[Fat Paul Scholes]

Brilliant stuff down at the ness today. The big news was a humpback that was feeding with a couple of minkes at about 2 - 3 kms. It surfaced once with a big bushy blow, was about twice as big as the minkes and had a small, knobbly dorsal fin.

Also today, over the course of about 3 hours I saw minkes about 20 times!

If you want to see whales at the ness, head out to the headland and scan north east looking for distant concentrations of feeding birds. Big flocks with plenty of gannets seem to be the best indicators. Once you've found a decent flock just sit and wait, watching the waters below where the birds are feeding. After a while you should see something...Unfortunately the most productive flocks seemed today to be the most distant ones...at a range where they are only just visible through the bins, or beyond.

Not too many birds to report from today with all the distractions! A black guillemot and a manxy going north were the best of it.

[Ian Hay]

If anyone is interested in Twiching a Humpback I have organised a boat for 2 hours on Sunday (see mammels and sealife thread)

Ian

[Fat Paul Scholes]

If anyone is interested in how the humpback twitch went on sunday, have a look on my blog.

Apart from crippling dolphin close ups and a fun trip out in a little boat, you didn't miss much......!

[Evilspartacus]

Originally Posted by Andrew Whitehouse

Let me know if you'd like to use any of my 'top quality' pictures. Sounds like an interesting website.

Will do

Still going through Fat Paul Scholes blog

[DMKSlater]

Evilspartacus, dont get down to Torry much but got some good Dolphin pics at the weekend, see my blog and if you want any let me know and I will send orig's

Dave

[Ben Nevis]

Large numbers of Linnet around the Ness this lunchtime,as well as a Meadow Pipit feeding young,at the Foghorn.

Large numbers of adult and Juvenile Sandwich Terns on the rocks on Greyhope Bay and if they venture too far,a light phase and dark phase Arctic Skuas are there waiting to chase them.Only a single female Goosander there today.

[Fat Paul Scholes]

Some slow seabird movement tonight...in two hours, 14 bonxies, 15 manxies, 18 arctic tern and a single RT diver went north. Also, a single drake velvet scoter in with all the eiders at the foghorn.

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Ooh, it's been a while...

So, back birding in Torry today in conditions more reminiscent of November than July. This did encourage some reasonable seabird passage with skuas around for much of the day. At least 14 Bonxies (including a group of five) and 8 Arctic Skuas were lurking around or passing through, or a bit of both. Just one Manx Shearwater went north. Several Arctic Terns, including a few juveniles, also moved through and parties of Common Scoters were dropping in amongst the large number of moulting Eiders. One Whimbrel was by the Coo.

Looks like we missed another chance at buying the new Torry Bird Observatory.

[Joseph N]

Originally Posted by Andrew Whitehouse

Ooh, it's been a while...

So, back birding in Torry today in conditions more reminiscent of November than July. This did encourage some reasonable seabird passage with skuas around for much of the day. At least 14 Bonxies (including a group of five) and 8 Arctic Skuas were lurking around or passing through, or a bit of both. Just one Manx Shearwater went north. Several Arctic Terns, including a few juveniles, also moved through and parties of Common Scoters were dropping in amongst the large number of moulting Eiders. One Whimbrel was by the Coo.

Looks like we missed another chance at buying the new Torry Bird Observatory.

Hi Andrew,

Glad to hear that you've returned from your trip to America and that you've been doing some sea-watching off the Ness. With the conditions looking promising and with promising totals of decent sea-birds such as Storm Petrel and Pom Skua reported off Kinnaird Head this morning, I popped down to the Ness for some sea-watching for half an hour as family were around and we were due to head elsewhere for the majority of the day.

As Andrew has said seabird passage was reasonable, but I expected something a bit better than what I managed. Within my half an hour sea-watch a total of 4 Bonxies and a single dark-phase Arctic Skua passed, but no Shearwaters whatsoever. There was also a sizeable flock of (largely) terns about half way out from the foghorn that had congregated on the sea, mostly consisting of Sandwich Terns but also some Arctic Terns and a few Kittiwakes. Don't know if this flock was present when you were around Andrew? Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns and Gannets were also heading north regularly.

Joseph

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Hi Joseph - there have been a lot of feeding flocks of terns and gulls over the past few days in the areas you mention. I keep hoping they're congregating around a whale, but sadly they don't seem to be. We could do with the wind going round a little more to the north or northeast. We often struggle at Girdle Ness when the wind is more northwest. Peterhead or Kinnaird would be better bets in this wind. Still, maybe a chance of a Storm Petrel here tomorrow.

