The last few days have been fairly quiet migrant wise, although a few flocks of Siskins have been noted still moving through.
A seawatch yesterday evening produced a Balearic Shearwater going west, along with a few Gannets, Kittiwakes and Auks.
Although I've been checking each day, no further sign has been had of the Willow Emerald Damselfly, although whilst checking today in sunnier and calmer conditions a good number of Common Darters were evident and a Rock Pipit was busily feeding around the edges of the reservoir as it has pretty low water levels in it at present.
A quick glance at the sea off Overstrand showed that there was the odd Diver and Gannet moving so I thought it was worth a bit more of a serious look, so I returned with my scope just in case. After a while of seeing a few more Gannets and auks, including a fairly close Razorbill, I picked up 3 smallish birds flying fast right a fair way out through my bins so I quickly grabbed my scope just in case they were Little Auks as a few had started to be seen now. I quickly got on to them and saw that they were infact waders, but given the distance they were away I was just about to take my eyes off them when they stalled and landed on the sea! They quickly got up and carried on east and although I was naturally thinking Phalaropes, I was also thinking would Sanderlings pitch down momentarily like that?
Anyway after a short distance they again landed on the sea and were obviously surface feeding before again flying and pitching down again to feed, and slowly coming slightly nearer in the process. By now it was evident that they were indeed Grey Phalaropes and the more you watched them feeding and then flying around before landing again, the typical jizz of a phalarope, both in flight and on the sea, was very evident despite them being over half way out.
They remained offshore for about two hours in total, occasionally splitting up, but constantly feeding then flying round a bit in search of food and then pitching back down again when they presumably found some. Fortunately given their prolonged stay a few locals sucessfully connected, before they eventually drifted fast away on the current and then flew purposefully west as daylight was closing in.
So an excellent patch record, especially with three together, and great that they hung around happily feeding out to sea, which is something that I have never seen before.
In addition to the Phalaropes, a single Manx Shearwater was noted heading east and a female Goldeneye, my first of the year, was seen heading west.
