ML333877321
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Adult first found at around 18:45 on 2nd April and showed well through evening. I headed down in the morning once its continued presence had been confirmed and following a very unproductive seawatch at Cut Bridge, Hurst. After parking in the Beach Car Park SW of Abbotsbury at 09:10 I trudged eastwards along the shingle to the Tank Teeth to view the west end of the Fleet but there was no sign of the bird and it had transpired that the bird had departed at around 09:00 and so just before my arrival. I waited for 2.5 hours and at 11:30 I decided to head off having failed to see the bird and with increasing speculation amongst the few gathered birders that it had departed having been seen last flying strongly up the Fleet. Having driven away from the site for 20 minutes, news broke once again of the birds return to the site and so I u-turned the car and headed back to the Beach Car Park. After a fast pace/jog along the shingle of Chesil Beach I arrived at the Tank Teeth barely able to breath such is the strenuous nature of marching in gravel. But as I arrived the bird had disappeared once more but I was reassured by the single birder present that it had not gone far. Indeed, soon after the bird was found perched on the near bank of the Fleet and tucked out of view and sheltering from the increasing winds. I watched the bird for the next 45 minutes as it fed over the algae matts present at this end of the Fleet - its dipping and arcing flight somewhat reminding me of a Storm-petrel. The bird was not in full summer plumage, its flanks still being somewhat mottled. A fantastic bird and a British tick for me.
Technical information
- Camera
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 99.34 MB