You make the effort - you get rewarded

It was blowing an absolute hooley of a gale when Stephen and I went down to our coastal patch on Saturday morning. It was one of those mornings when it wouldn’t have taken much to roll over and go back to sleep, however we knew it was going 40 mph westerly winds so we were hopeful that something unusual might have been blown closer to shore in off the Bristol Channel.

We met at the Huntspill Sluice, and could hardly open the van door as the wind was blowing so hard, however after our usual cordial exchanges we checked out for lurking kingfishers on the Huntspill below the Sluice itself. Almost immediately we both locked on to a dark shape swimming almost directly below where we were standing – it was a large dog otter, seemingly unaware or not particularly bothered by our presence as it dived, and nosed its way up the riverbank, giving that characteristic flick of its tail as it went under.

Well, that was worth getting out of bed for in itself.

It was nigh-on impossible to look through the scope as the wind was so strong, however we managed to see large numbers of wigeon and redshank along with a few curlews sheltering where they could on the foreshore.

Walking past the only wooded copse on this part of the Parrett estuary we enjoyed a pair of greenfinches singing their wheezy song in one of the few sheltered spots, out of the worst of the wind.

The tide had been high about an hour before our arrival and was now dropping as we battled along to the estuary proper and trying to seek some shelter in order to scan the river-mouth we hid behind a large concrete water tower by the sea wall.

The river was a hot chocolate brown in colour – although it was certainly not hot. Looking out into the Bristol Channel it was going great guns out there, with tall plumes of spray shooting high into the air.

There were a few gulls struggling against the elements – mostly herring and black-headed, then something different, slighter in build with black stripes down each wing – it was a juvenile kittiwake – it shot past before Stephen could get on to it – much to his unease, as this attractive gull had eluded him on this patch.

As Stephen was cursing his luck and continuing to look for the kittiwake, I noticed another unusual dark shaped seabird dancing across the wave-tops.

‘Stephen – quick look…what’s this? It’s a petrel of some sort….it’s a big one”.

‘It’s a Leach’s Petrel’ we both said in unison.

Leach’s petrel

Look at it ‘paddling’ across the wave-tops – a classic petrel characteristic.

Much larger than a storm petrel and look at those diagonal lines on its wings, and forked tail….

Definitely a Leach’s – named in 1819 after William Leach, the Assistant Keeper of Birds at what now is the Natural History Museum (honestly, going out birding with Stephen is like going out with your very own google portal).

We both got great views of this splendid seabird before it was chased away by some yobbish herring gulls.

Not content with an otter and a Leach’s petrel we continued to scan for perhaps a gannet, or guillemot – but it was not to be – although thankfully to appease Stephen’s frustration another two kittiwakes flew past which he managed to see, to release that monkey off his shoulder and increase the tally of birds seen on this our coastal patch to 135 different species.