Tiddely-Om-Pom-Pom ...

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!
I do like to be beside the sea!
I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play, "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!" 

 John A. Glover-Kind (1907)

And besides the seaside I was when I picked up my first ever Pom - a superb Pomarine Skua which was at South Gare on the northern tip of Coatham Beach in the old seaside resort of Redcar.

This wasn't strictly a 'twitch' as I was visiting my son Robert in his new house in Sunderland this week and so it would have been rude not to call in on this beautiful seabird which had been frequenting the area for the last few days.  I've never seen one before as they are usually either way out to sea or in the far north of the UK.

I paid two visits to South Gare to see it, the first with my wife Sarah on the way up to Sunderland and the second on my own the next day when I could spend more time on trying to get a good photograph. The above photograph shows off the birds tail feathers which are often called 'spoons'.



The bird had been coming in close to the fishermen on the breakwater who were gutting the fish they'd caught and throwing the entrails back into the sea to feed the sprats, crabs and other small fish. There was obviously plenty of food for it here and so it had no immediate need to move on.

The bird looked perfectly healthy to me part from its outermost primary feather on its left wing tip, which was either damaged or moulting.  This didn't seem to have any effect whatsoever on its ability to fly.

My closest and best views were when it came down on to the breakwater looking for scraps of food left by the fishermen.

My final view of this magnificent bird was on the lovely Coatham Beach as it roosted in front of some Oystercatchers at high tide.  What a great experience!