It was forecast to be stormy but dry and so I decided to spend a few hours watching the sea from the lee of a weathered hawthorn bush near MM’s house. I was hoping for Gannet and Kittiwake but they are rare here and I don’t think it was stormy enough although it was certainly wetter than forecast.
I watched an immature male Eider dealing with a crab and then soon afterwards a Great Northern Diver much closer and also wrestling with a crab. The Slavonian Grebe had become a pair with both birds close together viewable distantly to the east along with half a dozen Great Crested Grebes. A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers flew west and a Mediterranean Gull followed soon afterwards.
I finished the afternoon by heading to P Shore looking for the Russian White-fronts. I found more than 1,000 Brents in a grassy field near the foreshore but there were no White-fronts amongst them. The scrape at the eastern end looked good for waders although I’m not sure if it will have dried out by the spring.
Presumably what was the same pair of Red-breasted Mergansers had now settled on the sea but took off before another squall hit. I headed back to the car, it was good to see P Shore for the first time.
Patch Birding 