More new birds.

18th March

White water in Finnequoy as high seas pound the east coast.

A wild and windy day seemed to result in a lot of the birds keeping their heads down a bit, with fewer Blackbirds and Lapwings noted this morning. There were things in though and, as the wind started to ease, a Chaffinch was found at the Haa and a Rook flew over Vaasetter - the firsts of their kind to make it to the island this year. An immature Iceland Gull was on Meoness this morning (presumably a north-bound migrant in what has been a quiet year for this species) and a juvenile Glaucous Gull over Finnequoy may well have been one of the birds seen on and off throughout the winter.

Even the notoriously tough Eiders decided to seek shelter in North Haven today, bringing with them two of the wintering Common Scoter (which were added to the kitchen window list after some precarious balancing on the work surface!).

The wind has continued to drop through the evening and tomorrow will hopefully be a calmer day, with the chance of a few more birds to be found. We'll not know whether the swell has died down enough for the Good Shepherd to sail until the morning, but the last two trips have both resulted in sightings of Killer Whale (two that were probably young bulls a fortnight ago, and what may have been one of the same last week), so it'll be interesting to see whether there is a repeat performance when it does go (although I suspect even the chance of Killer Whale wouldn't be enough to tempt my Mum to take to the seas when my parents visit next week!).

Pretty rough down south as well, although seas like this are not unusual at this time of year (and don't come close to comparing to the big storms we've had this winter that doused the pier and flattened the South Light wall).