Thursday 12 May 2011

Struggle over the sea

Heysham Obs
Unless there was a massive overland skua passage in the first hour after dawn (we were a bit late), it was predictably poor this morning with a combination of fairly useless uniform low/medium cloud with little in the way of precipitation.  In these conditions with a fresh WSW, you need a mixture of squalls and clear slots to produce the goods

North harbour wall 0610-0840
Arctic Skua - 2 dm 'in' 0615, presumably the same two out at 0648.  lm 'out' at 0620.  Conditions not encouraging for overland migration with fairly low uniform cloud level
Gannet - 12 out
Red-throated Diver - 2 out
Swallow - 3 'in'

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Mallard - one male
Whimbrel - 2