The Lincolnshire Bird Club

in part answer to Andrews questions;

I was fortunate to be surveying on the Humber at North Killingholme today ie mostly on the Humber bank where it was fairly breezy! I checked the Humber at Barton before 08:00 and saw nothing at all which was a surprise; at 09:22 I got a text from Clare at The Humber Bridge 11 Bonxies and soon after another reporting a flock of 41 Gannets -- through the day then from about 09:30 I did regular checks of the Humber off North Killingholme Haven and recorded the following

Gannet 908 all going up the Humber, they tend to come back down close in to the north bank; during the day Clare and JH had an estimated 1000 birds at the Bridge by far the highest ever totals for these essentially inland locations; clearly numbers started to build towards high water but there was another major movement High plus 3 hours with a single flock of 200 birds passing me at Killingholme; I estimated that of the 908 at least 15% were adults which is again unusual and suggests a major displacement of feeding birds
Bonxie 71 flew west at Killingholme but flocks were often quite high and could be easily missed
Pomarine Skua 2 juvs and a pale adult with full spoons moved up the estuary at Killingholme
Long-tailed Skua a juvenile off Killinghome all of the Poms and the long-tail were late in the movement during mid afternoon
Manx Shearwater 5 off Killingholme 6 off Barton and IGS had 11 off Pywipe
Sooty Shearwater one at Barton CG et al
Velvet Scoter 2 with 40 Commons flying up river off Killingholme
Shag 3 sat on the Humber off Killingholme
there was also a huge movement of gulls mainly Herring, with many argentatus, and Great Black backs but also good numbers of Common Gulls

no petrels, terns or auks the latter probably the most surprising omission given the conditions -- although there were a few pipits flying over the Humber I saw no sign of any thrushes or other passerines all day and a quick late evening check at Waters' edge also revealed a total lack of thrushes -- up date from the all hearing wife that there are lots of Redwings calling over town tonight; must get out!

more usual were 3900 Black-tailed Godwits and a juv Little Stint and a colour ringed juvenile Dunlin -- details to follow looks like it was ringed in Poland

wow what a day, its going to blow from this direction till Tuesday, wow ps think my skua was a juv bonxie wow

terry whalin

Feeling rather sick after reading this. Have been sat overlooking the Humber at Grimsby all day but have been too busy to take my bins out of the drawer. probably missed out on several good desk ticks

Less Gannets around today c100, also one Guillemot heading east. The surprise today was an Arctic Skua which came and rested on the wall next to the car park by the old shelter at the Humber Bridge viewpoint..it stayed for quite a while before heading back out on the river where it chased a few gulls around before heading west towards the cement works

Photo here.....http://www.flickr.com/photos/51013318@N06/10250950726/


regards Mandy

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http://mandywest.zenfolio.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51013318@N06/