Chill north-easterly wind brings visitors

The usual Saturday morning seawatch produced grey and brent geese flying into the north-east wind, and acrobatics by about 40 fulmars offshore, but I saw no auks or any of the myriad of other species that others saw at the same place today.
Was it the wrong time, would a telescope have helped, am I incompetent, am I a loser? Answers on a postcard please......

The rumoured female black redstart was checked off, albeit distantly, but the male was not seen.
Later, a stroll through Kingsdown Wood encountered a mistle thrush (infrequent this year) and a party of long-tailed tits with a few attendants - blue and great tits, my first goldcrests of the autumn, and a strangely brown chiffchaff - little sign of eyestripe, black legs and very light underside, which was the only bit caught on camera!Was it a Siberian tristis sub-species? It seemed happy enough. I'll tramp around the wood tomorrow in the hope of a better sighting, and perhaps a call.
The fallen ash tree continued to have the best selection of fungi and lichen, including both fresh and blown stump puff-balls.