Hornsea Sea Watch

Up at the crack of dawn today - that extra hour helped obvs!

It was flippin' cold and grey with a strong north westerly wind, veering to the north then north east later, so a possible good sea watch was on the cards. Not that I do a lot of sea watching 'cos I'm a bad birder but today was looking so good I couldn't resist.

My target for the morning was to try and get a decent photo of Little Auk and given the conditions I was very hopeful. However I had a glitch straight away. I took my scope off the hide clamp and looked for the tripod adapter but couldn't find it. Damn where's it gone? Time was slipping away so I set off with just my bins and camera. Not a good start.

Out to sea the conditions looked bright but at the same time, on shore it wasn't as good 😟

Same time as the photo above, different aspect

On the birding front things were much more rosy. Little Auks were going by in good numbers and soon a pair came in close enough for photos.

Little Auk - only as big as a House Sparrow!

2 Little Auks

Job done then! Off home for breakfast part two 😀

Well no actually. Lots of other birds going past so quickly that I found it hard to keep up with the calls from my friends who were calling out species and locations.

A visiting birder from Bradford pointed out a Grey Phalarope right in front of us and it stayed there for a few minutes, feeding between large waves crashing in.

Grey Phalarope over the waves

Grey Phalarope against a wall of waves

Grey Phalarope and Common Gull size comparison

Gannets, Teal and Wigeon were flying by in good numbers but the most common species this morning was Common Scoter.

30 Common Scoter with a Wigeon and a Teal mixed in

Nice to see several (18) Common Eiders go past in 3 different groups and two Brent Geese were the first of the year for me.

3 of 18 Common Eider

Brent Geese

I missed out on photographing a drake Long-tailed Duck but had very good views through the bins.

I went down to the sea front again in the afternoon and saw more species to add to the day's tally. A Red-throated Diver, 2 Velvet Scoter, 6 Kittiwake, 7 Little Gull, a Bonxie (Great Skua), 3 Guillemot and more Gannets, Common Scoter, Teal and Wigeon.

A brilliant day for me and although it was very cold it was wonderful to have such great views of so many marvellous birds.