That was the quote from a keen local birdwatcher yesterday following what can only be described as exceptional conditions for seawatching.
As i mentioned in a recent blog, seawatching is one of the more extreme types of birdwatching. It takes considerable patience, and many years of practice to be able to identiy passing seabirds at a mile or more distance, especially your telescope is often buffeted by the wind. To seawatch effectively, you really do need a telescope, not simply binoculars.
Any keen seawatcher will keep a close eye on the weather forecasats, hoping for the right combination of weather conditions. A strong onshore wind and early mist or drizzle can often bring birds closer to shore than usual. When the forecast is right, you can find the dedeicated few perched on any headline staring intently out to sea.
The best seawatching is usually in the far west of the country. Places like Porthgwarra, Pendeen and St Ives in Cornwall, Cape Clear Island and the Old Head of Kinsale in County Cork, or Bridges of Ross, County Clare, are engrained in birdwatching folklore for the incredible variety of seabirds seen there, especially following the autumn hurricanes in the US.
Here in Suffolk, we usually have to make do with skuas, gannets, terns and the odd sooty shearwater, as the rarer seabirds remain in the western approaches and do not enter the North Sea. Hurricane Katia, however, seems to have created the perfect conditions to bring unusually high numbers of seabirds into the North Sea, and yesterday strong easterlies brought many of them close to the Suffolk coast.
It's difficult to know exactly how many shearwaters and skuas were seen along the coast, as many sightings will undoubtedly relate to the same bird further along the coast, but a quick look at some of the reports on the rare bird news services shows that it was certainly an incredible day. Shame I didn't go down to the sluice to see for myself.
Great shearwaters are exceptionally rare off the Suffolk coast, yet even allowing for duplucation it seems there were probably three or four different birds seen yesterday. One was reported at Minsmere. This would be the first reserve record, so if you saw it, can you please send us a full rarity description. Great shearwaters breed in the southern ocean, and their annual migration takes them in a huge loop of the Atlantic, up the western seaboard of the Americas, then back south along the African coast. Four years ago I saw many off Cape Town in November, alongside albatrossess, where they were probably returning to breeding colonies off South America.
Rarer still was a report of a probable Fea's petrel off Lowestoft on Thursday evening. This is a holy grail among many seawatchers and will be the first Suffolk record if accepted.
The other large shearwater to visit the UK is the Cory's shearwater. There have only been a handful of Minsmere records, but one was reported here yesterday. This was part of an influx of possibly as many as ten different birds noted from watchpojnts between Felixstowe and Lowestoft.
There were also several Manx and sooty shearwaters, lots of Arctic and great skuas and gannets, and a few of the rarer pomarine and long-tailed skuas reported. All were probably seen from the Minsmere sluice, although some were too distant to identify with confidence. Conversely, some of the great skuas (known as bonxies by many birdwatchers, after their local Shetland name) were actually flying directly along the beach.
Of course, many gulls and a few late terns were also reported offshore. Of these, star billing would go to the handful of Sabine's gulls reported - another bird that is much more likely to be encountered in Cornwall or Ireland than Suffolk.
With so many seabirds on the move, it's hardly surprising that the first brent geese were reported flying south over the last couple days, along with good numbers of common ducks and waders. Nine pink-footed geese were seen earlier in the week too, having overshot their usual wintering areas in North Norfolk.
Hurricane Katia has also brought a selection of American waders to the UK, and Minsmere has been home to up to four pectoral sandpipers all week. This is by far the commonest American wader on our shores, but can be difficult to pick out among flocks of dunlins. Our birds have tended to keep to themselves, or join the ruffs on the Scrape, and have showed well at times but been highly elusive at others. At least two are still around today.
Other sightings today have included Fiona the flamingo (back from a four day holiday elsewhere), the escaped Cape shelduck, excellent views of bitterns at Island Mere, at least three hobbies, two firecrests in the sluice bushes, and a painted lady butterfly outside the toilets - an exceptionally rare record this year.