With the news of a cory's shearwater heading north from Hartlepool late morning, I opted to spend some time sea-watching this afternoon.The obvious choice for me would normally be St Mary's... but for some reason I elected to head a bit further north, past Newbiggin and start watching from Snab Point.
The location was actually not too bad - I was able to view from a height of about ten meters above the beach (which is higher than the likes of St Mary's etc), but the coast here is recessed a bit, so birds passing Newbiggin are likely to drift out to sea a bit, venturing closer to land at Hauxley.
So, for the next four and a half hours I scoped the sea and enjoyed a reasonably steady trickle of seabirds - the totals being something like:
- manx shearwater - 150 N
- sooty shearwater - 3N
- great skua - 4N
- arctic skua - 5N 1S
- pomarine skua - 1N
- pale-bellied brent goose - 9N (inc 7 on sea, these had previously been reported past St Mary's 50 minutes earlier)
- wigeon - 30N
- teal - 25N
- common scoter - few parties N, no more than 20 birds in total
- gannet - 100's, inc many parties of mixed ages
- kittiwake - 100's
- auks - guillemot and razorbill
- sandwich tern - 2
Hopes had been high when the cory's shearwater was reported at both Whitburn and St Mary's (along with great shearwater at Whitburn)... but alas, no joy today.
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