Continuing this Shearwater theme. I have always said that throughout the summer there is always a peak passage about 10:00 despite whenever dawn was. I have counts going back years and there are definite peaks and troughs. (All my counts have been mid morning between 9 & 12 on days with a west wind.) Methinks the reason is that, maybe the shearwaters are coming from different colonies. It may be coincidental that the colonies are 60 minutes or so, flying time apart. I suppose the thing to do is to get up with Colin at 4 am and do a count from dawn till mid-day and see just how many peaks there are. 7 hours sat on a rock doesn't really appeal, I've usually had enough after 2 hours.
One other point of interest, what was the wind like at 5 am. I would have thought it was light and yet you had the passage in between the Rumps and the Mouls. Normally they pass behind the island. Even in very strong westerlies only a few pass between the Rumps and the Mouls. Very interesting, I need to get there earlier. Ah well, back to bed!
One other point to think about. Is there a dawn passage on days when the wind isn't from the west. Not a lot is seen at 10 am when the wind is coming from other directions.
Oh yes we had a wander up there last night. There were auks, but they seemed to be at the back of the island. Nothing much passing just the odd Manx and a few Gannets.
Mind you, some 'twinkie' in a rib didn't help, doing his best to cause disturbance.
