Black-throated Diver 2E
Diver sp. 5E
White-billed Diver 1 first-summer briefly distantly on sea and then flew strongly east at 11.05am
Little Egret 2E
Gannet 60E
Brent 21E
Shelduck 6E
Merganser 2E
Scoter 430E
Bonxie 5E
Arctic Skua 7E
Mediterranean Gull 6E
Black-headed Gull 12E
Little Gull 37E
Sandwich Tern 56E
Commic Tern 8E
Little Tern 1E
Guillemot 1 on sea
Razorbill 4 on sea
Auk sp. 16E
Whimbrel 66E
Bar-tailed Godwit 26E
Ringed Plover 1E
Dunlin 2E
Sanderling 2E
Short-eared Owl 1 in off at 9.14am then flew west
Swallow 2 in off
Short-eared Owl arriving in off the sea at Birling
Initially picked out very distantly (these digi-shots were obtained at 3x digital zoom through a 30x scope and have then been cropped so don't convey the eye-strain involved!) to our west the light allowed the colour of its 'milky bar chocolate-coloured' bill to be fully appreciated and being held up-tilted immediately suggested only one identity. Its overall bleached pale brown appearance and pale head- and neck-sides added to the excitement. The highest part of its back is the middle whereas in Great Northern Diver the highest part of the back is typically close behind the head.
Its neck-sides and sides of head were pale save for a darker brown area on its ear-coverts. Its eye was set amidst pale. Its pale neck-sides contrasted with its darker crown and narrow dark hind-neck. You have to be of a certain vintage to remember the front cover of an early Birding World but this is pretty much how we remember it!
Having caught and been robbed of a fish by a Great Black-backed Gull it attracted the attention of a Fulmar that it completely dwarfed! The darkest area of the bird's plumage was its extensive broad dark half-collar at the base of its thick neck and JFC drew attention to it being bordered above by an extensive broad pale oval almost reminiscent of s/p rather than the typical 'white nick' shown by Great Northern Divers. Whilst not captured in the images its upperparts were seen to be scaly by virtue of pale fringes to its feathers confirming its age as a first-summer.
A very poor image enlarged below that portrays its forehead bump, thickset head and neck and its bill structure that was always held up-tilted.
First-summer White-billed Diver off Birling
PN selflessly left to phone out the news but had to climb the slope to get a signal where he realised the only phone number he had was MN who then kindly phoned other observers none of whom arrived in time to see it as PN arrived back only just in time to see it be unfortunately flushed by a yacht. On it flying off strongly east DC climbed the same slope to let RBA know it had flown off east in the hope that MCC et al. might see it pass Dungeness...
Early Spider Orchid at Beachy
