These were days to remember! Multiple days of westerlies made for some fantastic seawatching conditions.

The results (a summation of the 12th til 15th of September):

• Manx Shearwater: 53 (new day record: 25 birds)
• Sooty Shearwater: 27
• Leach's Storm Petrel: 10
• Northern Fulmar: 6
• Sabine's Gull: 3
• Great Skua: 132 (new day record for The Hague: 93 birds)
• Pomarine Skua: 12
• Arctic Skua: 52
• Long-tailed Skua: 3
• White-winged Tern: 1 (a very rare autumn record)

In comparison with seawatching sites further out at sea these numbers are not very spectacular, but for us at the ‘outside bend’ of the Dutch North Sea coast these numbers are very impressive.

The day after, shockingly, produced a new autumn record of Common Kestrels: 63 birds flew past De Vulkaan, sometimes in groups up to 7 birds! Probably birds that have waited out the storms to finally make a leap southwards.