A rather Gannety day

More Gannets piled into St.David's Bay area this morning, with constant arrivals between 7:50 and 8:35 when I left. Departures were harder to guage, although most seemed content to swirl about the place. A watch later into the morning is required to see the departures properl, although I once had a juvenile over Inverkeithing railway station which was a surreal experience.

A few duck, a smattering of auk and a handful of Arctic Skua more or less complete the pictures, although there was a nice Raven too. I would have liked a Manxie or two, but maybe it's just too late in the year (bearing in mind last Sep 25th there was pretty much everything). Not even a Kittiwake this morning, although the main passage of Kittiwakes is generally October.

Most of the Gannets are juveniles, and almost all sub-adult at this point in the year.

Around Stone Marine was a flock of c40 Greenfinch. With Hawthorn, Dog Rose, Bramble and Elderberry all chock full of fruit, there's plenty to go around, and a couple of Blackbird were getting in on the action too.

Somehow I have managed to add 4 new species to the October list for Inverkeithing this morning - Arctic Skua (really?!), Razorbill (really?), Puffin (fair enough) and Raven. Presumably this is only because this is my 3rd October here and I was on holiday during October 2012. I did record Arctic Skua here in 2011 but only recorded it on trek and not Birdtrack. I should probably transfer those records (if I could be bothered).