Today was a day when I didn't really have any time for birding as I had a number of meetings during the day but when I arranged the meetings earlier in the week that was fine as today was not supposed to have any strong winds and therefore be of no particular birding value.
Well that turned out to be a poor decision as the strongest winds of the week blew today. A quick recheck of my schedule showed that I could fit in 20 minutes seawatching from Fornebu in the morning. From the warmth of the car with very strong winds blowing outside and rain falling I picked up 3 Fulmars arching majestically over the fjord and 2 Kittiwakes passing close in. There were also 16 Little Auks past in the short time I watched plus a few Guillemots and Razorbills. It all looked very promising and the winds were still getting stronger but time was pressing and I had to get on.
At 14.29 the message I had been fearing came through: Leach's Petrel close in off Fornebu seen by, of course, Per G. Within 15 minutes I had wrapped up the meeting and was hot footing it down to Fornebu. Got there at 1510 but of course the petrel was gone and not to be seen again. However I stayed until dark at 1600 and was rewarded by very good views of a young Pomarine Skua that flew past very close to land, an adult Gannet (my first record in the county I think) that flew off over land after a circuit of the fjord, only one Fulmar and 2 Little Gulls including one 1K that flew over the beach in front of us in the twilight. So for a day when I didn't have any time for birding it turned out OK but I would have loved to see the Leach's.
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