Oh I do love a blow!

BK got visitors from all over Sweden and Denmark today, the forecast winds did not let us down and brought a fantastic number of seabirds.

Wind speed picked up during the day, flooding out a variety of animals, the most surprising call during the day was "American mink going left". It trotted along the path right in front of us!

Small numbers of kittiwake were present throughout most of the day, a few IK Sabine's gull were also in the mix.

If you had told me I would be able to sit down for 11 hours sea-watching last year, I would have laughed a lot. But that is what happened today at Båstad and I actually enjoyed it. The forecast winds arrived and birds appeared in good numbers about two hours after dawn. Totals for the day: red-throated diver (10), black-throated diver (3), Slavonian grebe (1), great crested grebe (1), red-necked grebe (3), fulmar (2), sooty shearwater (12), storm-petrel sp. (1 - would have been a Leach's but they behaved badly off Båstad today), gannet (25), merlin (1), bar-tailed godwit (2), dunlin (44), golden plover (6), great skua (3), pomarine skua (3-5), Arctic skua (1), long-tailed skua (5 1K), kittiwake (50), Sabine's gull (2 1K), Sandwich tern (5), Arctic tern (3), little auk (1), puffin (1), guillemot (35) and razorbill (1). Superb day - missed a few things though (great northern diver, Manx shearwater and Leach's all reported from Båstad today). A little further west at Hovs Hallar and Yttre Kattvik they many more birds in the morning but Båstad is better for prolonged views of stuff stuck in the corner of the bay, ideal for a seawatching tart like myself.

A great bonus for me during the day was when Tommy Holmgren and Greg McIvor pointed out a passing 'yellow-legged' gull - examination of Tommy's photographs proved it to be my first patch Caspian gull (1K). I have got to get a better camera!