Saturday 27 August 2016

Castle Point

27 Ringed Plover and two Turnstones on the rocks at Castle Point when I arrived about eight this morning.
Lots of activity offshore: a fairly distant feeding raft of ca800 Manx Shearwaters constantly moving back and forth, with a few Gannets joining in.  Also, around 90 Black-headed Gulls and ca10 Kittiwakes.  I was fascinated to see two Bottle-nosed Dolphins swim slowly through a raft of  manxies, which seemed completely unperturbed.
Other odds and ends were four Shelduck heading south, a Fulmar and three Med Gulls,
The highlight was a dark morph Arctic Skua chasing a Kittiwake around the sky. a feeding strategy which has aptly been described as robbery with violence.
I was joined for the last 20 minutes or so by an unusual visitor; Andy James, who had been watching
a female Kingfisher feeding in the harbour.