Saturday 12th August, Seawatching, Holme
Went to Holme Bird Observatory today, fantastic morning. As soon as I got out of the car on NOA carpark, I could hear the sea roaring. Very, very high tide this morning at 9.02 precisely. Walked round the back of pines and could feel spray from the sea on me!!!!! never known this before!! The sea looked fantastic, I could hardly stand for the wind, there was no question about walking on the beach, the sea was furiously chopping its way into the dunes. Its scary how close the sea has got, I remember, as a little girl there were a lot of dunes before the edge of the pines!!!! and now here we are with the pines starting to tumble on the beach, their roots exposed to the fury of the sea! Nobody local (who has known Holme for a long time) would ever be stupid enough to buy a house down the Firs (Broadwater Road) Road!!!!!!! Its only a matter of time now, one big tide eg the EXTREMELY HIGH TIDES in September (9th and 10th) and October (7th, 8th and 9th) and bad weather could be disasterous!
Anyway, as I expected Jed Andrews - Warden and Sophie Barker (Assistant Warden) plus crew were doing some serious seawatching on the edge of the dunes, I joined them to see the following:
22 Manx Shearwaters
3 Sooty Terns
2 Pomerine Skuas
8 Great Skuas
9 Arctic Skuas
10 Kittiwakes
4 Sandwich Terns
Gannets, both adult and immature
Guillemot
OK I'll be honest now, I didn't see all of these!!!!! I just love bonxies, they are just awesome, reminds me of Fair Isle, anway I then went back to HBO for tea and banter and chatted about the Bird Fair etc. Oh just remembered watched a sparrowhawk with prey flying west from HBO.
This list might of changed later on, but thats where it was when I left late morning.
As I drove down the reserve road, a wheatear flew bounced in front of me which was lovely considering the appalling weather. Went to Redwell Marsh Reserve Hide (NOA) for members only (key) see website noa.org.uk and saw 7 egyptian geese, 2 stock dove, 1 pied wagtail, 27 common, gulls, 2 black-headed gulls, I'm afraid that was it!!!!! - didn't help when 2 STUPID ignorant holiday makers who has gone astray suddenly walked right past the hide window, I firmly pointed where they should have been!!!!!
Went to parents for lunch and then went on to Titchwell. When I arrived in carpark it was TORRENTIAL rain and wind, so even though I have all the waterproofs and gear, I thought I would wait awhile... waited.... waited etc etc, gave up, it was torrential for the rest of the day, waste of time, as I left, I could hardly see half way across the marsh for rain etc. Never mind maybe the sun will be out next Saturday?!!!! (My next available birding day) :girl: :hi: