A Taste of the Mediterranean

Another day, another seawatch. I was back on the dunes again this morning for another session in the saddle (well, fold-away seat). The wind had dropped today and switched a little to the south-west. Hardly ideal conditions, but it certainly brought home the bacon!

After a classic case of ‘you should have been here ten minutes ago, there was a Pomarine Skua past’ my spirits soon lifted after I latched onto a Leach’s Petrel – my first of the year. Despite the relatively calm conditions, the bird was hard to follow as it frequently dipped down into the shallow troughs.

There were plenty of terns around again today, making life relatively easy for the dozen or so Arctic Skuas present offshore. I watched numerous spectacular chases; these pirates of the oceans are truly the Peregrine Falcons of the sea – a perfect balance of size, strength and manoeuvrability.

A more cumbersome Bonxie was the next bird past, although it was at considerable distance. Much closer in, I picked up a shearwater flying like the clappers. When the bird finally flipped over it revealed the classic dark underside of a Balearic Shearwater! This was a first for me and confirmed by a fellow more experienced observer.

And then the birds completely dried-up: nothing. The wind was now more of a breeze and the sky was coloured every shade of grey imaginable from a deep charcoal to an off-white. Out on the water, the waves had flattened and an air of calm hung over the leaden water. It was time to pack-up the gear and await the next storm.

Until later.