Great Ness Point Seawatch

I had a really excellent 1 hour's seawatch today from Ness Point between 7.40 to 8.40am this morning. The wind was light with a north- easterly breeze and there was also a cloudy start to the day. Avian highlights were plentiful and included a superb Sooty Shearwater that flew north at 7.45am, its distinctive shape stood out, the dark brown plumage and hint of white on the underwing. A Manx Shearwater, showing much more extensive white on the underparts flew south at 8.30 am. A Bonxie or Great Skua spent a lot of the time on the sea only to occasionally fly up and settle on sea, once more. A dark phase Arctic Skua flew south. An incredible tally of 366 Gannets flew north within the hour's duration, half of their number were all dark juvs, many were adults too whilst just 28 flew south, c60 Auks also flew north, and included 1 Guillemot close in on the sea. Divers also flew north 110 north and 5 south,(mostly Red throated, otherwise they were too far out to tell), included 1 Red- throated Diver on the sea. 22 Common Scoter flew north (mostly in parties of 5 and 4), whilst 3 singles flew south, 24 Brent Geese flew north (mostly parties of 4 & 5), in addition 3 singles flew south.