learning

[jose]

how do I learn seawatching? I tried to do some at tichtwell but could only id the ones very close to the shore.
is there any book i should read? is there any courses available?
can anyone please help me?

[postcardcv]

Hi Jose

There are a number of books that can help with this, the general Collins bird guide is quite good, and more specialised books like the Helm guide Seabirds.

That said the best way to learn is to go out and do some seawatching - if you go to Titchwell, Cley, Sherringham and other such places, you should find others there watching, and hopefully find someone willing to help. It is normally worth aiming for a high tide for seawatching, especially at Titchwell, as the sea gets so far from you...

The longer you spend seawatching the easier some of the ID's become, though you'll never be abel to ID all of them... as a Norfolk birder who is often seawatching, feel free to PM me if you wanted to know more about he best places to watch.

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Jose,

It is best picked up by spending many, many hours at it, ideally with someone who is good at it! That way, you watch the same birds, and soon learn to recognise distant birds by their flight pattern, etc.

And also better somewhere with better chances of getting more seabirds!! - Norfolk is not a very good area as the sea off the Norfolk coast is shallow, so the birds tend to be very distant, and many of the deep ocean seabirds avoid the area. Up here (Northumberland) is a good area, I had a good variety of species on the GGBC weekend seawatching - if you wanted to come up here, I'd be happy to help out (PM if you wish).

Wind direction is also very important - a wind blowing offshore will result in very few birds. In the North Sea, a strong NNW wind is best of all - check out the map I posted on this thread which explains why:
http://www.birdforum.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8908

Michael

[pmeidl]

as a Norfolk birder who is often seawatching, feel free to PM me if you wanted to know more about he best places to watch.


hi postcardcv,

I would also be very interested to know - so far, I have concentrated on norfolk mainland (which I really love), but now is the time to start seawatching (I recently moved to Cambridge from Austria, which doesn't have sea access, so this is a new field for me).

So, since this might be interesting for others, too, it would be really nice if you could post your suggestions here.

thanks in advance!

patrick