Leaving home at 06.00 on Wednesday 25th I
headed for Long Nab in the hope that the strong northerly winds would spark off
some movement offshore.
Dressed in clothing that I would expect to wear in November rather than late May, I staggered northwards into a F 5 – 6 wind en route to the Hut.
Once set up and the kettle boiling I began my watch, it was a slow start. Auks, Gannets and Kittiwakes were allocated clickers and it was sometime before I put pen to paper to log something different – a Fulmar.
Luckily things picked up from then on, sort of. Fulmars were moving in steady numbers, the first Manx Shearwater cruised through and I noted the odd Puffin too.
Still it remained like that for a while, my initial early morning hopes of Skuas looked to be dashed until at 08.10 I locked on to a rather large looking dark Skua. It wasn’t too far out and despite watching it fly straight through (putting the shits up a Kittiwake or two on the way) there was no denying it was an Arctic Skua.
Still it was my first of the year and was very quickly followed by my second only two minutes later, this time a nice pale phased bird.
After all that excitement it was time for a sit down and another hot drink as I settled back into the reality of the day, although tubenoses had picked up a little more, approaching 4 – 5 Manx every 10 minutes!!
A few more species were added to the notebook over the next half an hour – Sandwich Tern and Red-throated Diver.
At 09.40 my third Skua of the day flew north, another Arctic Skua but this time an intermediate bird.
The only other species added after the final Skua and before my finish time were 7 Common Scoter north.
I called it at 11.20 and left for home. A generally quiet day although I have never seen more than one Arctic Skua in a single day in May in Scarborough before – so there’s that!
Other totals came out at 2 Red-throated Diver S, 152 Fulmar N, 69 Manx N, 308 Gannet S – 211 N, 2 Wigeon N, 1073 Auk N - 139 S, 46 Puffin N - 1 S and 3 Sandwich Tern S - 2 N.
Dressed in clothing that I would expect to wear in November rather than late May, I staggered northwards into a F 5 – 6 wind en route to the Hut.
Once set up and the kettle boiling I began my watch, it was a slow start. Auks, Gannets and Kittiwakes were allocated clickers and it was sometime before I put pen to paper to log something different – a Fulmar.
Luckily things picked up from then on, sort of. Fulmars were moving in steady numbers, the first Manx Shearwater cruised through and I noted the odd Puffin too.
Still it remained like that for a while, my initial early morning hopes of Skuas looked to be dashed until at 08.10 I locked on to a rather large looking dark Skua. It wasn’t too far out and despite watching it fly straight through (putting the shits up a Kittiwake or two on the way) there was no denying it was an Arctic Skua.
Still it was my first of the year and was very quickly followed by my second only two minutes later, this time a nice pale phased bird.
After all that excitement it was time for a sit down and another hot drink as I settled back into the reality of the day, although tubenoses had picked up a little more, approaching 4 – 5 Manx every 10 minutes!!
A few more species were added to the notebook over the next half an hour – Sandwich Tern and Red-throated Diver.
At 09.40 my third Skua of the day flew north, another Arctic Skua but this time an intermediate bird.
The only other species added after the final Skua and before my finish time were 7 Common Scoter north.
I called it at 11.20 and left for home. A generally quiet day although I have never seen more than one Arctic Skua in a single day in May in Scarborough before – so there’s that!
Other totals came out at 2 Red-throated Diver S, 152 Fulmar N, 69 Manx N, 308 Gannet S – 211 N, 2 Wigeon N, 1073 Auk N - 139 S, 46 Puffin N - 1 S and 3 Sandwich Tern S - 2 N.
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| Long Nab |
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| View from the hut looking north with Hundale Point and Roger Trod visible in the distance |
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| View from the hut looking south towards Scarborough and Castle Hill |
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