Slow Seawatch with a Mystery!?

 It is mine and Margie's 13th Anniversary today,💗💘so like the old romantic I am, I took a day off work and went Sea-watching😱!!! In my defence Margie was at work, so I couldn't take her to the Dungheap to look for Wheatears and Wagtails  as planned!😊 

I usually stand up for a Sea-watch but  I had buggered up my calves waiting for the White-Crowned Sparrow so had to nick one of our spare folding dining room chairs, with dire warnings from Margie about what would happen if it got damaged😱😱😢😂 Luckily it didn't, but I will definitely be getting myself a proper one for future use!!!

I of course had completely misread the conditions, so the Pomfest I was hoping for never happened😢 Things started very slowly, the first half  hour til 6 o'clock produced one Gannet!!😢.Although a Rock Pipit came and kept me company for a while, which was nice!

Obligatory shot of Newhaven with Brighton in the background

My mate the Rock Pipit

Rock Pipit

Gannet

Gannet

Things picked up a bit with a pair of Shovellers through and some Sandwich Terns going the wrong way and Gannet numbers doubled, whoop!😂

Shoveller

Two Gannets

This bird went through, think it's a female Red-breasted Merganser, but didn't think so at the time! 

Note: This is not the mystery from the title!!

Red-breasted Merganser I think?

A couple of Scoter went through and a Mute Swan flew in and landed on the Sea.

Mute Swan

Chilling on Sea

At this point another birder arrived at exactly The same moment as a Skua came through which he managed to get on! I obviously tried to string it into a Pom, you know what I'm like, but it really wasn't bulky enough and we settled on Arctic, which the pictures bear out!

Pale phase Arctic Skua

With a Fulmar

At this point the Swan decided to leave

My fellow birder, whose name I forgot to ask, obvs, said he could hear a Common Sandpiper calling, scanning about we eventually found it on the next groyne along, we soon realised there were three. They would hang around for the rest of the morning joined by a fourth later on!

Common Sandpiper

More Birders turned up including, Nick B and Simon L, things improved a bit with some Waders going through, a mixed flock of Dunlin and Whimbrel, a few groups of Sanderling, a flock of Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwits containing a nice breeding plumage Grey Plover, a couple of small flocks of Avocet, a 3 and a 4, think there were about 4 flocks of Scoter of about 20-25 birds each but in general the slowness continued, a Teal went through with a couple of Oystercatchers, weird I know it was that kind of day! Gannets went through every now and then but not in great numbers. One of the other birders spotted a couple of Black-throated Divers, it took me ages to find them in the scope and couldn't get them in the camera, but like the Skua, a nice year tick. A few Swallows came in off, one group containing another year tick in the form of a couple of Housemartins! A Kestrel came in off the sea which was considered quite unusual, but in general was all fairly slow!!

Sanderling

Avocet

Whimbrel, Grey Plover and 2 Barwits

Breeding plumage Grey Plover

Whimbrel

The rising tide brought the Common Sandpipers over to the us where they loitered under the basket

Sandwich Tern

Gannet

By now we were down to 3 birders, I spotted a small bird on the sea, quite close in. At first I thought it might be a Velvet Scoter as there had been reports of one a few days previous ,but it soon became obvious it wasn't one, It had a dark head with a large white flash behind the eye a white back end and, white sides, being other wise dark, it had red/pink in the bill, it dived a few times, a couple of times it rose up and flapped it's wings revealing a dark chest with a clean line to a white belly. The other guys eventually got on it, but even Simon L was baffled!!! I lost it eventually but the other guys kept on it, predictably I completely failed to get it in the camera! Eventually it was decided that the best guess was a Long-tailed Duck and having perused the Collins on my return, I'm pretty sure it was a male in summer plumage!!! None of us definitively saw the the long tail, but the rear end did look pointy! They were discussing mega auks at one point as the bill didn't really look right, but I think LTD was probably the right call!!! The bugger drifted off out to sea and was eventually lost to view!😢

Things didn't really pic up much, a Little Egret through and  a few more of everything else!!

Little Egret

Gannet

Common Scoter, one day I'll get a decent pic of em!

Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Kittiwakes, don't think there is a way to sex them 😀

Kittiwake

I had a last play with the Common Sandpipers

Common Sandpiper

That was that, interesting if slow morning, still only had one Skua for the year!! As the last 2 of us were packing up a Spitfire flew over which was fairly cool!

Spitfire