Tuesday 15 September 2009

Newbiggin - seawatch (eventually)

A nightmare start to my planned week of birding! I was on my way up for a talk in the North East when disaster struck (literally) on the outskirts of Cannock! The midnight blue Enterprise was now sporting artistic (not exactly) red stripes and dents courtesy of a careless Vectra - attempting to overtake the car I was overtaking!!







No-one was hurt but sorting out the insurance/repairs meant the loss of 24 hours (and probably a Cory's Shearwater!!)....

I'll be brief as there are no decent images from either a morning seawatch at Newbiggin-by-the-sea or a call at Wombwell Ings on the way home for a Pectoral Sandpiper, which demonstrated why no pics have come out of this particular bird - distant scoped views only!

The 'Couple' (apparently the first offshore sculpture in the UK) spend 24 hours every day seawatching - an impressive list no doubt exists!! The highlights for me - a single Sooty Shearwater, Velvet Scoter out to sea plus Purple Sandpiper on the rocks.










The 500 mile round trip was just a prelude to a fair bit of travel during the rest of the week in the South West - with Dave Pearce and Ian Baggley - Devon here we come!