a bit closer still

Great Crested Grebe, not a bird you usually see in flight

Common Gull

Cormorant

Gannet

Always a good idea to scope the back ends of fishing boats never know what will be in the melee although best I can make out here is a Juvenile Gannet!

Although I was head down studiously seawatching I couldn't help being distracted by the antics of the Gulls, at one point a Herring Gull landed on the point about 10 feet away from me with a flatfish, cue pandemonium with Gulls everywhere, all around me head!! The Gull stubbornly swallowed the fish after many attempts despite the frantic efforts of others to nick it!! It took me back to when the kids were young and me fending them off as I managed to eat a whole bowl of trifle,😂😂 good times!!

This is my fish!

Going

Going

Fish? What Fish!!

The others weren't happy!!

You got fish?

I'm coming!

Gimme fish!

You ate it all!! Say What!!

I know way to anthropomorphic, I apologise!! Was very entertaining though, lots of Gulls about this morning in the hundreds, good numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls including one pair having a little dance!

Great Black-backed Gulls maybe some kind of pair bonding behaviour or maybe they just felt like dancing!

This one gave me evils, took me back to Bernard the GBBG that tried to knock me off Noup Head a few years ago!!!😱😱😱

 Another Pied Wagtail dropped onto the concrete jetty in front of the fence, so preoccupied with feeding it wandered right up to me , at one point practically between my feet!! 

Pied Wagtail

Some close encounters with Gulls as well!!

Adult GBBG putting a Juvenile in it's place

2nd Winter Herring Gull

At last the Gannets came a bit closer, with one group going past in range to get reasonable pictures, everything's relative obviously if you've been to Bempton cliffs and had Gannets hanging in the wind 20 feet away the following pics are going to be a little disappointing, but these were the best I managed today!

Closeish Gannets Hurrah!

This group composes, 2  Adults, 2 4th Calendar year birds, a 2nd calendar year bird and a Juvenile at the back!! I think!!

Heading off, let's hope they don't get shredded by the windfarm!

After a couple of hours my back decided it had had enough and started to ache, I decided a walk up to the 1st plateau on Seaford Head was in order,in the hope that a Black Redstart would be lurking, it wasn't! Couple more Rock Pipits and a couple of Stonechats on the golf course were the best of it!

Gulls on the cliff edge

Stonechat bringing a bit of colour to today's blogpost, has been rather grey sorry!

Rock Pipit

That was about that, totals for the Seawatch below, all very approximate as I'm not very dedicated and always forget to bring a pen and paper!! 

Gannet 150+ mainly going west in small groups

Auksp 50+ one big group and a few smaller ones going west

Red-throated Diver 3 in a single group, flying in towards the shore then west I think!

Great Crested Grebe 4 going west

Gulls  Hundreds all over the place!!

Oystercatcher 8 locals mainly going west

To be honest a much better day than I was expecting, a decent sea-watcher, who didn't spend so much time dicking around getting pictures of Pipits and Gulls would probably have had even better results, but I enjoyed myself and that's what matters😀😀😀😀