Splash Point, Seaford 14/4/25 (1 Viewer)

[LouisTheFulmar]

Hi, I’m new here so not sure if I’m posting in the right area.

My second attempt at seawatching today (yesterday being my first). I arrived at Splash Point at 10am and sat on a tuft of grass directly above the Kittiwake colony, I was greeted by a lone fulmar amongst the kittiwakes. The wind was blowing from the East at around 12-15mph and most birds were heading that way, migrating further up the coast and around to the east coast. Armed with only Celestron 8x42 nature and celestron 15x70 skymaster binoculars, first proper bird was a Gannet far out to sea. As more birds came through such as Mediterranean gulls, Sandwich terns and 2 possible great northern divers. I exclaimed aloud “I can’t fucking believe it!” (Excuse the language). Was seawatching going to be like this everytime?? Having already ticked some of my favourite seabirds off the list. I waited around for another two hours with Brent geese, cormorants and great crested grebes passing through. Plenty of common scoters aswell along all the common species such as GBB, BH, Herring gull etc. things died down around 12pm. I called it a day there.

PS. I possibly saw 1 pomarine skua yesterday. Dark colour with white patch on upper tail??

 

[Original PaulE]

Hi, I’m new here so not sure if I’m posting in the right area.

My second attempt at seawatching today (yesterday being my first). I arrived at Splash Point at 10am and sat on a tuft of grass directly above the Kittiwake colony, I was greeted by a lone fulmar amongst the kittiwakes. The wind was blowing from the East at around 12-15mph and most birds were heading that way, migrating further up the coast and around to the east coast. Armed with only Celestron 8x42 nature and celestron 15x70 skymaster binoculars, first proper bird was a Gannet far out to sea. As more birds came through such as Mediterranean gulls, Sandwich terns and 2 possible great northern divers. I exclaimed aloud “I can’t fucking believe it!” (Excuse the language). Was seawatching going to be like this everytime?? Having already ticked some of my favourite seabirds off the list. I waited around for another two hours with Brent geese, cormorants and great crested grebes passing through. Plenty of common scoters aswell along all the common species such as GBB, BH, Herring gull etc. things died down around 12pm. I called it a day there.

PS. I possibly saw 1 pomarine skua yesterday. Dark colour with white patch on upper tail??

Hi Louis
I Seawatch from Seaford quite regularly, Great Northern Diver would be a very good bird from there I've seen one in the last 10 years! Skuas should be moving through the next couple of weeks, Poms usually towards the end of April, beginning of May though i think a couple of Poms have been reported already, so your sighting is not impossible, but difficult to confirm from your description, they should have their "Spoons" so if they are close enough they can usually be ID confidently!! See pic below. If you catch the right day, we can have big numbers of Poms going through! With over hundred on one notable day a few years ago! I will down at some point over the easter weekend, usually get quite a good crew with a lot of experienced birders, always handy the more eyes the better! think Monday looks reasonable! If you are going to Seawatch regular and it's an easy bug to catch, be a good idea to get yourself a scope!
Might see you down there soon!!

a report on my blog from a couple of years ago at the link

Morning Seawatch at Seaford

With a day off work, I decided a Seawatch down at Seaford would be a good idea. Arrived at first light having woken up before the alarm!! U...

birdsandcake122.blogspot.com

this one featured Poms from 2021! Hopefully the winds will be kind this year and something similar will occur!

Seaford Seawatch

With reports of interesting stuff, a few Poms, Little Gulls and the like going through all week it was a no brainer today to head down to S...

birdsandcake122.blogspot.com

 

[LouisTheFulmar]

Hi Louis
I Seawatch from Seaford quite regularly, Great Northern Diver would be a very good bird from there I've seen one in the last 10 years! Skuas should be moving through the next couple of weeks, Poms usually towards the end of April, beginning of May though i think a couple of Poms have been reported already, so your sighting is not impossible, but difficult to confirm from your description, they should have their "Spoons" so if they are close enough they can usually be ID confidently!! See pic below. If you catch the right day, we can have big numbers of Poms going through! With over hundred on one notable day a few years ago! I will down at some point over the easter weekend, usually get quite a good crew with a lot of experienced birders, always handy the more eyes the better! think Monday looks reasonable! If you are going to Seawatch regular and it's an easy bug to catch, be a good idea to get yourself a scope!
Might see you down there soon!!

a report on my blog from a couple of years ago at the link

Morning Seawatch at Seaford

With a day off work, I decided a Seawatch down at Seaford would be a good idea. Arrived at first light having woken up before the alarm!! U...

birdsandcake122.blogspot.com

this one featured Poms from 2021! Hopefully the winds will be kind this year and something similar will occur!

Seaford Seawatch

With reports of interesting stuff, a few Poms, Little Gulls and the like going through all week it was a no brainer today to head down to S...

birdsandcake122.blogspot.com

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Hi! Thanks for the reply.
Regarding the divers. It was a pair of them, one looked like it had more juvenile plumage. Could they have been red throats? I initially thought they were cormorants but had a different wing beat and shape so concluded they were a diver of some sort. I’m going to keep my eye out for poms in the next few weeks and hope to get out in the evenings after work, (are evenings ok for seawatching?). I’ve been looking at scopes but will need to find a mixture of budget friendly, maximum brightness, and field of view. It will be good to get something that can really reach that distance I was struggling with today. Thanks again.

 

[Original PaulE]

Hi! Thanks for the reply.
Regarding the divers. It was a pair of them, one looked like it had more juvenile plumage. Could they have been red throats? I initially thought they were cormorants but had a different wing beat and shape so concluded they were a diver of some sort. I’m going to keep my eye out for poms in the next few weeks and hope to get out in the evenings after work, (are evenings ok for seawatching?). I’ve been looking at scopes but will need to find a mixture of budget friendly, maximum brightness, and field of view. It will be good to get something that can really reach that distance I was struggling with today. Thanks again.

Red-throats are more likely, look out for the classic head down pose and the head bobbing up and down. Black-throated also possible. I usually find mornings the best, with things petering out about 11 o'clock, but it isn't an exact science and Poms especially can go through at anytime of the day!

 

[LouisTheFulmar]

Red-throats are more likely, look out for the classic head down pose and the head bobbing up and down. Black-throated also possible. I usually find mornings the best, with things petering out about 11 o'clock, but it isn't an exact science and Poms especially can go through at anytime of the day!

May I ask what equipment you use? And do you have a certain method? As I’ve seen some people like to scan as opposed to others being a static.

 

[Original PaulE]

May I ask what equipment you use? And do you have a certain method? As I’ve seen some people like to scan as opposed to others being a static.

I have a Swaro ATS80, and Zeiss 8x42 bins, though for seawatching its pretty much exclusively the scope. This time of year pretty much everything is going East, so tend to start in the East and track west, then start again although obviously follow directions from others if they pick something up, much easier if there is a few people down there!!

 

[LouisTheFulmar]

I have a Swaro ATS80, and Zeiss 8x42 bins, though for seawatching its pretty much exclusively the scope. This time of year pretty much everything is going East, so tend to start in the East and track west, then start again although obviously follow directions from others if they pick something up, much easier if there is a few people down there!!

Ah ok. I did a similar thing. I tried not to stare directly into the suns reflection 😅.