After another day blown out by NE force 4-5 winds on the Sunday, we ventured out again on the Monday to complete the line transecting legs. We picked up where we had finished off in Druridge Bay in pleasant Beaufort 3 winds.
Most of the legs were pretty quiet, but one leg, which went north-west past Coquet island was hooching with feeding birds. We seemed to meet feeding flock after feeding flock in an area up to 5km to the east and north-east of the island, and included 2-3 roseate terns to the north of the island. This was hard work, but we managed to cope with all the numbers.
Alas, there was a problem with the GPS, and we have had to go to other sources to reconstruct the track we followed. Moral: make sure we check the state of the batteries before starting each transect.
We had a bit of spare time available, so we tried to track some birds from the colony out to their feeding areas. Success! We managed to get up enought speed to follow two common and one Arctic tern out to their feeding grounds, and watch them feeding.
With the weather set to improve, and getting some reasonable data, we are feeling much more optimistic about what we're doing.
Champion!
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