Strumble 12 Jul 10

A quiet but interesting three hour watch (1500 to 1800 hrs) with, not the northerly promised by the Met Office, but a light ENE breeze. There were 12 Common Scoter (of which 3 were female), a couple of Med Gulls (one adult in summer plumage and one first summer bird) and a single Puffin.

There were hardly any Manxies and those that did pass were coming from the north and rounding the lighthouse at some distance. As the tide started to fill, small groups of Kittiwake came in, joining the Med Gulls, some small rafts of Auks and a few Black Headed on the edge of the tide race.

A fisherman on Mackerel Rock, who had caught nothing up until this time, started to reel in large mackerel at every cast. The Kittiwakes became vocal and were joined by others until there were around a hundred present, several in badly worn plumage, not dip feeding for zoo-plankton as you often see, but plunge feeding frantically for fry obviously driven up by the mackerel. They were joined in this by the Med Gulls, Auks and Blacked Headed Gulls and by several Manxies obviously drawn to the fuss. This lasted for about 20 minutes after which the birds simply sat on the water preening and digesting. Interestingly, although there were several Gannet about, none were feeding, and I only saw one porpoise.

I have rarely seen as many Six-Spot Burnet moths as were present on the area in front of the Lookout yesterday. They were joined by a couple of Small Skippers.