With some large tern and skua migration yesterday in the area I thought that it would be worth my while getting down to Rossall Point this morning to see if I could get a few handy yearticks, and also witness the spectacle which is the Arctic Tern migration. I would have liked to have been there at the crack of dawn however due to relying on parents I arrived at the point at 8 o'clock, where I joined Ian, Len and Seamus who were already present next to the coastgaurd tower, they had been there early on and had had over 1000 Arctic Terns past up till when I arrived! It wasn't long before my first Arctic Terns (yeartick) drifted into view, a flock of 15 birds close in heading east, showing off their gorgeous white plumage and long tail streamers. After half an hour or so Len picked out a duck heading into the bay and managed to get Ian onto it who exclaimed loudly Long Tailed Duck (yeartick), a stunning adult male that flew past at middle distance from west to east. Soon after this Seamus picked out the first of 2 dark morph Arctic Skuas (yeartick) flying quite close in, into the bay, which was quickly followed by a much more distant Fulmar (yeartick) heading north. Amongst the Arctic's was a single Common Tern (yeartick) that I picked out heading north past the yellow marker posts, although I briefly thought it could have been a Little. The full total is as follows:
male Long Tailed Duck
2 Arctic Skua
171 Arctic Tern
1 Common Tern
1 Fulmar
1 Red Throated Diver
female Goosander (rare off here)
2 Wigeon
6 Red Breasted Merganser
20+ Common Scoter
4 Shelduck
1 summer plumaged Knot (very nice bird to see)
1 summer plumaged Bar Tailed Godwit (even better!)
4 Whimbrel
1 Lapwing
34 Swallow
2 Sand Martin
1 House Martin
3 Wheatear
1 Lesser Redpoll
3 Greylag Geese
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