Monday 30 November 2009

And as quickly as they arrived they were gone.....







Well, there were 582 click-counted at Chesil Beach yesterday and an estimated 600 or more west past Portland Bill (both Dorset) but today, with a change from SW to NNW winds overnight, not a single LEACH'S PETREL was recorded.
Martin Cade who took these superb images above has carefully examined the dead adult picked up yesterday and made some very interesting observations on the Portland Bill Bird Observatory website at http://www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk/aa_latestnews.htm. It explains how virtually every bird noted was an adult-type, a few notes about ageing and proof of how starving some of these bird are, with fat levels dangerously low.