The much anticipated unseasonably low 981 mb depression centered on southern Ireland produced strong south-southeasterly winds and heavy showers. Lengthy hours of seawatching didn't produce anything unexpected with only a light dribble of Gannet and Kittiwake through all day and counts of c.40 Common Scoter, 38 Balearic Shearwater, 36 Manx Shearwater and 22 unidentified shearwaters, a testament to the distances and conditions that are often involved in seawatching from this site; also 22 Fulmar, 17 Arctic Skua and three Great Skua. Small numbers of various waders were also moving south-southwest.
Overall counts of birds offshore, in the estuary, and in the case of five species of wader that utilised the sodden fairways of the golf course to forage, included 274 Curlew, 264 Dunlin, 211 Sandwich Tern, 209 Ringed Plover, 87 Bar-tailed Godwit, 86 Redshank, c.50 Sanderling, 39 Common Tern, 23 Cormorant, ten Turnstone, six Black-tailed Godwit, six Greenshank, five each of Grey Plover, Whimbrel and Common Sandpiper, and a Knot. Highlights from the hide were the adult Roseate Tern, and also reported the juv Black Tern and an Arctic Tern.
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