Sunday, 14th September: A dry, cool morning of grey cloud with some brighter, hazy breaks and a light NW breeze early on, with the wind veering to the SSW and steadily increasing later, accompanied by overcast skies with heavy rain and showers.
Elmer Rocks: A bit of a hard luck story today, as domestic commitments ensured that it was not possible for me to get out birding at any reasonable time, and so it was that I was only present on the patch from 11:05-13:05hrs! It was also the day when a record count of well over 500 Balearic Shearwaters went past the headland of Selsey Bill, mostly early on, with passage largely petering out before 11:00hrs. Whilst most would surely have passed well beyond viewing range here locally, surely there had a to be a good chance of at least a few showing up within viewing range here, I reasoned.
Well, ten minutes into my watch from Elmer, my small reward came when at least one came into view heading west. Scope views, about three-quarters of the way to the horizon, giving typical flight as it pondered along, not the best views I'll ever have, but good enough. Then a report from another observer at Climping (MB) just a couple of minutes later, of two more heading west, much closer in - but somehow I managed to miss them - probably scoping too far out at the time. So that was it; I got on the scoresheet, but only just!
For any non-birders who are by now wondering what the fuss is all about, I should put this into context by explaining this is a globally very rare species, with a restricted Mediterranean range and population and often difficult to see; 500+ birds represents a sizeable chunk of the population of this highly sought-after species.
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