One curlew sandpiper at the tern posts was the wader highlight this morning with 48 great black-backed gulls on the sand flats.
At the brick-house there was an astonishing number of birds over the sea with an estimated 6000 kittiwakes, 450 gannets, 280 manx shearwaters and hundreds of auks. Breaching dolphins meant that there must be lots of fish in the bay with the feeding flocks slowly drifting north. Attracted to this flock were 3 great skuas, four arctic skus and an adult pomarine skua. Other odds and ends included eight red-throated divers, 73 sandwich terns, small parties of wigeon flying north and a hobby flying north attacking hirundines over the sea. This one threw me for a while as I tried to work out what sea-bird it could be until it got close enough to be readily identified. By 1000 hrs the heat haze had come in so it was time to leave.