[Joseph N]

Was back down at the Ness today for a two hour stint from 16:15-18:15 to see what was around, when a lot of the time was spent sea-watching alongside Mark - was a pleasure to sea-watch with you . Things were better than yesterday, although this partly owes itself to the fact that much more time was put in today. Like yesterday, there were prolonged very quiet periods where not that much was happening. However, there were some slightly more active periods where some more noteworthy things went past.

The combined totals (although these are mostly my totals) from the seawatch are as follows: 2 Sooty Shearwaters, 1 Manx Shearwater, 11 Great Skuas, 3+ Arctic Skuas, 3 Red-throated Divers and 3 Whimbrels. On top of this at least one Harbour Porpoise was around. The first Sooty was seen by Mark going north which I failed to see, and the second was seen by me going south which he failed to see, so I techincally only saw one but combined we saw two. Hopefully Mark will be able to boost those totals a bit more .

The congregation of terns witnessed yesterday had dissipated, and instead today there was a huge congregation of Kittiwakes about 3 quarters of the way out to sea which acted as a magnet to several Bonxies and Arctic Skuas. I wonder why they were grouping together as they did - presumably a plentiful supply of a certain type of fish?

Joseph

[Fat Paul Scholes]

Always a pleasure Joseph! Not much to add after you left as I was only there for about ten more minutes...had another 4 bonxies though. Tomorrow morning is looking interesting too....

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I had a brief look this morning, during a definite quiet spell. I knew I should have looked again later in the day!

[Joseph N]

Thanks Mark, glad you managed a few more Bonxies before you had to go, and unlucky Andrew that things couldn't have been better when you looked. Would like to be down there tomorrow morning but won't be able to make it, hope that one of you gets down there and that you can eek out a Stormie or two - despite how tricky they can be off the Ness, I think it's due some after the recent passages elsewhere!

Joseph

[Fat Paul Scholes]

19 manxies and 2 bonxies north in half an hour this evening. Quite a few harbour porpoise around as well.

[Fat Paul Scholes]

45 minutes this morning produced 62 minxes, 7 bonxies and a lonesome arctic skua.

[Jane Turner]

Originally Posted by Fat Paul Scholes

45 minutes this morning produced 62 minxes, 7 bonxies and a lonesome arctic skua.

Troublesome those Minxies!

[Fat Paul Scholes]

bloody computer is not as clever as it thinks it is!

[Andrew Whitehouse]

The late afternoon shift was interesting but not spectacular, despite the wind moving round to slightly more favourable directions. Best was a fairly close Sooty Shearwater north. 25 Puffins was a good number and there were also around 8 Bonxies, 8 Manx Shearwaters (7N, 1S) and one Arctic Skua. Bottlenose Dolphins were around the harbour mouth earlier in the day.

[Fat Paul Scholes]

Pretty quiet bird wise out there this morning. 14 manxies (not minxes!), and one each of great and arctic skua were the best of it. The flat calm conditions made cetacean spotting easy though, and as well as lots of harbour porpoise, I had up to 8 white beaked dolphin heading south, quite a long way out. If anyone is going to follow up reports of that big whale from Collieston, today is the day to do it!

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Had a bit of a seawatch this evening. Not too much but it all came in threes: 3 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Bonxies, 3 Arctic Skuas. Also a few Arctic Terns and about 15 Common Scoters. Those last didn't come in threes, but the other birds did. Also not in threes were the 44 Goosander in the harbour. And there were quite a few Bottlenose Dolphins earlier in the day. Not sure how many but definitely more than three.

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Had a saunter round the Ness today. A few skuas were again milling about offshore - at least four Arctic and a similar number of Bonxies. 42 Turnstones on Greyhope Bay - most on fetching summer dress - was a good number. A group of Whimbrel flew south - I think eight although they were a bit quick to count. A certain amount of Bottlenose Dolphin action too.

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Had vague hopes the overnight rain might have brought in a few early migrants. I was right to only be vaguely hoping though. Not too much about in the mist, although 51 Goosander was the best number of the summer. We're not doing a Goosander Totaliser though, so it's just for fun. Lots of terns and gulls were in Greyhope Bay, with Arctic Terns quite prominent. At least three Bonxies and two Arctic Skuas were off the Coo. Dolphins too of course.

[Ben Nevis]

I had 9 low flying Swifts this morning,on Victoria Road.The first Ive seen of the species for a couple of weeks.

[Fat Paul Scholes]

3 sooty shearwater north, and a cracking adult black guillemot in the eider flock were the best bits today.