Ramsey Sound

After yet another very wet and stormy night, the promise of calmer, drier conditions encouraged us to watch Ramsey Sound for several hours today.

The regular flock of choughs (max 17 seen today) were looking a bit bedraggled when we arrived, with many perched on fence posts, preening and generally drying out. In the stubble field, there was some additional competition for spilled grain etc from four red-legged partridges, several herring gulls, the usual flock of up to 30 feral (rock) doves and about 25 skylarks.

The choughs were looking decidedly wet and miserable first thing - presumably due to the overnight rain

Birds heading south through the Sound this morning included at least 5 adult med gulls (none returned north in six hours of continual watching), a RT diver and two GN divers (one landing in the middle of the Sound to feed for a while before moving on south). An additional GND was feeding in the bay at Porthselau. We wonder, is this a resident bird here, or just another one stopping off to feed on what appears to be an abundant supply of crustaceans etc, before moving on?

Small numbers of common scoter were again moving south, either through the Sound or else heading west along the north coast of Ramsey.

At 14:15 hrs a 1st winter little gull (with a few kittiwakes) flew north through the Sound - presumably the bird reported by Greg from Ramsey recently. It may have headed into Whitesands Bay, where the GND was still present mid-afternoon. Hope that Jonathan Bennett who was heading that way managed to see either or both of them!

Almost every second dive, it managed to catch and swallow a small crab, or similar crustacean