October 13th

I got very excited when I looked at the forecast last night. Strong easterly and north-easterly winds all week with frequent rain showers. Something good or two should turn up by the end of the week. The sea has livened up immediately with 6 pomarine skuas, a possible long-tailed skua, a great skua, a handful of little gulls and at long last, a sooty shearwater past Crail in the 30 minutes or so I watched today. Everything was heading out of the Forth into the strong north-easterly, slowing their progress so I could watch them at a more leisurely pace than last week. Trouble was that there was no incentive for them to be close in so it was swings and roundabouts – more time, but at a greater distance. Sooty shearwaters have been very scarce this year and I had given up hope: I usually see tens by the end of August but this was the first of the year for me.

Sooty shearwater – a Crail autumn speciality but not so this year

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