Aurora borealis

Tragic pelagic

Bollix. Got a phone call last night to say the skipper of the boat that was due to take us out tomorrow has called the pelagic off; it's meant to be fairly windy today, leaving a moderate swell tomorrow. In the overall scheme of how lumpy the sea can be here, it seems a mere bagatelle, especially as it's not even that windy today. In a sense it's not as disappointing as perhaps it might seem, as I still have my grave reservations about how successful the trip is going to be (location/organisation). Last ditch chance is two weeks on Sunday.

Instead JL and I are going to spend tomorrow seawatching off of the eastern tip of W. Chances are we'll see sod all, but it's better than nothing, and I'm itching to seawatch (it's the Cornish thing in me - summers are just meant to be spent sitting on a headland staring out to sea. I love it). If nothing else it'll be interesting to see how much passage there is off our island. I'll try to do this weekly through August, and see what difference time and wind direction make on passage up here. Ideally I'd have my clickers (little counter thingies you click to keep tally of how many birds go by) but they're still packed in one of the many unpacked boxes in the crofthouse, so I'll be reduced to keeping tallies in a notebook. (The last going to prove what a sad case I am about seawatching - not only doing it for the rares, but getting a kick out of counting auks... I should get out more!)