Monday 10 May 2021

Dorset - Chesil Cove - A Few Skuas!

The Monday after a weekend on the turf is always a tricky one for an early start but the weather did look promising for a sea watch. I was getting myself together when a tweet of Poms through West Bexington came through. I was likely to miss them due to the travelling time to Portland but at least signs were promising.

I made my way down to Weymouth reaching the area of Lodmoor when another message appeared stating a Pomerine Skua had landed on the sea at Chesil Cove. Being only a couple of miles away I headed for the spot. That’s when the trouble started a delivery van at Wyke Regis had blocked one of the carriageways and traffic was stacked up back to the harbour. I took another route but it still took forty minutes to travel the couple of miles. Needless to say the Pom had gone by the time I had joined Charlie and Andy!

I stuck around with a few Arctic Skua passing through the cove. Roly joined us before Andy picked up a Bonxie (Great Skua) passing the yellow buoy. A bit of a panic set in as I couldn’t initially locate it in the scope so switched to the bins where the bird was watched wending its way! Whew!

A visit to Lodmoor RSPB later in the day had me catch up with the long staying and now moulting Iceland gull. Pictures were tricky in the light, therefore the plumage details are not that clear!

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