Winter on its way

After a nice sunny start today has turned cold wet and windy. The weekend was very calm - much to Simon's disappointment as he had hoped to get out windsurfing. He did however service our bicycles.
Saturday afternoon we went out to Gypsy Cove and had a walk. It is strange being there with no penguins about. Having bred and moulted the magellanics have now all gone back to sea until next spring. We noticed a large flock of birds on the sea in Port William. They were mostly kelp gulls and rock shags but we did spot 2 penguins at the front of the group. The penguins and shags kept diving and the whole group were very active and moving along quite quickly. We presumed there must be a shoal of fish swimming along that they were feeding on.
Last Tuesday we had some hail storms and snow showers so it really felt winter was on its way, although we have had some sunny days since.
I have just looked out of the window and seen a gull flying backwards at some speed, presumably unable to cope with the wind up there!
The upland geese continue to regularly graze the lawns and 2 cattle egrets sometimes come in the garden but are extremely shy.
The previous weekend we went for a walk from Surf Bay. The easterly gales we had a few weeks ago washed away large ammounts of sand from the beach and the bottom of the dunes at the end of the beach, exposing previously hidden rocks. Huge piles of kelp were deposited on the remaining sand. Unfortunately I seem to have lost all the pictures I took of this.
Heading up towards Cape Pembroke we passed some small cliffs where lots of rock shags nest and perch.As it was fairly windy the waves were breaking and sending spray high into the air. We found some pieces of aircraft wreckage amongst the rocks, presumably from the conflict.