St Ives seawatch this morning

The wind this morning reached gale force though sadly never quite found the desired north-westerly direction.  Nevertheless, the morning was fruitful and several decent birds were seen, including Pomarine Skua, Grey Phalarope, Little Auk (BKM only), good numbers of Balearic Shearwater and a debatable Surf Scoter.  I say debatable because we later heard that a female flew past Pendeen with two drake Common Scoters.  We saw this group at some distance through bins only, but failed to id the Surf Scoter at St Ives.  The age-old question is can you year-tick it retrospectively?

Totals:

Balearic Shearwater 67
Manx Shearwater 15
Sooty Shearwater 1
Med Gull 12, all adults
Common Gull 1 1st W.
Grey Phalarope 3,1,
Little Auk 1
Great Northern Diver 9
Purple Sandpiper 4
Pomarine Skua 1
Bonxie 44
Arctic Skua 8
Common Scoter 17
Surf Scoter 1 fem.
Arctic Tern 1
Sandwich Tern 1
Black Redstart 1

Below are some images of the day including several different colour phase Balearics.



Medium phase Balearic Shearwater, one of at least 67 seen this morning.



Pale phase Balearic

Four Balearics in varying plumages




Adult Arctic Skua, one of 8 seen today.

First year Great Skua, one of 44 seen today.

Bottle-nosed Dolphin, one of about ten seen off the island this morning.